Wikipedia:Meetup/HonouringIndigenousWriters

Indigenous Writers Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

Why are We Here?

In December 2015 Daniel Heath Justice began a Twitter campaign to share the names of Indigenous writers. The reason for his efforts was to: "...push back against the frequent assumptions that our literary history is any less complex, robust, or diverse than that of other peoples (Daniel Heath Justice, Why Indigenous Literatures Matter?)

In solidarity with his efforts, in 2018 a group of interested individuals from the First Nations and Indigenous Studies Program, UBC Library, and the Centre for Teaching and Learning Technology at the University of British Columbia came together to develop the first #HonouringIndigenousWriters Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon.

So Why a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon?

Wikipedia is a multilingual, web-based, free encyclopedia based on a model of open community-generated knowledge. The community-driven nature of Wikipedia is meant to support Wikipedia’s goal of providing “…every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge.” However, well documented systematic bias including, information gaps, exclusions, diversity of articles and editors, and assumptions about neutrality and notability greatly impacts the information that can be found in an information source with millions of views per day.

The #HonouringIndigenousWriters Wikipedia Edit-a-thon is seeking to improve the coverage of Indigenous writers on Wikipedia and to encourage diverse community editors to actively work to dissuade assumptions about Indigenous literature by raising their profile in this increasingly influential information source.

Goals

Build a partnership that would increase the visibility of Indigenous writers in Wikipedia
Engage the community in open practices using Wikipedia
Improve the quality of Indigenous writers Wikipedia pages
Ensure the planning processes and practices work in good faith with the Indigenous writers identified for article editing