GLAM/Newsletter/April 2021/Contents/Australia report

This Month in GLAM – Volume XI, Issue IV, April 2021

Australia report

A Wealth of Wiki Women

Four years of Women Write Wiki

One of Australia’s longest running Wikipedia editing groups celebrated four years of editing, activism and friendship in March. Women Write Wiki has met twice per month at The Women’s Library in the inner-Sydney suburb of Newtown since 2017.

Founded by Anna Kerr, the Principal Solicitor of the Feminist Legal Clinic in Sydney with technologist and general polymath Spider Redgold through Create NSW, the group has now created over 300 new pages and produced some of Australia’s most prolific Wikipedians such as Ann Reynolds and Margaret Donald (right).

“Wikipedia just mirrors the battles we have in general society,” Kerr reflects. “That's why having a team is so important. If you post something or have an issue, you can send it around and then several people would jump in and support you. It’s just so much better working together.”

Art+Feminism / Know My Name

From International Women’s Day to Women’s History Month, the focus on growing women’s content on Wikipedia platforms every March only grows and we’ve got the evidence to prove it. By the start of April, the number of pages about women on English Wikimedia reached 18.83 per cent. More than 60 Australian editors did their bit, joining edit-a-thons at Richmond Library in Melbourne and the National Gallery of Australia's library in Canberra to work on the Wikipedia presence of women in religion, art, science and academia. Together they created dozens of new pages and improved hundreds of existing articles.

Events were held at the National Gallery of Australia as part of its Know My Name initiative, University of Sydney School of Literature, Art and Media, University of Divinity and Art+Feminism with the Australian Women’s Register at Richmond Library. Know My Name, University of Sydney, Art+Feminism in Melbourne.

Women in Religion

The representation of women in religion on Wikipedia faces similar levels of bias than other areas, making up just 18 per cent of all biographies. Librarian Kerrie Burn of the Mannix Library in Melbourne is doing something about it, by coordinating the Australian Women in Religion Project, which is part of the wider 1000 Women in Religion Project that originated in the United States.

“It’s a really exciting project to be involved in,” Kerrie says.

With Wikimedia Australia, she recently hosted an edit-a-thon in Melbourne that saw eight volunteer editors (seven female and one male) come together to edit and produce seven new Wikipedia articles with significant updates to five pages.

“I really love it but it’s been a huge amount of work, especially in the data gathering,” says Kerrie. “Huge amounts are still to be done”

She’s got an initial list of 450 Australian historical and contemporary women of various religious denominations to work through and aims to achieve 100 of those in the next year.

You can explore the outcomes further at the following dashboard.