The Canadian Government has followed churches and apologised for forcing 150,000 aboriginal children to attend state-funded Christian boarding schools aimed at assimilating them.

A festival atmosphere was evident on the lawns outside Parliament House in Canberra yesterday. Thousands of people celebrated outside in the wake of Kevin Rudd's apology to the Stolen Generations. Doug Hynd was there to see it.

The first opening of the Australian Parliament after the election of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Labour Government has proved a historic moment in the history of Australia – with an apology finally being made to indigenous people.

The head of the World Council of Churches has asked PM Tony Blair to change his mind and make an unambiguous apology for Britain's involvement in the slave trade.

A march is to take place in two months time, involving the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, to express repentance for the Church of England's complicity in the slave trade.