[Linux-aus] Acknowledgement of country

[Anthony Towns]

On Thu, Nov 05, 2015 at 07:52:44PM +1100, Russell Coker wrote:
> On Thu, 5 Nov 2015 04:56:14 PM Anthony Towns wrote:
> > > To provide a "fun, welcoming" environment regardles of race (when race
> > > means Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people) I think that again
> > > we need to acknowledge who was here first.
> > In that case, I think it'd more on-topic and productive to acknowledge
> > GNU, BSD, K&R etc.
> Why do you object to this?

I enjoy linux and open source and linux.conf.au for the technical content,
not the identity politics.

> How do you think that you personally will be 
> disadvantaged by Acknowledgement of Country?

In the main I think it's tokenism whose primary purpose is to indicate
allegience with progressive political parties. While I'm sure some people
take it seriously and do it with good intent and it can be a good thing
-- such as Donna and Clinton at Mel8 and pycon; anywhere it becomes
policy, including in Parliament, it's just an opportunity to demonstrate
someone's political clout.

In my opinion, for aboriginals, it sends the message "hey, you guys used
to own this, but we've taken it now, but we'll call you traditional
owners, where "traditional" means "without any actual rights"". For
non-Aboriginals, it sends the message "hey, you're not really Australian,
you're fundamentally invaders which means evil, and you don't have the
same rights as indigenous people". A brilliant system.

> You are really grasping at straws here.
> Comparing race to OS choice is silly
> and is probably going to offend some people.

OS choice is far more important than race.

Cheers,
aj