The Wikimedia Foundation, has called on Black History enthusiasts to join in its newly outdoored campaign, Wiki Unseen, which seeks to create and improve information about Black culture and history on Wikipedia.
The campaign, launched in collaboration with AfroCROWD.org, a Wikipedia-volunteer led initiative and Bēhance, a social media platform which showcases creative work, provides the avenue for collaboration between African Artists, historians, and librarians in the elaboration of visual representation of black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) in Wikimedia projects and advancing knowledge equity of BIPOC. Subsequently, it will promote collaborations between volunteers and artists globally to add visuals to the life stories of the underrepresented on Wikimedia projects.
Commenting, Brand Collaborations Lead at the Wikimedia Foundation, Tas Elias, explained that Wiki Unseen would prove instrumental in building the narrative around the origins and achievements of BIPOC. He therefore extended an invitation to BIPOC to support the initiative earnestly.
“This project seeks to address this issue and give visual representation to many biographies that have gone for years without representation. As such, we need more artists, volunteers, brands and institutions to participate in and generating more images that can be available for free use in our projects,” he appealed.
He lamented the inaccuracies and inadequacies surrounding the construction of African history citing Wiki Unseen as a remedy.
“The knowledge ecosystem has a problem: almost every moment where history has had an opportunity to be represented; black people, people of colour and indigenous peoples have been systemically erased; thus this project seeks to address this problem and give visual representation to biographies that have gone for years without representation,” he said.
On activities earmarked to sustain the conversation around Wiki Unseen, the Brand Collaborations Lead said, “Through this campaign we are calling on more artists, volunteers, brands and institutions to participate in and generate more images that can be available for free use in our projects.”
About Wiki Unseen
The Wiki Unseen project is aimed at expanding the visual representation of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) in Wikimedia projects and advancing knowledge equity.
It hopes to increase awareness of the bias and visual knowledge gaps in the histories of Black people, indigenous peoples and people of colour, and the need to fill these gaps on Wikimedia projects.
Individuals and brands who are interested in participating in the Wiki Unseen campaign can visit unseen.wikimedia.org for more details on how to participate. More information on how to get involved as well as guidelines for the illustrations of figures are also provided.
