Hello, On Sat, 2009-05-02 at 04:31 -0400, Simon Raven wrote: > > http://wiki.debian.org/Portal/IDB?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=icon-community-32x32.png > > The title attribute IDs it as "Portal/IDB/icon-community-32x32.png".
I am pretty sure that the contributor who chose this tent icon had no intend to offend anyone. Actually, I am pretty sure that he chose a tent icon because a tent represent a place where people/families/friends get in group, altogether with open mind. From the top of my mind , I would associate those word with "group", "share", "talk", "friendly" which are extremely positive values. (As opposed to a house/home icon which, in my mind, is the place which is associated with words like "family", "ownership" and "security") > This icon is a) stereotyping so-called "North American" Indigenous > peoples. Note that in no way, this icon is associated with "North American" Indigenous peoples in this website. It seems that tents with such shape exists all over the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibley_tent http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavvu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goahti http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chum_(tent) > and I would highly recommend and demand that this icon be > changed. We will consider that. > I don't see why a stereotype of us should be used to represent > community. I'm sure non-Indigenous people have communities too, and have > a sense of community, why should we be made an example in such a > negative way? Negative way? I do believe that this icon was chosen because of the positive values associated with those large tents used in many places in the world. I believe that "North American" Indigenous and other people who live/lived in tents should be extremely proud of the positive values carried by such icons. > Sure we have a lot to offer the rest of the non-Indigenous > world, and have, a LOT, I am pretty sure of that. > but hey, don't keep up the false images. We don't all live in tipis on > Great Turtle Island ("North America"), you know. I don't understand what would be so negative, living in tipis? Be sure, that we will consider changing the icon. Thank you for your feedback, Regards, Franklin [1] http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coron_(urbanisme) P.S. We should all be proud of how we lived in the past, what ever the situation. For instance, I come from a part of France which is known for it coalmines, slag heaps and corons[1] (typical houses) where men used to die at 40~45. Those were tough lives for all families. Many people want to erase the slag heaps to forget about it all... I believe that forgetting would a shame. P.S.2 Do you know that there are some efforts to improve North America's Indigenous Languages support in Debian? See: http://wiki.debian.org/I18n/NorthAmericanIndigenousLanguages -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
