Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern formally apologised last Sunday for the raids.
They happened under Labour and National governments.
"Our Government conveys to the future generations of Aotearoa that the past actions of the Crown were wrong, and that the treatment of your ancestors was wrong," she said.
Apologies to Māori have happened within Treaty settlements from the late 1990s onwards.
They have been written in settlement legislation (in English and Māori), and publicly performed by a senior Crown official.
Turns out, apologies, or lack thereof, have power.
University of Queensland management professor and researcher Tyler Okimoto found refusing to apologise can have psychological benefits.
He said withholding an apology can increase feelings of control and self-esteem.
While this sounds demoralising, it can also provide a way to understand why someone won't say he or she is sorry.
Think about the last time you were wronged. Did the person apologise?
Remember a time you were at fault. Did you say you were sorry?
We all have a chance to make amends for things we wish, in hindsight, we hadn't done.
I have apologised to my children for yelling. I don't want to be screeched at, and I try to model decent behaviour.
So now my teens tell me I don't raise my voice, but rather, "use that tone". It's the combination of Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs and the demon in The Exorcist. I now must cull the tone or apologise when it invades my vocal chords.
Aotearoa has an apology exercise called restorative justice.
It includes an informal, facilitated meeting between a victim, offender and support people.
It gives offenders who have pleaded or been found guilty the chance to take responsibility and apologise for what they've done.
It can be a positive process, but a recent report commissioned by the Chief Victims Adviser found the system can be open to abuse, especially in cases involving family violence.
In Australia in 2008, then prime minister Kevin Rudd issued an apology to the Aboriginal community for forcibly removing tens of thousands of indigenous children from their families for generations.
The policy, which continued until 1970, was aimed at assimilation.
"For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry," Rudd said.
Some apologies come with cash: In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act.
It compensated more than 100,000 people of Japanese descent who were incarcerated in internment camps during World War II.
The legislation offered a formal apology and paid out $20,000 in compensation to each surviving victim.
The United States is still wrestling with how to apologise for slavery more than 150 years after the end of the Civil War.
A 2019 opinion piece on NBCnews.com said conversations about apologies and reparation for America's "original sin" are rooted in religious and moral traditions surrounding the meaning and necessity of contrition.
"Apologising is not just about making the wronged party feel better or whole. It is an act of self-correction: The apologiser is declaring that in spite of what was done, they are no longer that type of person — or nation. They are better than that."
Two years after Nelson Mandela became South Africa's president, his predecessor officially apologised for the country's four decades of white supremacist government.
F.W. de Klerk appeared before the country's Trust and Reconciliation Commission in 1996, saying the racist policy of apartheid was "deeply mistaken".
Economists say an apology signals trust, and can save organisations money if done right.
Apologising is a way to start rebuilding a relationship after someone has done wrong. A commitment apology - one where you pledge to do better in the future can be powerful, but only if you live up to your promise.
If not, your apology is worth less than zero.
An apology is a first step. Sorry may be the hardest word, but saying it is a mere molehill compared to the Mount Everest of mending our ways.
