‘We committed the murders. We took the children’: 30 years on from Paul Keating’s Redfern speech

Thirty years ago today, the then prime minister Paul Keating gave a speech in Redfern.

It is an unassuming description of what is often referred to as the greatest oratory in Australian political history.

"The Redfern address" was the first time a prime minister spoke about the dispossession and violence Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples had survived.

Guardian Australia asked those who were on the stage with Keating, and some of those who were in the crowd, to share their memories of the day and reflect on the legacy of those words.

On the stage were Sol Bellear, Stan Grant and Matthew Doyle.

Sol Bellear AO was a giant of the Aboriginal community. The Bundjalung man was a founding member of the Aboriginal Medical Service Cooperative, the Aboriginal Legal Service and Aboriginal Housing Company. As the deputy chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, Bellear introduced Keating to the crowd. Bellear died in 2017, and this is an edited extract of the last interview he gave, at Redfern Park, reproduced with kind permission of his family.

"People say that they remember where they were at the time. I was right there on stage with him, and along with Stan Grant. Stan Grant, of course, was the MC. The day itself was just something unbelievable. It was just a gathering, a prime minister giving a speech. Yes, it was in Redfern; yes, it was about Aboriginal people. But then into the speech, it just erupted. I mean, that speech would have to be one of the most brilliant speeches ever, in Australia, if not the southern hemisphere.