Oral-Written Network

Today is 7. juuli 2025

This is the planning page for an international network that seeks to transcend oral and written tradition through artistic creation and scientific research. To register your subproject, please add a description of your project in the "Project" subsection. To join the network, please add your name in the "Partners" subsection.

Oral-Written Network (OWN)

The Oral–Written Network is a transnational collaboration that bridges oral and written knowledge systems through artistic creation, research, and open-access knowledge sharing. The network is rooted in long-term cultural exchange and addresses global challenges related to knowledge equity, cultural sustainability, and multilingualism.

Planning process:

12.9.2025 submitting a Globus FORWARD application

Problem: The gap between oral and written tradition

Problem

The gap between oral and written tradition refers to the disconnect or disparity between societies, communities, or individuals who primarily rely on oral means of communication (speech, storytelling, song, ritual) and those who rely on written texts (books, documents, digital writing) for recording and transmitting knowledge.

Key Dimensions of the Problem

1. Access and Equity

Literacy barriers: Populations with low literacy levels may be excluded from participating in written discourse (legal systems, education, governance).

Language dominance: Written culture often privileges dominant languages, sidelining oral minority or indigenous languages.

Technological access: Written culture increasingly exists in digital form, widening the gap for those without access to digital infrastructure.

2. Cultural Erosion

Loss of oral traditions: As writing becomes dominant, oral traditions may decline or be devalued, leading to cultural homogenization.

Intergenerational disconnect: Younger generations educated in written cultures may become alienated from elders who communicate orally.

3. Knowledge Transmission

Different epistemologies: Oral cultures emphasize memory, repetition, performance, and communal learning, while written cultures emphasize permanence, authorship, and individual study.

Translation loss: When oral knowledge is transcribed, nuance, emotion, rhythm, and contextual meaning may be lost.

4. Institutional Bias

Legal and educational systems: Often prioritize written documentation over oral testimony or storytelling.

Academic knowledge production: Oral knowledge is less frequently recognized as valid in academic or scientific contexts unless transcribed and published.

5. Cognitive Implications
Oral and written cultures shape cognition differently:

Oral culture: Promotes narrative thinking, communal memory, and performance-based learning.

Written culture: Encourages abstract thinking, analytical reasoning, and archival orientation.

Consequences

Marginalization of oral cultures and their knowledge systems.

Loss of languages and cultural identity.

Inequitable access to power, rights, and services.

Examples of the Gap in Practice

Indigenous knowledge systems: Struggle to gain recognition in policy-making, even when orally passed down for generations.

Courtroom testimonies: Oral testimonies may be dismissed if not supported by written evidence.

Education: Students from oral cultures may struggle in systems dominated by written assessment methods.

Problem description using Wikipedia as an example

Wikipedia is a free, online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. It is a collaborative project maintained by volunteers worldwide, covering a vast range of topics in multiple languages. The content is written and updated by contributors who follow guidelines to ensure accuracy and neutrality, though information can sometimes be subject to bias or vandalism. It is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit organization, and operates under a Creative Commons license, meaning its content can be freely used and shared with proper attribution.

Wikipedia sources information from published books, academic papers, reputable news media, government reports, educational websites, and expert publications. It relies on secondary and tertiary sources, requiring citations for major claims. Reliable sources include scholarly journals, mainstream news outlets (e.g., BBC, The New York Times), and official reports from organizations like the UN and WHO. While Wikipedia editors and the community monitor content for accuracy, it is not always 100% reliable due to potential bias, outdated sources, or vandalism. Users should verify information by checking the references section at the bottom of Wikipedia articles.

Wikipedia treats oral tradition cautiously, prioritizing verifiable, published sources over unverifiable firsthand accounts. While purely oral testimony is generally not acceptable, oral traditions can be included when they are documented in reliable secondary sources, such as academic studies, ethnographic research, or government reports. This is particularly relevant for topics related to indigenous cultures, folklore, and history. However, due to the evolving nature of oral traditions, Wikipedia editors scrutinize them carefully to ensure accuracy, neutrality, and verifiability before inclusion in articles.

