Independence
is an integral part of the philosophy of self determination that is inherent in
any Aboriginal group.
For some time now questions have been asked about who controls
Babana Aboriginal Men’s Group. Even worse are the uninformed statements that
members have heard from people (obviously ‘in the know’) that Babana is
controlled by this organisation or that; or by various government departments.
Those questions have gained ground since the publication of the
most recent Redfern
Waterloo
Authority (RWA) Newsletter.
In an article Babana was mentioned. Some people thought that
the article intimated that RWA was responsible for setting up Babana and that
it was still a part of their domain.
The writer of the article, I am sure, did not mean to give
that impression and the wording could be seen to be ‘unfortunate’.
My purpose in writing this short piece is to answer those questions
from the point of view of a person who is a member of the Management Committee
of Babana.
Babana came about through discussions between men that there
was no place for them to have a voice in our community.
Those discussions led to some men asking why can’t we form our
own organisation that would work with men, through men, for men, which would create
more opportunities for positive interaction.
This, in turn would create more opportunities for our community
to heal and to grow.
To begin, and even now, Babana has looked for sponsors to
work with in relation to growing our presence in Redfern and Waterloo. We have gained sponsorship and
donations from many and varied organisations to keep ourselves running.
We have worked with quite a number of groups from RWA, AMS, Care Connect, Local Area Command, various schools
and many more. Too many to mention in a short article.
We are grateful for that support. We are grateful for any
funding and donations. We hope to keep our relationships and mutual working
together with other organisations going in the future. And we will say no when we
feel what is being offered is not in the best interests of Babana or our
community.
However, Babana is not now, and will never be in the control
of any other group or organisation or government department. We are an independent
group of men and we are controlled by our members, through our management
committee.
While we are grateful to other groups and organisations, no funding,
no donations, no support will ever compromise that independence
Those ‘in the know’ people; come to our meetings, join Babana,
then talk.
Don Clark
Source Babana News August Newsletter 2008 (615.4 KB PDF).
You
can download Babana Newsletters from www.myspace.com/babanaboriginal