An Exercise of Sovereignty in the Mode of Contrition

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines the apology to the ‘Stolen Generations’ in Australia in an attempt to identify the potential and the limits of apology as a political practice. The chapter focuses attention on the authority of the sovereign person and the way in which ‘his’ right to suspend or override the law seems to simultaneously enable and disable gestures of contrition. Against those who treat apologies as moral gestures, indicative of the subjection of sovereign power to a Christian code of ethics, the chapter treats them as biopolitical operations in which the right of the sovereign to go beyond the law is deployed as a tool of shame management. It suggests that sovereign apologies may ultimately hold more value for the perpetrating community than the victim group, even when they are sincerely offered.