Wikipedia can help bridge the gap between oral and written culture by serving as a platform where documented oral traditions are preserved, shared, and made accessible to a global audience. By encouraging the inclusion of indigenous knowledge, folklore, and histories—as long as they are cited in reliable sources such as academic studies, ethnographic research, or community-endorsed publications—Wikipedia helps validate and integrate oral traditions into mainstream knowledge. Initiatives like Wikimedia Indigenous Knowledge and efforts to translate oral histories into written form ensure that marginalized voices and cultures are represented. Additionally, Wikipedia’s open-editing model allows community members, scholars, and experts to contribute and verify information, creating a bridge between traditional oral storytelling and modern digital literacy.

Possible Approaches to Bridge the Gap

Orality-inclusive education: Incorporate oral storytelling, performance, and dialogue into formal curricula.

Documentation with cultural sensitivity: Record oral traditions in ways that respect their performative and communal nature.

Legal recognition: Accept oral testimonies and indigenous knowledge systems as valid in policy and law.

Technology adaptation: Use audio, video, and AI tools to preserve and disseminate oral culture digitally.

Community-driven archives: Support communities in documenting and sharing their own oral histories and practices.

Project: Artistic creation and scientific research across the gap between oral and written tradition

The project "Artistic creation and scientific research across the gap between oral and written tradition" aims to establish a sustainable and equitable framework for collaboration that bridges oral and written knowledge systems through artistic practice, academic research, and community engagement. It addresses the epistemic divide between traditions based on oral transmission (stories, music, ritual, memory) and those grounded in written documentation and formal education. The project focuses on transdisciplinary co-creation between artists, scholars, and community members. It values both oral and written modes of knowing and aims to generate new models of cultural cooperation that are rooted in local realities but accessible and relevant in global contexts.

Objectives:

1. Bridge the epistemological gap between oral and written cultures by fostering reciprocal artistic and research-based collaboration. The project supports mutual learning and co-creation between communities grounded in different knowledge traditions.
2. Document and study oral knowledge systems—such as music, storytelling, ritual, and local histories—while preserving their performative, communal, and embodied nature. These will be carefully transcribed and translated into written and digital formats, ensuring cultural sensitivity and contextual integrity.
3. Create a new shared cultural language by enabling oral tradition bearers to explore written tools and platforms (e.g. music notation, Wikipedia, academic writing) and by allowing artists from written traditions to draw inspiration from oral epistemologies and aesthetics in their own creations.
4. Ensure open access and inclusivity by creating publicly available resources (Wikipedia content, digital archives, educational materials) and by supporting knowledge equity across linguistic, generational, and technological divides.
5. Foster community-based collaboration and mutual recognition, strengthening the capacity of partner organisations in Benin, Estonia, and Finland to document, manage, and sustain cultural and research activities autonomously.
6. Develop ethical and legal frameworks to guide the protection of traditional knowledge, obtain community consent for dissemination, and establish shared protocols for the use, representation, and authorship of oral materials.

Activities:

1. collecting and archiving works (texts, music) belonging to the oral tradition
2. transcribing works belonging to the oral tradition, researching them and making the results available to the international public
3. use the works of oral tradition and their principles as a source of inspiration and material in the artistic creation of representatives of the written tradition
4. introducing the written tradition and its tools and works to representatives of oral culture
5. use the tools of the written tradition by representatives of the oral tradition to create new works of art and conceptualize existing works

Artistic and scientific projects

Artistic and scientific projects are either joint projects of the Oral-Written Network or implemented by partners joining the network, bridging the gap between oral and written traditions.

Oral tradition to Wikipedia

Oral tradition is the means by which information is transmitted from one generation to the next through speech and storytelling. It is a dynamic and ever-evolving process that encompasses a vast array of human expression. From myths, legends, and folktales to historical narratives, genealogies, and legal precedents, oral tradition serves as a repository of cultural knowledge, values, and beliefs. Oral tradition relies on institutions and practices for its preservation and transmission. Roles such as the griot serve as oral historians and storytellers, and as custodians of culture and tradition. Memorization, practice, and performance are necessary for the transmission of oral narratives. The frequency and context of storytelling influence the evolution and preservation of these traditions. This taskforce explores the relationship between oral tradition and anthropology, literature, and other scholarly fields. We aim to improve Wikipedia's coverage of oral traditions from diverse cultures, including indigenous and contemporary societies. While oral tradition is largely found and emphasised in societies that revere the oral word in contrast to the written word, it is commonplace in some form within all societies worldwide.

