Your Word: Who controls Babana?

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