Then …. & Now

The following was written by Sam Watson in May, 2006, and sheds insights on the current situation across the nation.

The Aboriginal community of inner Brisbane, have set up a Men¹s Group that will dedicate itself to working with our and our youth. We will also make it a high priority to support our women, our Elders and consolidate our community generally. We have to remember that our men can play a very large part in the struggle towards our liberation as a people: we are the solution not the problem that the white system is trying to paint us as.

We have been meeting regularly as men and talking up our Men¹s Business  and we have been very concerned about the political witch hunt that has been orchestrated by politicians  both black and white, to attack Aboriginal men and marginilise us even further.

 We accept that the violence and dysfunction that are features of many Aboriginal communities, are not part of our custom or lore and must be stopped immediately. Men¹s groups across the national network need to start doing serious work to bring all that bad business to a stop, now!
 
We accept that much of the violence has been carried out by men against women and children. We also accept that alcohol is a contributing factor in many of these situations.

But we also must recognise that the greater violence is coming from the white system and it is designed to complete the Final Solution that began with the first fleet and wiped us from the face of our land. We say that the root causes of this violence and dysfunction that is in our community, cannot be found within the makeup of Aboriginal men. That business was just not there in that scale, before 1788.