Kaya wandjoo ngala Noongarpedia – Welcome to our Noongarpedia

Another strategy adopted by the Noongapedia team was to experiment with combining Noongarpedia-posting with the learning activities in three university environments. The first of the groups involved in the Noongarpedia work was one that came to be called the ‘Noongarpedia hotshots’. These students were all Indigenous young people enrolled in a range of degree programs, based in the School of Indigenous Studies at the University of Western Australia. The second group were undergraduate students in a first-year course (Introduction to Community Development) designed for those keen on working with an approach noted for its commitment to ‘bottom-up’ and community driven involvement in social programs and solutions. These students were non-Indigenous young people. The third group were postgraduate students in the Masters of Heritage Studies undertaking a course on Debates in Contemporary Heritage Studies. These students included both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.

What follows is a description of the process taken with each of these projects with tertiary students, showing how each attempted to combine the use of Noongarpedia as a platform for learning and a means of knowledge production, and the challenges and lessons learnt from each.

Early in the process we recognised the sheer amount of data that could be utilised to create a large number of entries on our hybrid site, and to make or edit entries in Wikipedia itself. This is when the team decided to recruit young Noongar people to be trained in the creation and editing of Wiki entries, in the hope that they would run training sessions, or later host ‘Wikibomb’ events to make new entries and increase Noongar participation on the site. We also created folders with cheat sheets, information sheets, language resources and other helpful links to encourage ongoing participation with the ’pedia.

We called these young recruits ‘Noongarmedians in Residence’. The idea was to draw on the skill, energy, connections, and commitment of a small core group, who might be keen on building their knowledge of Noongar, learning the technical skills that would allow them to post on the Noongarpedia and then in turn to recruit other Noongar to the cause. In the initial year of the work the following Noongarmedians in Residence (NiR) agreed to join the project:

We invited participation of these individuals via letter to inform and encourage the aspirations and desired outcomes of their particular involvement. These were:

The initial training of NiRs was over 3 days. We advised the potential NiRs that if they attended a paid 2-day training session, we would ask them to assist in the running of a training session for Noongar Language teachers with the help of Gideon Digby, President of Wikimedia Australia, other Wikimedians and the Noongarpedia Research Team. This training tool place July 16 and 17, 2015. Only three of the originally recruited NiRs completed the training, owing to the study, personal, and work commitments of the others. Kamsani Bin Saleh, Kobi Morrison and Callum Morich (UWA students) were recruited later, and completed several training sessions with Casey Kickett and Sebastian Scott, who became the most committed NiRs.

During these sessions, we were lucky enough to have project member Dr Clint Bracknell (Noongar scholar at the University of Sydney), community members and language and culture teachers Kylie Farmer (Noongar actor) and Roma Winmar (Noongar artist) to assist with the creation of a Noongar-language version of Wikipedia. This is known as the ‘nys’ – nys being the acronym for Noongar in Ethnologue and elsewhere.

See: https://www.ethnologue.com/language/nys

Unfortunately, the retention and participation of the Noongarpedians in Residence was not great after the initial period of training. Many of these young people were among the most committed Noongar, as well as studying full-time and being involved in other community-based and leadership work. It was hard to fit in yet another commitment. But also, the retention problem arose partly because at this early stage of the project there was a strong aspiration to build a site (like the Māori Wikipedia) where Noongar language was featured highly – preferably exclusively. Some felt intimidated by the fact their language skills were not advanced enough to edit and write articles in Noongar. Meanwhile, others felt concerned about the politics of public access to Noongar language, taking the view that the ‘information would be too public’. They were concerned that ‘Noongars would lose control of their knowledge and language’. Although articulated in the early stages of the project, these concerns are partly captured within excerpts of a conference abstract prepared by one of the young Wikimedians, Casey Kickett, who chose to step out of the project:

