Education/News/October 2019/Wikimedia Norway is developing an education program for Sámi students and universities teaching Sámi subjects

Author: Sabine Rønsen (WMNO)

With funding from the Sámediggi - Sametinget and in collaboration with educational institutions Wikimedia Norway will develop an educational program for students to help students to contribute to Wikipedia in Northern Sámi.

With generous funding from the Sámediggi - Sametinget Wikimedia Norge has started a project to develop an education program for Sámi students and universities teaching Sámi subjects. The funding is awarded Wikimedia Norge as an initiative to celebrate the International Year of Indigenous Languages 2019. This language initiative will be a key part of Wikimedia Norway's ongoing work, and greater goal, to support Wikipedia in Sámi languages and share Sámi knowledge online. Wikipedia in Northern Sámi currently has around 7,400 articles, which is very good for such a small language, but the challenge is that there are very few who actively contribute to the project. Expanding information resources on Wikipedia, and the content of the Sámi language versions of Wikipedia in particular, is an important step on the road to digital inclusion of indigenous languages in Norway and internationally. An educational course for Wikipedia editing in Sámi languages on Wikipedia will help to safeguard and further develop identity, knowledge and cultural history - also on digital platforms. In working with educational institutions, our goal is to make editing Wikipedia a part of the curriculum and help students to contribute to Wikipedia in Northern Sámi and within specific Sámi subject areas. Over the next months we will be developing a program together with our partners from higher education that will be in use as of next year.