[LA-Policies] Draft Indigenous Acknowledgement policy

[David]

On Sun, 2015-11-08 at 09:42 +1100, Kathy Reid wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> 
> The level of debate on this issue has ranged from puerile
> histrionics, 
> unworthy of a place in this community, to genuine, thoughtful and
> well 
> informed attempts to build an inclusive, welcoming and mature 
> organisation. In an attempt to strengthen the latter, I've drafted a 
> Policy which I now seek feedback on at the Policies mailing list.
> 
> https://github.com/linuxaustralia/constitution_and_policies/pull/10/
> 
> Kind regards,
> Kathy Reid
The 'Welcome to Country concept isn't really required, and might even
be looked at a bit askance.

The second option has merit, but there's a constructive way of going
about it.
Aboriginal peoples think differently about things.
If a person from one area travels into another, he's required to give
over what he has to contribute to the common good of the community.
These days, that is often abused, but we can skip that for the purposes
of this exercise.
Once he's done that, and without it he gets nothing, is not owed the
hospitality of the region, nothing, he is then asked for his 'skin
colour' and clan. These are attributes that every Aboriginal person
has. Once he provides those, he is then introduced into his new, local
'family', as it's by this means the system of interrelationship is
determined.

If enquiries were made, before entering into the area, to find out
which tribal group predominated, a simple acknowledgement at the
opening of the conference would suffice. Then, when the conference had
finished, a reasonable donation to a project the local community were
working toward would be sufficient acknowledgement of the traditional
way of doing things that would be appreciated. This would mark Linux.au
as an organisation that had good Aboriginal manners, and weren't just a
bunch of 'Goomies' which is the term applied to a bludger on the
community.

I quite like Andrew's idea, too, but see a way of getting it happening
in a different way. For this it would be best to operate in
coordination with Activ8Me, who handle all the government work in
regard to Aboriginal satellite connectivity. In getting old, recycled
hardware, preinstalled, and installed into the communities. We would
then be looking at a hurdle, however, in regard to
maintenance/updating, unless we could organise that through Activ8Me
also. Perhaps they have somebody already on staff au fait with Linux?  
-- 
Kind Regards,

David Crosswell.
Telaman Consultancies
ABN: 97 592 967 932

7 Joyce Street
Walterhall  4714
Queensland 
Australia

[61+7] 4938 2529