unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (10/05/89)
Forwarded-From:
rutgers!wjh12.harvard.edu!think!ima!gnosys!gst (Gary S. Trujillo)
Fellow NativeNetters,
This is just a note to make sure I have correct addresses for everyone on the
mailing list, and to give an outline of how I am envisioning this thing to work.
The name "NativeNet" has been suggested for our mailing list. That sounds OK
to me. The purpose of our discussion, as I see it, is for the exchange of
information on the subject of the native peoples of various parts of the
world, and their cultures, and the problems they currently face as a result
of the historical exploitation of the people and the natural resources of lands
encountered by members of more developed societies.
This statement of purpose is rather tentative, but it gives some sense of what
I would most like this teleconference to be about. I'm sure we would all
benefit from suggestions as to what we each see as the priorities.
Thus I come back to a suggestion I made earlier regarding how to get things
started. I would like for us to try to imagine ourselves all seated in a
large comfortable room where we have just arrived to have a discussion, and
to plan activities around the subject of our mutual concern. The most natural
thing to do seems to be to each introduce ourselves, and to say something about
what our particular interest and orientation might be, and what we might hope
to get out of this discussion. As new participants join the group, we will
ask them to introduce themselves as well. I think it will help for us to know
just a little about the people who we're working with and learning with.
Just to start things, I'll give a very brief description of myself.
I am rather new to the area of studying indigenous peoples and their cultures,
and have never really done so in a formal way. I see myself as something of
a 60s idealist who never really found an issue to commit myself to seriously.
My interest in this particular issue goes back to the weekend before last
when I attended a conference in Northampton, Massachusetts on "the industrial-
ized nations' explotation of tribal lands." I would like to learn more about
the nature of the problems facing tribal peoples throughout the world in trying
to survive with some significant portion of their culture and traditional way
of life reasonably intact. I would like to know more about the roots of the
problems faced by indigenous people, about the linkage between their problems
and the environmental problems facing us all, and about what I and others who
share my concerns can do to help remedy the current situation, and to try and
learn about the native cultures and what they might have to offer us, both as
individuals - in a cultural and spiritual sense, and as a larger society,
perhaps in terms of understanding a way to live in greater harmony with nature.
I would like to share my thoughts and feelings with other people with similar
interests. I plan to start by some serious reading to educate myself about
these matters, and hope there might be others who would be interested in doing
likewise, and sharing our experiences of what we learn, and the questions that
might arise out of our study.
I hope this mailing list might also offer a place for people to exchange
information about actions that are being undertaken in support of particular
struggles, such as those I heard about at the conference. When treaty rights
are being violated, or a bill is before a legislative body of a particular
country, or before the United Nations, I'd like to know about the issue, and
of what we can do to affect the decisions about to be made. Personally, I
don't have a real issue to work on at present, and plan to wait until I have
learned more to see what really grabs me. I am concerned with native fishing
rights and educational opportunities, and cultural preservation, and I know
of some of the actual struggles - just not enough yet to make a definite
commitment.
Regarding myself personally, I am a computer programmer/analyst, and have been
in the field for nearly twenty years. However, I am currently seeking ways to
redirect my career in ways that will permit me to give more time and effort to
the important efforts which I am feeling strongly must be undertaken if we are
to continue to have a livable world, either for ourselves, or for other life
forms - to say nothing of future generations.
As to the mechanics of the teleconference, I have yet to work out the actual
details, but I have some thoughts.
I want the conference to be as warm and personal as possible, given the nature
of the medium. I would like to feel that we care about one another, as well as
about the subjects we are talking about. I want to feel that we're more inter-
ested in understanding the issues and in accomplishing important goals than in
impressing one another with our savvy, as often seems to be the case in some of
the discussions on Usenet which I have been reading lately (e.g. "alt.activism"
and "sci.environment").
I would like the conference to be available to people around the world, whether
their link is through Usenet or PeaceNet or GreenNet or FIDO mail... There
should probably be echoes of the discussion to centralized conferences on some
of these networks, but it should be possible to participate without having
access to one of these networks or their conferencing systems. (It may take
some time fine-tuning the system and dealing with the inevitable bugs, but
I'm sure we can make it all work.) I am willing (until further notice) to
be the central relay-point for mail traffic, but it might make more sense for
someone else to take on the task later, given that my resources are limited.
(My machine, "gnosys" is a UNIXpc (Motorola 68010 CPU / 60 meg hard disk) in
my own home - but I am well-connected to various networks.) If anyone wants
to do a direct mailing to people on the current list, you will find that list
in the header of this message. However, I expect this list will grow as time
goes on, which fact has at least a couple of implications:
1. Once I find a way to suppress the addresses in the header, I
will be tempted to do so, just to save the network bandwidth,
and to spare you all the extra text. However, I will always
be willing to send a copy of the entire current list upon
request to any of the participants.
