Portal Indigenous languages on Wikimedia

• Published in: Septentrio Conference Series
• Main Authors: Oscar, Verón, Constanza
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Septentrio Academic Publishing 2021
• Subjects: Arctic Knot Conference 2021; Indigenous languages; Wikimedia; Arctic; The Portal
• Online Access: https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/SCS/article/view/5943; https://doi.org/10.7557/5.5943

Video-presentation about the portal “Indigenous languages on Wikimedia”- Wayuu community.The Wayuu or Guajiro language is spoken by about 400,000 indigenous people in the Guajira Peninsula between Colombia and Venezuela, and is the most widely spoken indigenous language in both countries. But this does not place the language in a privileged position; on the contrary, it is among the region's endangered indigenous languages, with less and less Guajiro children learning to speak, let alone write the language. There is currently no Wikipedia in Wayuunaiki language, so speakers have to access information through Wikipedia in other languages. Although there is no Wikipedia in Wayuunaiki, there is an "incubator" of Wikipedia and Wiktionary.The "Indigenous Languages on Wikipedia" portal aims to be a place to collaborate and add knowledge of the Wayúu culture to the Wikimedia projects, as well as a space for learning about the language, its culture, traditions, and history. The portal has 3 sections, (1) to learn the Wayuunaiki language, (2) to collaborate in Wikimedia projects, and (3) talk page. Knowing how difficult it is to collaborate on Wikimedia platforms, especially for projects in the incubator, we plan to use the portal as a bridge to reduce the learning curve and centralize efforts to create, modify and improve information in and for speakers of the language. Finally, we seek to promote a friendly online space dedicated to a safe and constructive community exchange in order to strengthen the confidence of the Wayuu community in the Wikimedia networks.