Maybe I don’t really understand what the Foundation does (or what the ED’s role is), but this seems like a very odd choice, even by GNOME standards.
Edit to add source on the shamanism: https://web.archive.org/web/20231017185521/https://www.hollytheshamanartist.com/about
Fake headline.
deleted by creator
The only archive of it was made one day before a satire article writing about it was made, and there are no traces of the website from before that anywhere online. Mods took down the previous thread on this.
It was some writer wanting to get attention who spread it.
Edit: context on why it’s fake: https://beehaw.org/comment/1430242
There’s also a lot of satire on the original website that posted the article
maybe a bit of the mystical is the only thing that can make gnome semi decent