To Critics Of Men's Business

Sam Watson responds to the torrent of criticism over his open letter to Aboriginal men.

Uncle Sam Watson emailed this to me today to post up here. Apparently there are political correctness concerns about supporting Aboriginal males as a group, although it seems there are no such concerns about attacking us as a group!

Read excerpts from the original open letter at Numbarlie Marlu.

MY RESPONSE TO CRITICISM OF MY OPEN LETTER TO ABORIGINAL MEN.

Over the past few days I have sent out an email letter to my brothers across this land, to talk up the business of the recent all out political attacks on Aboriginal communities in general and Aboriginal men in particular. There has been an overwhelmingly positive response from our men across the national network to that letter and I thank my Brothers for their show of support. Here are a few dot points to reply to certain correspondents who expressed some concerns.

• My open letter was intended to be only a conversation between men, talking up our business.
• The language of the letter was crafted so that the letter was unambiguous and reflected that this process is Men's Business. There will always be a time when we must come together as a community and act on issues that require us to respond in the broadest possible way; but that time is not now. Now is the time for us men to be men and we will not be denied that right.
• I believe as a man, that we must now come together and stand strong and to give leadership to our community and to our families.
• In the broader community context that leadership is not an exclusive estate, based on gender or age. That leadership can certainly be shared in the same way that many outcomes now, can be best achieved through men and women working side by side in equal partnership.
• I believe that our men have the right to be men and to talk up men's business and to act like men together, without having to dance to some politically correct tune that is designed primarily to disempower us as men and to keep us in perpetual servitude.
• No-one is retreating from the horror of the offences that have been committed against women and children. And no-one is attempting to use past history or the current political situation, as some sort of open license to commit those terrible crimes or escape responsibility. But that class of crimes and deviant behaviour are not race, location or gender specific.
• As men we know that these terrible things within our communities must be stopped and the perpetrators identified, arrested and then removed from our country and punished to the fullest extent of the law.
• I also reject the concept that to be born an Aboriginal man, is to be born with predisposed dispositions of violence against women and the sexual abuse of children. Aboriginal men are not natural murderers and rapists, we are also victims and our deviance has been contributed to by a hostile environment over which we have no control, as a race, as a gender or as a class.
• But we need to strengthen and support each other, so that our men have the power and capacity to express their manhood in a non violent, non threatening and non abusive way.