Education/News/May 2021/Wikipedia training for the Safeguardians of the Intangible Cultular Heritage

Wikipedia training for the Bearers of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Poland

Author: Klara Sielicka-Baryłka (WMPL) (talk)

Summary: In March 2020, Wikimedia Polska launched a long-term cooperation with the National Institute of Heritage in Poland. Our joint project "The Living Tradition on Wikipedia" came to an active phase at last!

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  Wooden birds made by Polish artist Julian Mentel from Stryszawa; PioMent, CC BY-SA 4.0
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  Bobbin lace made by Polish artist Zofia Dunajczan from Krakow; Magdalena Kulig, CC BY 4.0

In April 2021, we organized for the local artists a special online wiki training about the history of Wikipedia, editing Wikipedia, and loading images to the Wikimedia Commons repository. We hope to bring this to the rapid development of the project and to build greater awareness of heritage! During two evenings we had also the chance to meet each other, to speak about the project with the main coordinators from the National Institute of Heritage in Poland.

Our group consists of communities representing a given tradition, skills, knowledge, in other words, "bearers" of cultural heritage. The practitioners are the makers of wooden toys from Stryszawa, lace makers who make bobbin lace from Krakow, nativity scene makers from Krakow, and artists who paint Opole porcelain and Easter eggs makers also from this area. The group was very motivated, they managed to create the accounts on Wikimedia Commons / Wikipedia and they even uploaded some photos! Now we are planning to run fieldwork at their workshops during the summer, hoping that the pandemic situation will allow us to do so. Our project is an exceptional, innovative wiki-initiative in Poland, the first one concerning the UNESCO Convention of 2003.

Social Media channels or hashtags: #heritage #wikimediapolska #wikitraining