[Linux-aus] Acknowledgement of country

[Noel Butler]

On 05/11/2015 19:53, Anthony Towns wrote:
> 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.


Well put


>> 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.


Should call it for what it is - a form of racism, class separation, 
whatever, I mean for fucks sake, there is no them and us, no black and 
white, we are all Australians, shit like this just keeps the divide in 
place.