WikiKata: From a Wishful Plan to an Award-Winning Feat

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It started as a conversation on Discord. Taufik (yes, the Wikimedian of the Year), Farazi, Zahirul, and probably some others – we were discussing about a news report that just came out in June 2023. The Mendriq indigenous language is dying. Specifically, in 20 years, as according to a research.

We thought to ourselves, what could we do to save this language? I remember at that time, Farazi immediately said “let’s make a grand visit to record their language” semi-jokingly, to which Taufik responded, also semi-jokingly, “let’s go next month!” Zahirul immediately came up with a campaign poster calling everyone to save the language, and we looked through Wiktionary for Mendriq words recorded, only to find one or two.

As ambitious as this cause may be, we really tried to think it through. With skepticism, of course, but if there is anything that would drive us to do something, it is the challenge that threatens us itself.

Not only did we not have any connection with the village, we also had no experience going into rural indigenous villages located deep in the rain forest like around 6-8 hours away from Kuala Lumpur. It was not only a matter of being there, but also interacting with the community. We were not that familiar with the culture, and we do not want to come in as a bunch of rowdy tech nerds trying to tell the villagers “yall should wiki, for real.”

We didn’t exactly shelf the plan, but sort of went with it with caution. Taufik worked his way to contact the reporter who posted the article to ask for more detail, and we tried to propose a form of a programme to the Indigenous People Development Department (JAKOA) under the Malaysian government. It still did not address most of our concern, but hey, stay positive, perhaps the moon will fall onto our lap (Malay proverb for sudden opportunity).

Well, before we knew it, to the lap did the moon fall (not literally, thank god), as I was notified by my university of my appointment as RCE Youth Coordinator. Now you may ask, what in the world is that and what does that have anything to do with this? It’s too long to explain, but to put things simply, I have been put in charge of 19 clubs in my university that focuses on volunteerism and community engagement. And guess what three of those clubs focus on? Indigenous communities!

Immediately I met my liaison (for the whole youth coordinator thing) and told him about this project that we at Wikimedia Community User Group Malaysia (WCUGM) are trying to work on, and we could involve the three clubs focused on indigenous communities – Comrade, Jasa, and Titian Asli. My liaison, was understandably confused when he heard I wanted to work together with Wikipedia to preserve some language he never even heard of. Fortunately, it did not take him long to understand what’s going on.

Long story short, it did not take much to convince the clubs (just two of them initially cause the other one was busy) to participate in this programme. All it needed was for one quick video call between myself, Taufik (who literally just received the Wikimedian of the Year award like a few hours before that), Hariz and Suhairie as club presidents, and Ustaz Zaini who’s the Indigenous Community Mobiliser at Kampung Kuala Lah, one of the very, very, very few villages that still even knew the Mendriq language.

We set our eyes on Kuala Lah since then, and that’s where we went in October to conduct our very first programme in the series. Now, as I mentioned in my presentation during Wikimania 2024, this was technically not the first WikiKata programme. We started it in 2020 as a competition (mainly done by Taufik), and went on again in 2021 (again done mainly by Taufik but I helped with the graphics this time). But this is the first where we set camp at the village to teach Wikimedia projects and document their language for a few days.

How does it work?

I talked about the history and roughly how this programme works during my presentation at Wikimania Katowice, but who has the attention span to watch a boring 24-minute presentation? I know I don’t, so let me summarise it in text instead.