Our scope includes the study of oral performance, transmission, and reception; the interplay between oral and written traditions; and the influence of oral tradition on cultural identity, social structures, and historical narratives. We will examine oral genres such as myths, legends, folktales, gossip, jokes, epics, ballads, proverbs, and riddles. We will also look at the role of oral tradition in preserving cultural heritage, transmitting knowledge, and fostering social cohesion. Additionally, we will explore the impact of the digital age on the documentation, preservation, and revitalization of oral traditions. Through collaboration, we aim to create a comprehensive resource on oral tradition. Our work involves identifying gaps in coverage, improving existing articles, and creating new articles on underrepresented topics.

Our general goal is to clean up and improve existing articles, expand existing articles, and create new articles which all involve oral tradition.

The project functions via consensus, there are no leaders or coordinators, anyone can suggest initiatives or ideas. Immediate partners for collaboration include Wikimedia Finland and Wikimediens du Benin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Anthropology/Oral_tradition_taskforce

Mono river estuary ethnological research

The aim is to study the cultural history of the Mono River Delta Biosphere Reserve located in southwestern Benin. Settlement in the area began before 1480, with more villages around lagoons, rivers, and lakes being established in the early 18th century. The region is hydrologically and ecologically significant but also vulnerable. The first published natural science study of the area was conducted in the late 1950s. In 2017, the area was included in UNESCO’s Programme on Man and the Biosphere (MAB). While there has been extensive natural science research in the region, the history and culture of the local communities remain underexplored.

The goal is to investigate the history of settlement, culture, and art in the region. The area is part of the vodun (voodoo) religion's sphere of influence, where its traditions continue to thrive in small villages. Songs and dances are integral to the traditions of each village, rooted in the rhythms of vodun. Another objective is to uncover the history of the abandoned village of Gbecon.

We are applying for funding from the Nordic Culture Fund to support collaboration and fieldwork between Beninese and Finnish participants. Accommodation in the area could be arranged at Villa Karo. Projects funded by the Nordic Culture Fund must have a clear connection to the arts or culture. The fund does not support projects primarily focused on business, technology, social sciences, or journalism.

The project is led by art historian Heikki Kastemaa.

https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monojoen_suiston_biosf%C3%A4%C3%A4rialue

Benin traditional music project

The Benin traditional music project began in 2017, when Estonian composer and conductor Andrus Kallastu was a resident artist at the Finnish residency Villa Karo (Grand-Popo, Benin). As the incredibly rich, distinctive and sometimes enigmatic traditional music of Benin interested him, he invited German-born Estonian composer and musicologist Hans-Gunter Lock to join the project. The first period of the project, 2017-2024, has seen three musical expeditions by researchers to Benin (2017, 2019-2020, 2023-2024) and a Beninese rhythms workshop in Estonia by Beninese composer and singer Steve Abeni, who has been involved with the project from the beginning (2018, 2022, 2023). In 2022, a joint project also took place in Finland and was supported by the Nordic Cultural Foundation from the Global Opstart program.

The project has had both theoretical and practical goals from the beginning. The theoretical goals have been related to the study of the compositional processes of traditional West African music, primarily transcribing the rhythmic structure of the music, which could be characterized by the words "modal rhythms", "polyrhythms" and "polypulse". During the expeditions, approximately 4TB of Benin traditional (classical) music was audio-video recorded, and the theoretical analysis and conceptualization of this voluminous material is currently underway.

Communication with Benin musicians has also played an important role in the theoretical understanding of this music and in order to raise awareness of the thought processes that create the structures characteristic of this music. In order to create a common communication platform, the Benin musicians who joined the project have been introduced to the basics of Western music theory and musical notation, receiving valuable feedback on the research results from them through playback of transcriptions.

The practical goals of the project have been to apply new knowledge in musical composition. The compositional structures of traditional music from West and Equatorial Africa have significantly influenced the sound language of Western art music over the past half century. A classic example here is minimalism (Steve Reich et al.), which also has certain common features in its cognitive aspect with older Estonian folk songs. Beninese music has influenced, for example, Andrus Kallastu's musical mystery La mort du shamane (The Death of the Shaman, 2018) and the Western modernist sound language with the thinking of traditional Beninese music combining Tropus DaDa (2024).

