Wikipedia:Meetup/IndigenizeWikipedia

Valerie Salez is spearheading a project with the Yukon Arts Centre in partnership with Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in Heritage Department titled Conversations. This New Chapter project centres around activating a document held in the archives of the Trondek Hwechin Heritage Department (The Han Gwich’in Peoples Government in Dawson City, Yukon). The document contains the minutes of an impromptu meeting between Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau and five Yukon First Nations leaders in August of 1977, regarding the then-approved Mackenzie Pipeline. The minutes of this meeting clearly reveal two opposing cultures and two opposing ways of understanding economic, social and cultural development, with the land and its inhabitants as the focus.

While researching events and people connected to this document, Salez noticed there was a lack of information available. Online searches have become a valuable first step to researching any topic. Wikipedia gained its name to fame as a peer-sourced online encyclopedia. However, there is little to no information regarding key Yukon First Nations people. Let us indigenize Wikipedia with a Wikithon Event (or edit-a-thon). The goal is to have Yukoners create and/or add to wiki pages that highlight Yukon First Nations leaders, policymakers, politicians, cultural workers, artists/crafters, hunters, gatherers, community contributors, aunties, uncles, grandparents. This can be anyone alive or passed.

We are proposing a drop-in style event to allow people to contribute to Wikipedia. We are inviting people from the public and from organizations to contribute to writing, editing, or posting to Wikipedia about Yukon First Nations people.

Indigenize Wikipedia is presented by the Yukon Arts Centre in partnership with the Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre. This event is one of the two hundred exceptional projects funded by the Canada Council for the Arts’ New Chapter program. With this $35M investment, the Council supports the creation and sharing of the arts in communities across Canada.

Event Information[edit]

Date: April 28th, 2018

Time: 10am - 3pm (PDT)

Location: Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre, Multipurpose Room

Before the Event[edit]

It is valuable to create your User Account before the event:

"To create full articles (as opposed to draft pages), your account must be at least 4 days (96 hours) old, and you must have made more than ten edits" Your First Article

Join our Project! Here we can see our group efforts to Indigenize Wikipedia
Bring your Laptop! We will have computers, however consider bringing your own computer to this event.
Gather your books! Do you have literature that you feel would be a useful resource for this event? Bring it/them along!
Brush up on your Wikipedia Skills. Visit Training to get a quick lesson on how to create and edit Wikipedia articles.
Promote! You are a part of something special. Use the hashtags #conversations and #indiginizewiki to show your support!

Additional event dates and information to be determined

Goals[edit]

Increasing Contributions of Yukon First Nations people, organizations and events on Wikipedia
Increasing skills for editing/contributing
Collaboration online and in person
Strengthen relationships between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous people and organizations towards a common goal: incorporating First Nations Knowledge to Wikipedia

How to Indigenize Wikipedia[edit]

Our first event is focused on gathering, connecting, and understanding the information that is available on Yukon First Nations and to successfully create, edit, and publish articles onto Wikipedia.

What to Include[edit]

Here is a list (but not limited to) of information to include in the articles. It is important to remember to include just the facts.

Birth year / Year passed away (if no longer alive)
Location they where born
Nation
Clan
Family members
Education
Job(s)
Significant contributions, dates, jobs
Links to articles and/or videos related to their accomplishments
Photos

Following the 5 W's[edit]

Indigenize Wikipedia uses the 5 W method constitute a formula for getting the complete story on a subject^[1]

Who
What
When
Where
Why

Articles[edit]

The following information is a list of Wikipedia articles related to Yukon First Nations to create and that already exist.

Wikipedia Articles to Create[edit]

To prevent articles from being deleted ensure that what you write about meets the requirements for notability, preferably in the first sentence. Ensure you thoroughly explain why the article you are writing is important and show your sources and reference in literature.
These lists are a starting point, feel free to add others.