From Ternate, WikiRempah Begins Its North Maluku Expedition and Holds WikiLatih with Universitas Terbuka

Traveling more than 3,000 kilometers naturally raises many questions. Will transportation be reliable? Who will we meet and interact with? What is the current situation on the ground? And many other uncertainties.

Whatever the circumstances, we decided to go. North Maluku holds a wealth of knowledge that we believe deserves to be shared with the public. Ternate was once the center of a powerful sultanate that played an important role across the Indonesian archipelago. Even after Indonesia declared independence in 1945, the Sultanate of Ternate formally joined the Republic only in 1950. This reflects the significant position and influence the Sultanate held at the time.

So why have activities in Ternate not been as frequent as those in other Wikimedia communities? One of the main reasons is accessibility and the high cost of transportation in Eastern Indonesia. Reaching Ternate still requires significant support. With support from the Rapid Fund Wikimedia Foundation, the WikiRempah team therefore initiated a series of Wikipedia training activities in the region.

The Sultanate of Ternate and the Portuguese in 1512

In school history lessons, Ternate is often introduced through the year 1512, when the Portuguese arrived under the leadership of Francisco Serrão in search of spices and were welcomed by Sultan Bayanullah. Some accounts, however, suggest that the Sultanate had already interacted with peoples from various parts of the world long before the sixteenth century.

This marked the beginning of a long period of interaction between the Sultanate of Ternate and the Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch, traces of which can still be found today. These historical traces became an important reference for the WikiRempah team in documenting the region’s cultural and historical heritage and making that knowledge accessible through various Wikimedia projects, including Indonesian Wikipedia and local-language Wikipedias, Wikimedia Commons, Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikiquote, Wikivoyage, and the Wikimedia Incubator.

WikiRempah documents historic buildings in detail, including forts built during the Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch periods, whether they have already been designated as cultural heritage sites or still require greater public attention. The team also documents local cuisine by photographing dishes, uploading the images, and recording their recipes in order to help preserve their local authenticity.

Coordination to Organize WikiLatih

At the beginning of the journey, the WikiRempah team coordinated with Wikimedia Indonesia to maximize the impact of the program, strengthen mutual support, and provide updates on the activities being prepared. Without Wikimedia Indonesia, WikiRempah would not have been able to take this step toward Ternate.

We are especially grateful for the warm welcome from Universitas Terbuka, particularly Dr. Dra. Fachria Marasabessy, M.Pd., who is also an active Wikimedian in Ternate, Fachria marsy68. We first met during the WikiNusantara 2024 national conference in Bogor. From that encounter, many opportunities for collaboration opened up as we explored North Maluku.

Rather than immediately beginning our field exploration, we believed it was important to first engage with Universitas Terbuka, whose role in education closely aligns with Wikimedia’s mission of expanding access to knowledge. For this reason, WikiRempah organized a WikiLatih training session at the university, with continuous support from Fachria marsy68 throughout the program.

On 3 September 2026, the training began with the participation of members of the Universitas Terbuka academic community, focusing on articles related to Ternate and Eastern Indonesia. As this was a pilot initiative, the WikiRempah team deliberately did not set overly ambitious targets.

The event was also promoted through Instagram accounts@wikimediaid and@wikirempah.id. During the preparation process, the team sought local-language speakers, and the final promotional poster was produced entirely in the Ternate language. We wanted every participant to enjoy the process of contributing to free knowledge.

New contributors naturally need time before they are ready to publish content that meets Wikipedia’s standards. The outcomes of the training can be viewed through the following Outreach Dashboard:

https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Wikimedia_Gorontalo/WikiLatih_WikiRempah_Ternate/home

WikiRempah Week, Sultanate Stories, and Photowalk

WikiRempah Week in North Maluku brought several unexpected experiences. In addition to gaining direct access to the Kedaton of Ternate and the Kedaton Ternate Museum, the team was invited to attend the launch of a book on the origins of place names in Ternate by the Head of the Ternate City Spice History Museum.

During the expedition, we also encountered several forts that had become overgrown with tall grass and vegetation. Local residents guided us through the area and accompanied us until we reached the sites. They made sure that we were safe throughout the journey. For them, our presence was itself a meaningful moment in the effort to document and share Ternate’s history.

Our activities then continued with interviews with local communities. By chance, the WikiRempah team met a descendant of one of the caretakers of Kastela Fort. From this encounter, we were able to learn about local history directly from someone connected to the site and who had witnessed the excavation of Kastela Fort before it was formally designated as a cultural heritage site.

To this day, the team continues to publish and disseminate the knowledge gathered during the expedition. Ternate has contributed greatly, both to Indonesia’s history and to the continued development of WikiRempah. For that reason, our team remains ready to contribute whenever needed and to continue working alongside local communities in expanding access to knowledge.