2. Anyone wanting to target the entire list would have to stay
aware of additions and deletions. It could be a real hassle
(for me as well as for you).
I plan to get in touch with people who maintain mailing-lists on Usenet,
and see how they do it without going nuts, and will make a report to those
of you who might have an interest in getting involved in the mechanical
aspects of the confernece. For the rest of you, I'll give a set of
instructions on how to post. For the time being, those instructions are
simply to send your messages to me, and I'll relay them on to members of
the group. I plan to see about establishing actual teleconferences on
certain systems which would contain an archive of our discussion for people
who come along later and want to start participating, but with the benefit
of a knowledge of previous discussions. I'll make a report on that subject
later. Meanwhile, I'll maintain the archive.
Well, it's late now, and I need some rest, so I'll close here. I'm looking
forward to hearing from you. I'll be sending out various things during the
next several days, copied from various places, just to set the stage, and to
give us some things to think about.
Thanks for your participation. I'm looking forward to getting to know you all.
Regards,
Gary
P.S. Please acknowledge this message, just so I know I'm getting through to
you. I may delete those people I don't hear from within a couple of weeks,
just to make sure I'm not sending to inactive accounts. If anyone did not
see my original "invitation" to partipate, which contained a list of several
books, please drop me a line, and I'll send you a copy.
--
Gary S. Trujillo gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us
Somerville, Massachusetts {wjh12,spdcc,ima,cdp}!gnosys!gst
---
Patt Haring | United Nations | FAX: 212-787-1726
patth@sci.ccny.cuny.edu | Information | BBS: 201-795-0733
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-=- Every child smiles in the same language. -=-gst%wjh12@husc6.harvard.edu (Gary S. Trujillo) (10/07/89)
In article <3327@ccnysci.UUCP> unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) writes: > > Forwarded-From: > rutgers!wjh12.harvard.edu!think!ima!gnosys!gst (Gary S. Trujillo [me]) > > Fellow NativeNetters, > > This is just a note to make sure I have correct addresses for everyone > on the mailing list, and to give an outline of how I am envisioning > this thing to work. Well, I had not intended that this message be posted to misc.headlines.unitex, but - seeing as the cat's out of the bag :-) now, I guess I should say a few words on what's up. The basics are that I am facilitating a new mailing-list, which will not be limited to Usenet folks, but which will also be available to people with accounts on such systems as PeaceNet, which will deal with the subject of the native peoples and natural resources of the world, and how they have been unfairly exploited during the past several hundred years especially. It will also be germane to the discussion to go into such subjects as the importance and value of the cultures of the Native Peoples of the world, and that of the rich biotic diversity of intact ecosystems - so it's not intended to be just about problems, but also about exploring the richness of the ethnic and biological heritage protected throughout millenia by the people who have largely been displaced and, IMHO, exploited by colonizing powers and their institutions. Given that I have not had time yet to draft a formal announcement - partly due to wanting to get some help from the few people presently on the list, which was formed only a week ago, and partly since I've been doing some exploring of how to work out the mechanics of administering such a list. I have now acquired software (thank again to Karl Kleinpaste of Ohio State University) for handling a mailing list, and hope to get some experience using it on a small scale during the next week or so. I'll post a formal announcement of the creation of the group ASAP. Don't worry that you'll miss anything though, if you're interested, as I plan to make available "back-issue" postings which are distributed to the present members of the list during the trial-run period. Meanwhile, I think I'll drop UNITEX from the list, just to prevent accidental "leaks" in future. I will, however, post details in this newsgroup, as well as a few others of related interest. If you do have an interest in this idea, you might start thinking of what you'd like to say about yourself by way of intro- duction, or actually prepare that introduction, so that it's ready to send when the mailing-list is formally announced. Thanks for your patience! Regards to all. -- Gary S. Trujillo {linus,bbn,m2c}!spdcc!gnosys!gst Somerville, Massachusetts {wjh12,ima,stech,cdp}!gnosys!gst [ This message posted from my account at Harvard University. ] -- Gary Trujillo (gst@wjh12.harvard.edu) --- Patt Haring | United Nations | FAX: 212-787-1726 patth@sci.ccny.cuny.edu | Information | BBS: 201-795-0733 patth@ccnysci.BITNET | Transfer Exchange | (3/12/24/9600 Baud) -=- Every child smiles in the same language. -=-