GLAM/Newsletter/October 2024/Contents/New Zealand report
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Auckland Museum Wikimedian in Residence, Te Maori edit-a-thons & NZ Species edit-a-thons
Auckland Museum Wikimedian in Residence
Auckland Museum welcomes the first full-time Wikimedian in Residence (WiR) to the Collection Information Access team at Tāmaki Paenga Hira. Supported and funded by the Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand (WANZ) group, this 12-month project will build off previous Museum wiki workplans with a special focus on community engagement.
Winnieswikiworld comes to the role after completing the 2023–2024 Museum Wikipedia Summer Students Programme. Progress has already begun with the conception of two new projects, Migrants of Colour Stories Aotearoa which aims to increase and improve content and visibility of migrant people of colour and their histories in Aotearoa New Zealand. The second project, Wikiproject x Online Cenotaph utilises Auckland Museum’s Online Cenotaph database to increase, diversify and improve Wikipedia bios of New Zealand service people and New Zealand's involvement in conflict.
Two articles were made in the first week of residency which engage with both these project themes. These were for brothers and World War One soldiers of Chinese heritage, Albert Victor Sing who served with A Squadron, Auckland Mounted Rifles and Herbert Stanley Sing who was killed in action at the Battle of the Somme. H. S. Sing’s name can be found inscribed in the walls at The Auckland Museum World War One Hall of Memories.
Planning has begun on various events that aim to increase Wikipedia usership across Auckland GLAMs and bring our Wikimedia community together. More on that to come…
Te Maori edit-a-thons – Tauoma Takatā a Te Maori
On September 10th of this year people throughout Aotearoa New Zealand marked 40 years since the opening of Te Maori, an exhibition that re-examined and reshaped the way that Māori taonga (sacred Indigenous objects) are understood and displayed in museum contexts.
To mark this anniversary the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa) hosted two edit-a-thons in September and October to add to and improve the articles and information available about Te Maori on Wikipedia. The aspiration to add information about the stories and people that made Te Maori possible precipitated an examination of how edit-a-thons are presented, communicated and conducted and whether these approaches could be Indigenised within a museum context.
A period of consultation with Māori staff at Te Papa and Kahui Kaitiaki, a collective of Māori museum professionals resulted in the creation of new kupu Māori (Māori words) that describe edit-a-thons (tauoma takatā) and Wikipedians (ringa takatā mātāpunenga). It also gave us a structure for the edit-a-thons that incorporates Māori protocols or tikanga for safe participation in knowledge sharing opportunities. This new approach to edit-a-thons was grounded in three Māori value systems, tika (appropriate), pono (valid) and aroha (kind).
Tika means approaching Wikipedia article writing and edit-a-thons with the intention of them being correct according to Māori knowledge transference systems and what is appropriate knowledge to be shared and not. Pono means ensuring that these approaches and intentions remain valid for Māori and interactions with them throughout are honest. Aroha means approaching edit-a-thons collaboratively with the conscious intentions to share space, knowledge, be kind and supportive.
The edit-a-thons were successful in adding content, references and Wikidata items related to Te Maori, as well as building participants’ knowledge and skills. In particular, the creation of articles for Te Maori: Te Hokinga Mai about the New Zealand tour of the exhibition, and Mina McKenzie, the only woman on the Te Maori organising committee was a big win.
You can read more about Te Papa's edit-a-thons on Te Papa's blog
See our framework for running a Tauoma Takatā
Editors Ambrosia10, Stitchbird2 and Noracrentiss organised two successful edit-a-thons held at the native botanic garden and forest reserve Ōtari-Wilton's Bush.
As part of our outreach attempting to invite new editors to the event organisers Stitchbird2 & Ambrosia10 each recorded a short video promo which were released on multiple social media sites.
Multiple New Zealand species stub articles were improved, images were added to Wikimedia Commons and improvements were made to Wikidata species items. New editors as well as editors new to editing species articles were successfully up-skilled as a result of one to one training offered by experienced contributors.
Organisers created resources such as a slide deck giving an introduction to editing species articles, a document listing active species related WikiProjects and a google sheet listing stub articles to be editing with links to resources. Further information about these resources can be found on the event page.
Organisers will be creating a report on this effort which will be shared both with Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand as well as with the wider Wiki community. Organisers would like to thank the Wellington City Council and Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand for all the support giving to organisers to provide this event.
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