Wikipedia is quite literally a smorgasbord of information, a trusty starting point for any quick internet search (e.g. scrolling straight to ‘personal life’ section) or research deep dive. Written and monitored by volunteer editors, Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia of human knowledge and culture, in all its intrigue, banality and obscurity. 

Despite its vast pool of content, articles about women and non-binary people remain only 20.13% of content on Wikipedia. To combat this gender imbalance, the global movement Women in Red (referring to a red hyperlinked article, denoting it is yet to exist) aims to close the gap and platform the biographies, histories and accomplishments of women and non-binary folk, online. 

This is where Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum’s Anjuli Selvadurai and Sophie Elborough come in. Anjuli, Wikimedian in Residence, and Sophie, Collection Technician for the Online Cenotaph, have been working together to share the diverse and lesser-known histories of Aotearoa’s involvement in conflict and highlighting the women service personnel that deserve their wiki-flowers. 

Join Sophie and Anjuli down a Wikipedia rabbit hole as they discuss a few of their favourite Wikipedia articles.

• Interested in hearing more about how women have shaped Aotearoa’s history or how you can contribute to the Women in Red movement? Join Sophie and Anjuli on July 15, 6-7pm, at Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum for Women in Wartime. Register here for this free, and welcoming, event.

Anjuli: Sophie, I have had the pleasure of welcoming you to the world of Wikipedia, which has led to a project, and our upcoming event, inspired by your role at the Museum. What Wikipedia article represents this collaboration for you?

Sophie: For me the article about Louise Alexa McNie perfectly encapsulates the link between our roles and the potential of Wikiproject x Online Cenotaph. In fact, her page didn’t even exist when this mahi began!

Louise was one of seven nurses who embarked with the Expeditionary Force Advance Party upon the outbreak of World War I and found themselves in Samoa. 

Louise’s Wikipedia page contains an extract detailing her time working at Apia Hospital, providing an insight into just how drastically the experiences of Louise and other service personnel stationed in Samoa differed from the traditional World War I stories we are all familiar with. Instead, her story highlights the surprising breadth of women’s roles during wartime and remains a testament to the incredible determination of women facing such pervasive discrimination and erasure. 

Anjuli: One of the early articles I started was the biography of Ghazaleh Golbakhsh, a New Zealand Iranian filmmaker, author and actor. I was inspired by her novel, The Girl from Revolution Road, a selection of essays depicting her life, identity and immigrant experience. [Editor’s note: Ghazaleh has written for Ensemble]

I was shocked that when I Googled her, she was yet to have a Wikipedia presence, even though she is an accomplished filmmaker. Despite Wikipedia’s neutral tone guidelines, it felt exciting to be able to learn and write about a fellow New Zealand woman of colour. I discovered some parallels between her experiences growing up in New Zealand and my own and it solidified the importance of representation in digital spaces and how empowering it is to contribute to that.

Sophie: There is still so much work to be done on our project and some of my favourite Wikipedia articles are the ones that present the most potential. I recently came across an article for Amy Kane. The page contains a total of two sentences and two references, merely establishing that she was a New Zealand journalist and community leader. However, Amy was so much more than that.

Amy dedicated her life to improving women’s position in society, including founding numerous feminist organisations and becoming the president of the National Council of Women of New Zealand. Amy never married though she always lived with her ‘companion’ Daisy Isaacs in Eastbourne, Wellington. They were part of a network of female couples in the early and mid-20th century, many of them involved in women’s organisations such as the Spinsters’ Club.

Being able to expand upon Amy’s page and bring her story into the digital spotlight is an incredible privilege. Amy and Daisy never lived in ‘secret’, instead they spent their lives proudly and loudly campaigning for women’s rights, so I look forward to giving their work a new voice on Wikipedia.

Anjuli: Nestled on a side street off Auckland's Karangahape Road lives The Charlotte Museum, whose Wikipedia article is crudely headlined, “This article relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this article by adding secondary or tertiary sources”. Being the only museum in the world dedicated solely to lesbian history and culture, you would think its Wikipedia article would reflect its significance to not only Aotearoa’s history but queer history too. 

Wikipedia is, at its core, an encyclopaedia, purely a compilation of existing research on a topic. This means, if content doesn’t exist for reference, articles can’t be improved or created. This points to a larger issue of the lack of academic coverage of unrepresented histories, stories, and people.

While I don’t have a solution, I encourage people to publish writing about lesser researched topics, and we can all work to close the gap and ensure women, their stories and histories are preserved online.