From the perspective of Wikimedia Canada, this sounds exciting. Many of us believe that work with the First Nations is an important element in Wikimedia Canada's tasks. I look forward to meeting you in Haifa. Thanks for providing the RRN link; since I am in the Greater Vancouver District they should be more accessible to me.
Ray
On 07/27/11 6:06 AM, Sarah Stierch wrote:
Hi all -
I came across a lighter version of this conversation on another Wikimedia list, and felt the need to share my similar thoughts and statements that I made previously.
For the past year, I have been examining opportunities involving Indigenous communities of North America and opportunities to utilize Wikipedia and related websites as an affordable, unique and global form of cultural preservation. I have my undergraduate in Native American Studies, and I am obtaining my masters currently. My final paper (not quite a thesis) for graduation will be a strong examination of the opportunities related to Indigenous communities and opportunities/pros/cons related to Wikipedia. I'm actually presenting on my preliminary observations and concerns at Wikimania, you can learn a bit more here:
http://wikimania2011.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Wikimedia_%26_Indigenous...
In the United States, as far as I am aware, I am the only person thinking about this on a higher level. While right now I am quite busy with other matters, come this Fall I will be diving head first into my research. I will be serving as Wikipedian in Residence at the National Museum of the American Indian, where I will be working with staff to examine these concerns. One of our biggest concerns lies with *oral history*. We have had countless conversations about the struggles with "no original research" however, in oral history based societies, we will have a very hard time moving beyond anything else. As stated previously, the majority of content created related to Indigenous communities in North America was often written by (and still is) Anglo anthropologists - some of that data is highly out of date and is still being utilized on Wikipedia as a source today.
This project, Oral Citations, follows closely with the type of work I am seeking to do. I have been planning to examine Wikipedia (English at first) research policies and consider proposals or changes in relation to serious research and Indigenous communities. Of course, it all comes down to funding, and Native people of North American are often the first overlooked group - it will take a lot of work, years of effort, and a lot of buy in that is needed to be gathered from inside the community itself.
I'm babbling right now, but, this is a very passionate topic for me. I see Wikipedia as providing an affordable and unique way for Indigenous communities to not only learn valuable skills - many of the communities here in America are among the poorest in the world, you'd think you were in a developing country, and kids barely receive beyond an elementary school education - but to have a broad arena to share stories (that the community chooses to share of course), beliefs, cosmologies, and traditions so that they are accessible and *vetted* for researchers and community members around the world.
I do hope that some of you are attending Wikimania, I'd like to be able to have a break out session of sorts or an unconference to discuss this topic further. I'm hoping in the next year to have an international conference of sorts that brings together Indigenous people, open source gurus, and Wiki-folks to examine opportunities, processes, and belief systems in regards to opportunities.
Feel free to email me directly, again, right now I am unable to move quickly in any major projects due to my already big work load, but, I'm hoping that this will be large part of my career work as an advocate for Native rights, a scholar, and an open source-lover.
-Sarah