Although colonisation has had a negative impact on the knowledge and transmission of the Noongar language, cultural protocols and sensitivities which have arisen from colonisation and the traumatic experiences of it remain intact among Noongar people – and as we have found with the Noongarpedia project, often clash with the policies of Wikipedia. The major policy clashes occur in relation to what are accepted as reliable sources of information, owing to differences from a Western and a Noongar viewpoint as to what counts as evidence. In the Noongar worldview, evidence can consist of verbal stories from elders, or be found in the earth itself. Everybody knows or is related to everyone in the Noongar community, so the convention of not uploading content of a person you know makes little sense. And finally, Wikipedia’s commitment to ‘no censorship’ is an issue when there are sensitivities around certain events and cultural content, and with who owns what knowledge in a cultural context.

Another strong concern among the local Noongar community is that, if uploaded to Noongarpedia, Noongar cultural knowledge may be stolen for commercial benefit. The question of who ‘owns’ a language is not merely a legal matter (copyright) or an economic matter (commercial exploitation). There are cultural sensitivities about where to draw the line with content, for example about massacres that have happened to Noongar people. There are lessons to be learnt on all sides here. While Noongar caution is natural, it may be tempered by discovering that Wikipedia is just as open to their knowledge as to the settler version. Discussing these issues with Gideon Digby of Wikimedia Australia provoked a very practical response: If it is wrong to call a notorious event of 1834 the ‘Battle of Pinjarra’ (as it is known in settler histories), then change the Wikipedia entry to reflect the Noongar perspective: the ‘Pinjarra massacre’. Wikipedia was promptly edited to that effect.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinjarra_massacre

Although the strategy of recruiting young Noongar leaders from one University did not prove successful it did result in several positive outcomes. Some of those involved have returned to the project during periods when their work and other commitments allow. For example, Callum Morich has assisted with a number of Wikibombs and workshops with Murdoch University students, hosting public presentations of the Noongarpedia and producing some online resources that act as ‘cheat sheets’ for primary school students. He has indicated that he would be keen to work on creating multimedia support materials for future users. Further, the training of NiRs acted as a trial run for later training and induction sessions of tertiary students (e.g. work with community development and heritage studies students). In the same way, the early sessions with Noongar language teachers hosted by NiRs were instrumental in shaping how later Noongar participants and assistants were inducted into the project. This was particularly important in helping the project prepare for its work with primary school students.

In early 2016, undergraduate students in Murdoch University’s Community Development Programme were invited to choose an alternative assessment piece, including the chance to participate in two Noongarpedia workshops, to produce at least six substantive posts, and to write a short reflective essay. Instead of taking an exam worth 30 percent of their marks for the course, students were invited to begin the process of becoming Noongarpedians. The objective was to encourage non-Aboriginal community work students to think about how this could give them a way to encourage Noongar community involvement in language and cultural work.

Students were asked to attend two workshops hosted by members of the Noongarpedia team, a representative from Wikimedia Australia and the lecturer of the Murdoch unit. The workshops set out:

The assessment component associated with the workshops included two elements. In one, students were asked to produce six entries on the Noongarpedia site, each between 500-700 words. They were encouraged to use Noongar, English and what host Len Collard described as ‘Southwest Australian’ (the language used by contemporary Australians living in the southwest of WA). As well as being posted on the Noongarpedia site, this was submitted as the first part of the students’ assignment. In element two, students were asked to write a short essay of approximately 1000 words, reflecting on the process undertaken. They were asked to turn their attention to the questions:

This project was particularly formative as it helped to test out a workshop process further, to assist in the induction of people into work on the Noongarpedia site. The following description from the unit coordinator sets out how these two sessions ran:

The next step was to get people logged on to the system as Wikimedians. Initially, given previous experience of running Wikibombs, we thought that this might take considerable time. However, because all students had ‘grown up digital’ this happened with speed and ease. Ingrid and Jennie then gave a short presentation about the project, giving students a bit of background on Noongar, language and knowledge.

