Wikimedia Australia May 2026 Update
This month’s news and happenings include special announcements, inspirational projects and new events.
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News
ESEAP 2026 Conference reflection
For three days in May, Wikimedians came together in Kaohsiung, Taiwan to share ideas, learn from one another and strengthen the relationships that underpin our movement. Eight Australians attended the conference, travelling from across the country and bringing experience from long-term community work as well as insights from more recent projects. ESEAP 2026 reinforced a clear message for participants - the future of Wikimedia is fundamentally human! Read our ESEAP reflection.
A Postcard from WikiCon Wellington
Wikimedian Ash travelled to WikiCon Wellington, New Zealand in early May with the support of Wikimedia Australia travel funding, and has written a warm postcard back.
Highlights include a frank session on the slow decline in Wikipedia administrator numbers, a hands-on breakout on making zines from a single sheet of paper, and a pre-conference tour of the National Library of New Zealand — where the nine sheets of the Treaty of Waitangi sit alongside the great Women's Suffrage Petition of 1893. Catch up on Ash's WikiCon Wellington experience.
#1Lib1Ref ends soon
We're in the final stretch of the trans-Tasman #1Lib1Ref campaign, run jointly with Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand. From 15 May to 5 June, librarians and information professionals across Australia and Aotearoa have been adding citations to Wikipedia - one reference at a time - to make the world's biggest reference work that little bit more reliable. Join 1Lib1Ref Australasia.
Become a Member of Wikimedia Australia
Like what we're doing? Wikimedia Australia is an independent, not-for-profit charity, and our members are the people who make our work possible. Membership is open to anyone who shares our commitment to free knowledge — you don't need to be an experienced Wikipedia editor, or any kind of editor at all!
Members help shape WMAU's direction, can vote at the AGM, and are first to hear about events, scholarships and travel funding opportunities like the one that sent Ash to Wellington. Explore WMAU membership.
Upcoming events
Events happening online and around Australia in the next few weeks.
- Introduction to Wikipedia - June 2026 — Wednesday 3 June 2026
Learn how Wikipedia content is created - Drop in and Wiki - June 2026 — Thursday 4 June 2026
Join us online for a casual drop-in session to edit Wikipedia - Cite Right: Drop-in Wikipedia editing workshop — Friday 5 June 2026
Join us for some hands-on LIVE editing and adding citations to Wikipedia. - Edit-a-thon 6 at the Adelaide Exchange — Friday 12 June 2026
Sharing South Australia's Environment on Wikipedia - WikiCanberra Meetup - June 2026 — Saturday 13 June 2026
a regular meetup for the Canberran Wikimedian community - Online Community Meeting - June 2026 — Monday 15 June 2026
The Australian Wikimedia community meets online monthly - Drop in and Wikidata - June 2026 — Thursday 25 June 2026
Join our monthly Wikidata drop in!
Other things from around the web
- A new online course for researchers who want to make their field more visible on Wikipedia - Melissa Guadalupe Huertas
- Big Tech’s Anti-Labor Playbook Has Come for Wikipedia - Jake Orlowitz
- Wikipedia founder brands Australia’s social media ban an ‘unmitigated disaster’ and ‘embarrassment’ - The Guardian
- Wayback Machine Director: We Are 'Collateral Damage' in the Fight Between AI Companies and Publishers - Internet Archive
- I had an AI identity crisis at a hackathon, so I made it everyone's problem - Hay Kranen
- Rethinking Wikimedia’s role in the new knowledge ecosystem: Highlights from the Wikimedia Futures Lab in Prague - Diff
- FAO expands free public access to agrifood knowledge through collaboration on Wikipedia - Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations