The Calls to Action released by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada in 2015 are ways for all those living in Canada to “redress the legacy of residential schools” by actively working toward learning and sharing the truth and ensuring the completion of the Calls to Action. Numerous of the Calls to Action centre on support for the protection, revitalization, and flourishing of Indigenous languages, education, and availability of documentation.
2022 marks the beginning of the UNESCO Decade of Indigenous Languages. UNESCO has taken up Indigenous language rights as an integral component of well-being stating:
Languages play a crucial role in the daily lives of people, not only as a tool for communication, education, social integration and development, but also as a repository for each person's unique identity, cultural history, traditions and memory. Despite their immense value, languages around the world continue to disappear at an alarming rate.
Wikidata is a free and open knowledge base that can be read and edited by both humans and machines. Wikidata is playing an increasingly important role within many information organizations as a hub for structured data.
Join us for an informal Wikidata workshop to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Adding content to Wikidata helps to make objects more visible on the internet and ensuring the visibility of materials on residential schools helps to make the truth of residential schools more visible to all people living in Canada. Furthermore, learning about Indigenous language work on the internet also helps to forward the Calls to Action of the TRC and support the UNESCO Decade.
This workshop will begin with an introduction to Wikidata and then participants will work toward adding content related to both the residential school experience, such as books and films, as well as consider ways to support encoding data in Indigenous languages.