A number of students then articulated some of their fears as non-Aboriginal people. As one said, some were concerned that they came to the task with little knowledge of language and life. Another expressed her concern that she felt she was imposing on Noongar by stepping into this space:

Len Collard provided considerable assurance and support with his response:

The next step in the workshop was to get students thinking about language and having a new experience of Noongar. Ingrid and Jennie led this process by providing a set of Noongar word lists, dictionaries and other published materials and inviting students to use them in groups of three to identify and make a list of Noongar words that may be useful in describing activities associated with community work. This prompted some excellent work with students listing words like:

Ingrid then asked each person to read out the list of the person on his or her left. This was an excellent exercise not just because it had students speaking and listening to the sounds of Noongar words but also because it extended people’s vocabulary.

Next people were asked to visit the Noongarpedia site and read entries that had already been posted to see what is relevant to Noongar community work and community workers. Prior to the workshop Ingrid had set up a new structure on the site called ‘Noongar Warbirliny: Community Development’. Within this site she had made a small number of headings that included Noongar projects, organisations, notes, people, places and history. Students we asked to consider what they might add or edit in relation to these entries and headings and invited to start experimenting with posting. This was terrific because it quickly meant that students moved from passive consumers of the site to Wikipedians, testing out how to post and edit, and beginning work on their assignment.

As the remarks from the following community work student indicate, those involved in this process were taken by the openness and generosity towards non-Aboriginal people in both the platform and the process they were taken through by their Noongarpedia hosts.

A consequence of students’ involvement with Noongarpedia was exposure to the poetics of a new knowledge system. A number of them remarked on the beauty of listening to and appreciating the sounds and shape of the language of their home.

Another strength of the work was its ability to offer a reframe for those who had little prior experience of Noongar and were reliant upon conventional representations laden with problem-centric ideas about Indigenous Australians. Given the task of researching leading Noongar community workers and then posting content, non-Indigenous students quickly discovered that Noongar have considerable agency and have contributed much to public life. This stood in stark contrast to many of their taken for granted ideas about Noongar as culturally impoverished and Noongar knowledge as long ago lost.

Of course, this process offered students a way to engage with the content of their community development course too. As a novel exercise for these students it excited them and stimulated their will to learn. As an exercise in cross-cultural learning it spoke directly to the learning objectives of the course and offered them another chance to meet and work in conjunction with Noongar and Noongar knowledge. As an exercise that had them learning to use digital platforms it broadened their literacies and offered critical skills for a future that will be highly dependent on knowledge of ITCs.

Others saw the exercise as offering more general skills as well as a practical way of starting to meet Noongar and understand more about the lives of Noongar. For the following student, this provided the first in what she hopes are many more chances to move from ignorance of Noongar knowledge to a lively interaction with the contributions Noongar knowledge may offer:

Another student reflected on how learning in this way more powerfully allowed her to experience and ‘come to know’ Noongar by starting from her own local interest. Using the work of Paulo Freire (1986), she contrasted what she described as the conventional ‘banking approach that schools and Universities often use’ with the Noongarpedia workshops:

Screenshot: https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/nys/Noongar_Warbirliny:_Community_Development

In late 2016 the project began to work with a small postgraduate group of students from the unit ‘Debates in Contemporary Heritage Management’ at UWA. Here students were asked to use Noongarpedia as a case study to help them explore some of the possibilities and complexities afforded by this digital platform to those working in the field of heritage management.

Along with Benjamin Smith, Professor of World Rock Art, the team set about creating a six-week intensive course that trained the students in editing and contributing content to the Noongarpedia. Alongside Ben and Len Collard’s six-week lecture series on topics related to Contemporary Heritage Management, we held workshops on the following topics:

The unit was designed for students to be able practically to apply research skills and to learn to use the Noongarpedia site. A percentage of the unit assessment was allocated to a conference-style 20-minute verbal presentation. This was to be an opportunity for students to get constructive feedback on their preliminary research for each person’s entries on Noongarpedia.