General premise

• Documentation and capacity building programme.
  • We teach the community on how to use Wikimedia platforms to document their language.
  • They teach us about their language and culture and we help them record them online.
• Collaboration between multiple stakeholders.
  • The two main collaborators for this one were WCUGM and International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM; a.k.a. my university).
    • WCUGM has the expertise in Wikimedia platforms and projects (obviously) and can provide the platform and opportunity for this programme.
    • IIUM students have a lot of volunteerism experience, and these ones in particular also specialise in engaging with indigenous communities.
    • IIUM’s Kulliyyah (faculty) of Sustainable Tourism and Contemporary Languages (KSTCL; pronounced, ‘castle’) also sent their researchers and students to further expand our knowledge on their languages.
    • IIUM itself also provided financial resource and also covered the transportation.
  • We also got the support from the Malaysian national news agency, BERNAMA, who did a full coverage on this programme for advocacy and awareness purposes.
  • Professor Fazal from the National University of Malaysia (UKM) also came to our programmes as he had done multiple researches on the Mendriq and other indigenous languages.
  • Other collaborators included JAKOA, JAKIM, and maybe a few others that I forgot, who provided institutional and even financial aid during the programmes.
  • Perhaps the most important collaborator would be the indigenous communities themselves who provided very welcoming hospitality and most importantly the knowledge in their culture and language.
• Immersive experience in the community.
  • We stay in the indigenous village for a few days, throughout the course of which we will conduct the programme in their community halls

Programme flow

• Opening & launching.
  • Usually we will kick off with the launching from the community leader.
  • This is usually especially important for indigenous villages as it serves as a form of recognition for the people to see.
• Introduction to Wikimedia projects.
  • It’s hard to make everyone understand about Wikimedia, especially those in rural areas. Therefore it’s important to summarise the essence of it, i.e., projects that help people know things for free online.
• Account creation and platform orientation.
  • ِFortunately for the communities we have been to, the people use internet and even have social media. But for some of the older people, it might be harder to explain about accounts, and therefore we sometimes ask their children to do it for them while consulting the older ones on the language.
  • This is also where we start to learn on how to use Wiktionary, before moving to the next part.
• First editing session on Wiktionary for adding words and definitions.
  • This is where it’s important to somewhat be aware of the language itself, as sometimes the people would use words prepended or appended with prefixes or suffixes. Be aware that not everyone has a high understanding of linguistics.
• Second editing session on Wiktionary for adding usage examples.
• Editing session on incubator Wikipedia.
  • Having used Wiktionary for a while, it is a bit easier to guide them to use Wikipedia.
  • We will usually set up a very basic home page (if it is not already set up) and then have them begin writing basic one-paragraph articles for starters.
• Recording sessions.
  • This is where we bring up the equipment for Lingua Libre and Wikitongues.
  • Sometimes we try to teach them to use Lingua Libre as well, but eventually we found it more efficient to only teach some of them, while the rest we only assist to record them as it helps to serve as a better example for those who are learning.
  • Try to get a balanced amount of male and female voicers for the recording.
• Third editing session on Wiktionary (overall).
  • This is where we encourage them to do as much contribution as possible as we also made this into a competition.
  • Sometimes by this time they have exhausted themselves out of words that they could think of, so it is really important to also help them think of words by suggesting them.
    • Using Swadesh or other similar lists can help a lot and is really encouraged.
• Announcement of winners & presentation of tokens.
  • Every participant would be given a prize, as aside from being a Wikimedia project, we also work with partners for this to be a charity programme to provide aid to those who partake in it.
  • The winners, however, would of course receive some extra.

Procedure

The exact procedure may depend on the specific programme and community, but generally speaking, this is how it goes:

• Identify community with endangered or minority language in need of documenting.
• Identify potential collaborators and reach out to them.
  • Key features to look for in collaborators include:
    • Can support where our group lack.
    • Has experience/talent to share with our group.
    • Can mutually benefit from collaborating with us.
    • Same vision in free knowledge.
• Plan the flow of the programme.
  • Usually the general flow will be the same, however, some details such as scheduling would need to be different based on the community.
  • Set target goals of outcome for the programme.
  • Make sure that there is ample time to conduct each session and fulfill goals.
• Execute the programme.
  • Be sure to do frequent checks as the programme is running over what to be changed/added/improved.
  • Sometimes you may not realise something about the community that you’re not prepared for. Be prepared to handle it as soon as you identify the matter.
• Retrospection
  • Evaluate the success of the programme and what could be improved in the future.
  • Identify missing pieces and where we can seek for better opportunities next time.
  • Keep a good communication with everyone in the team so you may know more of what’s happening on the ground.
    • We had some experiences with one of our collaborators which ended up only “collaborated” with us for the project for their own gains without bringing much contribution. This is not recommended and should be avoided unless if your project is able to gain benefit from their contribution.

