The annual day became known as the National Day of Healing in 2005, and is a time of reflection on damage caused by the social-engineering policies that took an estimated 50 000 children from their families between 1910 and the 1970s.

It took Australia’s government another ten years to offer an official apology when then prime minister Kevin Rudd opened with the words, “today we honour the Indigenous people of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.’”

The day was acknowledged at Bega High School with a series of talks to students by Indigenous members of the Junior Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (AECG) inside the school hall.

With National Reconciliation Week running from May 27 to June 3 it was a moving morning of reflection for the students, many of whom were very young the day Kevin Rudd apologised in 2008.

“If we don’t study history then we’re doomed to repeat it,” head teacher of welfare Mark Freedman told the students as they sat filling the hall.

Junior AECG members Darnell Andy and Laurence Davies took the stage to speak to the students about the modern history of the struggles faced by the Indigenous peoples of Australia, from the 1967 referendum to the native title revolution led by Eddie “Koiki” Mabo.

“People had a special relationship to the land prior to colonisation,” Darnell told the students.

“Today is a time to recognise our shared history.”

Laurence spoke of what has become known as “The Stolen Generations” and their forced removal from their friends and family, and the poignant speech given by Paul Keating at Redfern Park in 1992.

He described the beauty of the Desert Rose and its significance in spiritual healing, and the “scattering of the stolen generation” and the “eugenic policies of Australia” at the time.

The students then sat quietly as they watched the filming process of the abduction scene in Philip Noyce’s 2002 film Rabbit-Proof Fence.

The room fell silent as the students watched the sequence on the big screen, tears still present on the actor’s faces long after Noyce yells ‘cut’.

“This is not ancient history,” Mr Freedman told the students who will make up the future of our nation's and region's reconciliation process.