A major part of the assessment was for students to produce three scholarly entries (500 words each) on the site. Students were asked that each entry use Noongar, English, and Southwest Australian language; and include links to Noongar sources and examples, and at least one form of media, such as photographs or audio recordings. They were also asked to identify an example of Noongar ‘intangible’ cultural heritage in their projects and to post completed entries on the Noongarpedia site. We built space in to the workshop series for students to work on their entries in a developmental and collegial manner.

The second part of the major assessment was for students to write a short essay (1000 words) reflecting on the process undertaken in creating their Noongarpedia entries. We asked them to focus on the following questions:

The workshop sessions followed the success of the work with Murdoch students with an Acknowledgement to Country and people being invited start the process of introducing themselves as Noongar may do when meeting new people. This included people introducing their background and their interests in Noongar heritage. As in the earlier work with tertiary students and at Wikibombs, the project team provided a range of texts for students to use in the sessions. These ranged from Noongar Language dictionaries to children’s storybooks, community based project reports and other academic articles. The team kept a list of bookmarked online sites to show students where resources could be found. They also asked students to share what they had been finding in their research. The intention was to build an atmosphere of learning, sharing and collaboration.

The initial plan was to spend six weeks combining instruction with the use of Noongarpedia with posting. It was initially assumed that this time would be sufficient, yet the deeper students got involved the more they grew enthused in philosophical and political discussions about using digital platforms to strengthen knowledge about Noongar heritage, and who should be writing and contributing to these matters. The group used Noongarpedia as a practical site to work through different frameworks for thinking about knowledge, to examine the idea of knowledge authenticity, to test out the challenge of building trust between heritage professionals and Noongar, and to explore the history of knowledge appropriation. At the same time the group trialled the act of posting on the Noongarpedia site, examining how a digital platform such as this could also encourage rigorous discussion without people becoming immobilised or unwilling to act.

The heritage class was small and intimate but full of interesting and enthusiastic people who were all keen to find ways to support Noongar in preserving and transmitting intangible heritage. Of course the students struggled with these tasks and how to move forward as heritage professionals. This was part of the learning design of the unit. However, as they began to work with the site they also began to flesh out some of the challenges that were pertinent to the business of heritage management with Noongar.

Some discovered that they had some discomfort because they were not Noongar and this somehow created considerable unease, at times a ‘roadblock’ to contributing to the ’pedia. A Noongar student articulated different challenges. Her fears or concerns were about having permission to share family matters on global platform without the expressed involvement of family.

Some students began to understand the challenge associated with being obliged to provide credible citations. They also discovered that if, for any reason, a person feels uncomfortable or concerned about the validity of a source, content or editor in the Noongarpedia/Wikipedia environment, then they too have the power to challenge and dispute information. However, a common concern expressed by students was the fear of being associated with a ‘misrepresentation’ of Noongar knowledge and culture and doing so with an unfamiliar software like Wikipedia. Others saw that to fail to use platforms such as this may also be a risk to the sustainability of active Noongar involvement in Noongar knowledge management.

As well as testing out the tensions involvement in heritage management with Noongar, students created some very interesting and high quality posts. These included respectful acknowledgement and sourcing, with the voices of community and the use of a combination of modes of media. The following represents one entry of note on Munday Pinjar (talking about Perth Airport).

Munday Pinjar post: https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/nys/Munday_pinjar

We have been given permission by some of the students to include their reflections, and believe that these demonstrate the rich and complex learning that the group undertook. The first student discussed how use of Noongarpedia helped him explore ways of opening what Martin (2004) describes as a ‘recognition space’ (see also Yap and Yu, 2016).

While talking about the key things she had learned the next student discussed the value of using Noongarpedia to support work with what the heritage field calls ‘intangible heritage’ and the tensions that confront people working with this form of heritage.