Report: Co-ordination of projects in WA universities
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What a period to report on and to try to meet targets that are very person orientated. Perth first lockdown was for 5 days from late January into early February, further time April, and finally just to round out the period Perth and Peel region are again under strict conditions with a lockdown likely by 1st July.
This report cover two WMAU funded proposals that I have been involved with during the 2020-2021 period;
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There was also a follow up project with Seniors Recreation Council of Western Australia stemming from the 2019 Seniors Week Have-a-go Day, and Seniors Tech expo.
The projects have some overlap with resources obtained Coordination of projects in WA universities also assisted in supporting Nyungar spoken words, though this project was managed and funded at WMAU request to Curtin Universities Elder in Residence. I'd like to acknowledge the Bartlett and Nelson families along with actors Karla Hart, and Maitland Schnar who between them provided time as photographic models, or voice actors. There was also side pr
Coordination of projects in WA universities
Targets Success measures to be reported against include:
Establishment of a partnership with UWA that results in re-use of content from the Historical Encyclopedia of Western Australia in Wikimedia projects Reports in media and/or social media that celebrate the Curtin University spoken Nyungar project Sharing knowledge with the global Wiki Education community, eg reporting at regional meetings, establishment of a WA WikiScholar program Coordination of two online or face-to-face for WA university staff or students Status HEWA project Follow up was planned for the end of January as Perth fell into a Lockdown the authors of the work requested a delay until late April after the WA Election, and a string of public holidays. This unfortunately was hit by another period of lock and project has been further delayed. An issue has been within the WA editing community, this was identified during a the setting up of photo walk using the Commons App, with Seniors through the Seniors Recreation Council of Western Australia(SRCWA) the issue is one of burnout causing a lack cohesion and co-operation both online and in person. Planning for SRCWA project was set with a date, and venue decided that without a local support the event would not be enjoyable for the group without additional Wikimedians supporting it on the day. A secondary concern is that impacts pushing ahead with the HEWA will be also be that lack of support as this project will need to draw on help for the initial workshops to help the UWA team.
Noongarpedia There were many point where the efforts of the Proposal:Nyungar spoken words on video has drawn interest especially in social media and through the Noongar language teachers working in schools, it also has had wider community support. As of now staff at Curtin University's Media department who assisted in the recordings are currently considering a proposal to provide background production support during Wikimania 2021. There was a workshop planned to occur on 6th July as part of the National Reconciliation Week, it'd be nice to see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2021_April_4#Category:Aborigines_in_Australia resolved, which is suffering from pedantic delaying of which word is right, is Aboriginal a noun. As a community WMAU needs to get behind a push to remove words that are offensive to Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islands, if someone was to use the "n-----" word on a US article they have been banish, blocked, and marooned on a deserted Island by now. When It comes to Australian term even Australians are reluctant to act. That discussion has been open for 2 months - normally they 14 days. Its hard to ask communities to engage when simple racism cant be fixed quickly, forget about the problems of having severed heads on family members being kept in articles no the basis of "we arent censored" and its an important piece of art yet the artists page doesn't even mention it.
Wiki education I have contacted all professors that I have worked with at UWA, Curtin, and Murdoch Universities and brought to their attention the https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education project and the resources available. Additionally I have promoted the Use of WikiJournal as means of getting works published.
Meetings at UWA and Curtin As mentioned above the is a editathon scheduled for the 6th July where I'll will be talkig with both staff and students. At UWA I gave a presentation to Archeology staff and Humanities staff focusing on how to contribute to Wikipedia. We looked at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwion_Gwion_rock_paintings as a case study of how to get information in article updated to reflect the current accepted science on a place. This was another one of a long string of Indigenous related articles that historically used colonial names like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wunaamin_Miliwundi_Ranges . For the Gwion Gwion the first attempt at moving from Bradshaw Rock art was reject and reverted even before I was able to start the clean up, second time around it stuck though there were issues with want to hold onto the colonial name. The presentation was originally scheduled to be 30 minutes of discussion and then about 60 minutes simple edits. It became a 150 minute discussion about Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Wikijournal we agreed to meet again in couple of weeks but again Perth was back in lockdown the Archeology department has departed for its 4-6 weeks of field work prior to the end of the first semester.