Historic Aboriginal Ceremony Opens Australian Parliament

Australia's parliament opened with its first ever Aboriginal welcome ceremony Tuesday as new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd prepared to give a landmark apology to the minority's "Stolen Generations."

But just a few hundred metres (yards) away, hundreds of Aborigines protested against new indigenous policies to send police backed by troops into remote Outback communities in the Northern Territories.

In parliament, an elder of the Ngambri tribe, traditional owners of the land on which the legislature stands, led a traditional "welcome to country" ceremony in which Rudd was handed a symbolic "message stick."

It was the first time in Australian history that the ceremony had been held in parliament.

The ceremony came a day before Rudd will apologise on behalf of the Australian parliament to the "Stolen Generations" of Aborigines forcibly taken from their families under government policies that continued until the 1970s.

Protesters at the rally said the apology was long overdue, criticising former prime minister John Howard for refusing to say sorry during more than 11 years in power before his conservative government was ousted last November.