Putting Australian music on the record

New Wikipedia projects aims to increase discoverability of Australian artists
, James Gaunt.

Wikipedia is one of the most popular websites in the world. Its content is often the first to appear in web searches, yet if you search for Beat magazine, National Indigenous Music Award nominee Stuart Joel Nuggett, composer Robin Fox, none of these currently have Wikipedia entries.

Wikimedia Australia and the Australia Council for the Arts have partnered on a new project The Record - Australian Music on Wikipedia which aims to increase the visibility of Australian content on Wikipedia and make it easier for global audiences to discover great Australian music.

Through four edit-a-thon events across Australia, The Record will grow the low number of Wikipedia articles about Australian musicians, organisations and publications. Volunteers will be invited to be trained to edit, expand, and create new articles related to a diverse range of Australian music and musicians.

We’re calling for 30 people with a passion for writing, researching and promoting Australian music to join us at our first edit-a-thon event at Collingwood Yards from 10am-1pm on Saturday 11 December 2022 with Sosefina Fuamoli in partnership with the Australian Music Vault. Bookings are essential as places are limited.

Wikimedia Australia is committed to growing representation and diversity on Wikipedia. Only 19% of all biographical articles in English are about women for example. The number is similar for articles on Australian musicians, and The Record will address this imbalance.

“We have identified a long-list of artists and organisations who need new or improved Wikipedia articles, but we want to hear from music fans too about who they want to see represented”, project coordinator James Gaunt said.

“We’d like to make it easier for people to find great Aussie artists. And we want to equip people with the skills to get started with editing content for Wikipedia so that they can continue to apply these skills well beyond this project.”

Australia Council Head of Music Kirsty Rivers said the partnership connects with its strategic aims to champion and digitally enable the creative sector.

“The Australia Council is committed to ensuring Australian creative and cultural content is accessible and easily discoverable, as part of the broader aims of our Digital Culture Strategy. And we are pleased to partner with Wikimedia on this project that aims to connect more audiences with Australian music.”

Three more edit-a-thon events are planned for January, February, and March in partnership with APRA AMCOS, the Australian Music Centre, the Country Music Association of Australia and more.

Read more about The Record here.

The Record project contact:
Project Coordinator, James Gaunt
contact@wikimedia.org.au

About the Australia Council for the Arts

The Australia Council for the Arts is the Australian Government's principal arts investment, development and advisory body. Our purpose is to champion and invest in Australian arts and creativity. We invest in arts and organisations through peer assessed grants, fellowships and awards that enable art to be created and experienced.

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Illustration: Rubii Red. You can follow Rubii on Instagram here.

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