Ordinary people have chosen to know and 'own' the shameful side of Australia's history.

Paige Chargois travelled to West Africa for a meeting between the descendants of those who bought and sold Africans and the descendants of those they shipped to the Americas.

For a century African slaves were landed on the James River in Richmond, Virginia, marched across a bridge in the dead of night, and sold at the slave auctions next day. In June last year hundreds walked the same route, at night, seeking to understand the roots of racial divisions still troubling their city.

The Government of New Zealand has taken the unheard of step of apologizing to the Maori people--and beginning to redress their grievances. The architect of this process, Attorney General Sir Douglas Graham, spoke at the Agenda for Reconciliation conference in Caux in August. Mary Lean met him afterwards.

Verwoerd is one of the names most associated with apartheid. William Smook discovers that Wilhelm and Melanie Verwoerd break all the stereotypes.

Fifteen years ago in a ground-breaking article in Foreign Policy magazine in the United States, Joseph V Montville described the relatively new concept of citizen diplomacy. By this he meant the unofficial initiatives of private citizens and groups to help open lines of communication and build trust between those involved in international conflicts.

Italian journalist Luigi Accatolli has documented 94 occasions when the Pope has apologized publicly for different aspects of his Church's history. Laurie Vogel takes his message to heart.

Philip Boobbyer, a lecturer in modern European history at the University of Kent, puts cleaning one's slate in a wider philosophical context.

For the last three years, western Christians have been retracing the steps of the first Crusaders--with a message of peace and repentance. Christy Risser explains:

Faustina Starrett is Coordinator of Media Programmes at the North West Institute of Further and Higher Education in Derry, Northern Ireland.