So, how did it go?

Well, it was great! So great in fact that we decided to do another one.

Perhaps it was not perfect, because it was far from perfect, but it was good enough that we learned a lot of things from it for our future plans.

The programme was not only covered by the national news (who made a whole series of coverage and was picked up by multiple news outlets) but it also gained the attention of many people worldwide, even outside the Wikimedia sphere.

One of the biggest surprises for me was I received a forwarded email from my lecturer, initially sent by the then-Rector of IIUM, Tan Sri Dzulkifli Abdul Razak. He asked my lecturer (who is the director of the university’s sustainability centre) who was behind this project that he found on the newspaper, which was reported to be co-organised by the university; to which my lecturer told him that it was my project.

That was when the rector was so happy, that he even provided the budget directly from the Office of the Rector for the next WikiKata programme we did at Kampung Lubuk Legong with the Kensiu tribe. In fact, he was so enthused about Wikimedia that the user group was invited to the university multiple times not only for collaborative projects but also to set up booths during events or to give talks on community development and engagement.

Later, I was informed by the university that they would like me to submit the project for the International Green Gown Awards. For those who don’t feel like reading it up on Wikipedia right now, it’s basically a prestigious award given to institutions of higher education for efforts towards sustainability, supported by the United Nations Environment Programme.

The process was rather tedious and we had to submit quite a lot of paperwork and documentation regarding the project. We first made it past the first stage and were listed as one of the finalists of the awards for the Student Engagement category. Following that, we had to address questions asked by the judges to further evaluate the project.

We also had to make a video on the project which is published by IIUM, and wonderfully voiced by the IIUM Wikimedia Club secretary, Aoifeiffy.

And guess what?
We won!

On 8 October, the awards committee announced our project as the winner for the Student Engagement category. The news was well received by both the university and the Malaysian Wikimedia community, especially noting the judges’ thoughts on the project.

The WikiKata project is an outstanding initiative that addresses a critical issue— preservation of indigenous languages—by engaging both students and indigenous communities. A very interesting “win-win-approach” for studying linguistic topics and learning on sustainable way of life. The use of digital platforms ensures a long-lasting impact, and the project’s collaborative approach is commendable.

This was truly a magnificent moment for the Wikimedia movement in Malaysia, as not only did we prove ourselves in our own country but also amongst others across the world. The award has set our hopes and aims higher to further expand not only this project but other similar projects.

And just as I began writing this Diff post, we received yet another news whereby the project won yet another award, this time under United Nations University’s Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS). The RCE Awards 2024 named WikiKata as an Acknowledged Flagship Project (Youth-Led) through RCE Greater Gombak, an education for sustainable development network which our user group is a partner of (yeah it has something to do with the RCE thing I mentioned much earlier.

Both these awards were not merely great due to the recognition. It serves as a reminder that no matter how small you start your project, even if you started with wishful thinking and imaginative ideas, does not mean that such plans cannot turn into reality. This is not the end of it for us, we are, and hopefully will always be, expanding WikiKata and similar projects to further spread knowledge throughout the different communities around this world no matter who they are.

We are currently undergoing another WikiKata programme – this time a month-long competition for schoolchildren to add as many indigenous languages to Wiktionary as possible, in support of UNESCO Jakarta and the Malaysian Ministry of Education. After that, we set forth towards southern Malaysia where we plan to visit the Jakun indigenous village early next year for another WikiKata project.

External links

• Page on WikiKata
• Award page for International Green Gown Awards 2024
• Award-winners list for RCE Awards 2024