2025:Program/Reviving Tuluvas’ Living Heritage: A Community-Led Documentation Journey

Session title: Reviving Tuluvas’ Living Heritage: A Community-Led Documentation Journey

Session type: Poster

Track: GLAM

Language: en

This session will explore how the Karavali Wikimedians User Group is preserving Tuluvas' living heritage through collaborative community efforts. We will showcase two successful projects: "Pursa Kattun"(https://diff.wikimedia.org/2023/11/20/pursa-kattuna-unveiling-the-enigmatic-tulu-ritual-dance-and-living-heritages-of-tulunadu/) and "Revealing the Essence of Tuluvas’ Aati Month"(https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tuluvas_Aati_Month/Reports). These initiatives have laid the foundation for a robust digital and cultural repository that uplifts the diverse, intangible heritage, folklore of Tulunadu. Join us to learn about the methodologies, challenges, and successes of these endeavors and how they are shaping the future of digital heritage preservation.

Description

Tuluvas' culture is a vibrant mosaic of traditions, rituals, traditions, customs, festivals, and artifacts deeply rooted in Tulunadu’s rich history. However, much of this heritage remains undocumented and underrepresented in mainstream platforms. To bridge this gap, the Karavali Wikimedians User Group and Tulu Wikimedians embarked on two impactful projects:

Pursa Kattuna: Capturing Tuluvas’ Traditional ArtifactsThis initiative documented over 30 minutes reserch oriented documentary traditional items with high-definition images and multilingual descriptions in Tulu, Kannada, and English. And more than 200photographs in it and improved 100+ aticles. It emphasized creating a visually rich and linguistically diverse digital archive. And mor than 1000+ community members, tribe people has the part of this project and This Documentary selected for international film festivals.

Revealing the Essence of Tuluvas’ Aati MonthThis project highlighted the cultural significance of Aati, a sacred month in Tulunadu, by documenting associated rituals, folklore, and unique community practices. which results more than 2500photographs, 20videos, 10audio files and improved 600+ articles(Meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tuluvas_Aati_Month/Reports)

The session will provide an overview of these projects, including:

1. Collaboration with local communities to revive forgotten traditions.

2. Challenges in engaging non-tech-savvy audiences.

3. Leveraging Wikimedia platforms to create accessible cultural repositories.

4. Sustainability plans for preserving and promoting living heritage.

We aim to inspire participants to undertake similar initiatives for preserving their regional heritage, fostering a global culture of inclusivity, and amplifying the voices of underrepresented communities.

How does your session relate to the event theme, Wikimania@20 – Inclusivity. Impact. Sustainability?

1. Inclusivity This session highlights the inclusion of marginalized and underrepresented cultures, such as the Tulu and Arebhashe traditions, into the global knowledge ecosystem. It serves as a model for how Wikimedia projects can empower diverse regional and linguistic communities to share their heritage equitably. By showcasing collaborative efforts like the documentation of Tuluvas aati month, pursa kattuna and traditional Tulu items, the proposal celebrates the diversity of contributors and the richness of their heritage.

2. Impact The session emphasizes the tangible outcomes of Wikimedia initiatives on cultural preservation and community empowerment. It showcases successful projects like:

Reviving cultural practices (e.g., Mugerera Aati Kalenja).
Creating multimedia documentation for Wikimedia Commons, Wiktionary, Wikipedia, Wikisource.
Developing encyclopedias and dictionaries to safeguard endangered languages(Arebhashe).
These examples demonstrate how Wikimedia platforms can be used to solve real-world problems, facilitate community engagement, and ensure the longevity of cultural knowledge.

3. Sustainability The proposal outlines strategies for ensuring the long-term preservation and dissemination of intangible cultural heritage. Topics like:

Training communities to digitize and contribute cultural content.

8Utilizing Wikimedia platforms to create accessible resources.

Developing sustainable workflows to integrate traditional knowledge into Wikimedia.
This aligns with the movement’s commitment to long-term viability and the preservation of free knowledge for future generations.

The session invites global communities to learn, adapt, and replicate these practices, fostering a collaborative and sustainable approach to safeguarding living heritage. It will inspire discussions on using Wikimedia projects to address global challenges in inclusivity, cultural impact, and heritage sustainability.

What is the experience level needed for the audience for your session?

Everyone can participate in this session

Resources

Speakers

bharuab

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