Cooperation for a long-term purpose
Through the Tamil project at Lokalhistoriewiki.no, the working group has developed a platform for self-documentation of the Tamil diaspora in Norway. The team is humbly requesting the Tamil society and the Tamil organizations in Norway, which have an organisational authority to cooperate to arrange:
- information meeting about the wiki project with their board (virtual meeting 30 min-1 hour)
- physical wiki workshop with a social get-together where we gather writers to write articles. Writers can be young or adults who can write in Norwegian. (approx. 3-4 hours physical wiki workshop)
- undertake responsibility for writing or updating the article about your organisation/initiative
Information letter and Information brochure
Example of a program for the wiki workshop:
- 18:00: welcome and short presentation of the wiki team.
- 18:05: presentation of the project.
- 18:10 – 20:00: planning and writing encyclopedia articles or memory narratives (minnefortelling).
- 20:00-20:30: present the work done so far with food and drink.
Participants get a wiki shopping net at the end of the wiki workshop.
Importance of wiki-workshop for self-documentation
The first generation of migrated Tamils is the starting point for the migration history of Tamils. They are also the source for the internationally known identity as the “Tamil Diaspora”. Their history is the origin and base for information, evidence, memory, identity, and cultural heritage of the Tamil diaspora in Norway and worldwide. They are the fundament of the identity of second, third and future generations in various countries. They are the living answers to the question of “who we are”. When there is a lack of documentation of social interactions at Tamil diasporic organisations, self-documentation becomes even more necessary. The result of a successful self-documentation and the consequence of a lack of self-documentation will be visible in long term. A lack of documentation or no documentation in present will lead to a status of lost identity when the future generation starts to search for information and evidence for their roots in Norway.
Why is self-documentation important?
There are:
- no documentation that shows a continuity of Tamil migration history in Norway
- lack of documentation of social interactions at Tamil organisations
- lack of access to the documentation at Tamil organisations
- lack of archives after Tamil organisations at Norwegian archives and libraries that can give a representative image of the Tamil migration history in Norway
- fragmented documentation at Tamil organisations
Wiki workshop motivates aspects mentioned below through self-documentation
- Memories
- Experiences
- Events
- Travels
- Processes
- Developments
- Changes
- Roots
- Tradition, history, culture
- Local and historic narratives
Lokalhistoriewiki.no and the tamil project
The project “Et mangfold av historier: norsk-tamilenes historie” at Lokalhistoriewiki.no is a collaborative project between a number of Tamil actors in the Tamil diasporic society in Norway and the National Library of Norway. Tamil Resource and Guidance Center Foundation (Stiftelsen Tamilsk Ressurs og veiledningssenter – TRVS) is the project’s facilitator. On 20.09.2021, the project on Lokalhistoriewiki.no got a logo with the name “Snøfnuggpalmen-பூம்பனிப்பனை”.
Lokalhistoriewiki.no is a website administrated by the Norwegian Local History Institute at the National Library of Norway. It is an online platform for voluntary work on writing the local history of Norway.
The working group for the project, “Et mangfold av historier – norsk-tamilenes historie“ (A diversity of stories: Norwegian-Tamil history) on Lokalhistoriewiki.no invited Tamil organisations in Norway to engage and motivate their members to participate in this effort.
Thank you for information sharing and dissemination
- Tamil Resource and Counselling Center (Tamilsk Ressurs og Veiledningssenter)
- Annai Poopathi Tamil Cultural Center (Information was shared at the annual meeting of the nationwide organisation for Tamil education in Norway, where branches of the organisation located around Norway were present in Oslo on 13.11.2022.)
- Abiramy Cash and Curry (Tamil Grocery Shop in Veitvet, Oslo)
- Neithal (Tamil Grocery Shop in Kalbakken, Oslo)
- JPP Catering (Tamil catering shop in Kalbakken, Oslo)
- Maharaja Indian Restaurant and Bar (Kalbakken, Oslo)
- Tamil Murasam Radio
- Norway Radio Tamil e-Newspaper
- Tamil Seniors’ get-together activity (eldretreff) at TRVS
- TCC Sports Group
- Tamilsk Katolske Sjelesorg Oslo-Viken (Tamil Catholic Soul Care Oslo-Viken)
- Norway News Tamil
- Tamil Youth Organisation – Norway
- Norwegian Tamil Health Organisation
- Tamil Women Organisation Norway
- Norway Tamil Sangam
More info
“Et mangfold av historier: norsk-tamilenes historier” (A diversity of stories: Norwegian-Tamil history) at Lokalhistoriewiki.no: https://lokalhistoriewiki.no/wiki/Forside:Tamilsk_historie_og_kultur
About the project and its activities and development at Diaspora Tamil Archives:
புதுப்பிப்பு│Update: 04.03.2023
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