A unique feature of the project has been that not only Western composers are applying new knowledge in their music. One of the important activities and outputs of the Western music theory workshops for Beninese musicians held within the framework of the project has also been musical composition, in which Beninese composers have applied new knowledge in the creation of their own music. During the project, a relatively significant international contact network of people interested in the study of Beninese traditional music and its creative application in music creation has also emerged, uniting Western and Beninese musicians, music researchers, educational and cultural figures, which includes, in addition to Benin, people from Estonia, Finland, the United States and India.

Various sub-projects and activities of the project in Estonia and Benin have been financially supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the City of Pärnu and Erasmus.The Nordic Cultural Foundation has provided support for the project's activities in Finland, supporting singer and songwriter Steve Abeni's visit to Finland.

The project is led by composers and music researchers Andrus Kallastu and Hans-Gunter Lock.

https://www.schoenberg.ee/index.php?sitesig=SB&page=SB_030_Tegevus&subpage=SB_081_Benini_traditsioonilise_muusika_projekt

Capacity development projects

Capacity development projects are projects of the Oral-Written Network as a whole, as well as of organizations affiliated with the network, which take place in accordance with the following the main areas presented in McKinsey Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool (OCAT):

1. Mission, Vision, Strategy and Planning

2. Program Design and Evaluation

3. Human Resources

4. CEO/ED and Senior Management Team Leadership

5. Information Technology

6. Financial Management

7. Fund Development

8. Board Leadership

9. Legal Affairs

10. Marketing, Communications, and External Affairs

Resources for Organizational Self-Assessment:
The CALP Network https://www.calpnetwork.org/
The Cash Learning Partnership. ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY ASSESSMENT TOOL (OCAT) USER GUIDE, VERSION 2.0 – JANUARY 2016, TOOL REVISED BY C. MIKE DANIELS https://www.calpnetwork.org/publication/organizational-capacity-assessment-tool-ocat-user-guide/
Reference Document Nr. 6: Toolkit for Capacity Development (2010) https://wikis.ec.europa.eu/spaces/ExactExternalWiki/pages/50109025/Assessing+organisational+capacity
Globus FORWARD https://nordiskkulturfond.org/en/funding-programmes/globus-forward-strengthening-the-capacities-of-transnational-collaborations

Globus FORWARD – Strengthening the capacities of transnational collaborations

Oral-Written Network. Globus FORWARD Application: OWN Globus FORWARD 2025
Oral-Written Network. Capacity Assessment Tool: https://forms.gle/8g8GM5GrvsnTtmtm8

The project builds on years of collaborative work and aims to transition into a stable, sustainable platform for co-creation and knowledge exchange across geographical and cultural contexts. Its goal is to build a sustainable platform for co-creation, research, and inclusive knowledge exchange across oral and written traditions.

The current development phase focuses on establishing a stable organisational structure, clarifying strategic priorities, strengthening governance, and ensuring local ownership. Sustainability is pursued through capacity building (training in financial management, leadership, and intercultural facilitation), formalised cooperation agreements, and co-developed fundraising strategies—especially for under-resourced partners in Benin. The project builds long-term infrastructure for equitable collaboration, adaptable to diverse local contexts and responsive to global cultural challenges.

With the support of the Globus FORWARD programme, the Oral-Written Network seeks to deepen and formalise its collaborative infrastructure. The development plan will focus on key capacity-building areas that are central to the project's long-term sustainability and transformative potential. The activities include:

1. Clarify their own role, purpose and strategic priorities
   1. Conduct a strategic planning retreat in Benin with all core partners.
   2. Define the roles of each organisation within the network: RSACGP (community coordination), INMAAC (academic validation), Wikimediens du Benin and Wikimedia Finland (knowledge documentation), Estonian Arnold Schoenberg Society (coordination of artistic integration).
   3. Draft and sign cooperation agreements outlining individual and shared long-term priorities.
2. Adapt and further develop the structure and format of the collaboration
   1. Create interdisciplinary working groups focused on transcription, digital archiving, artistic development, and Wikipedia integration.
   2. Co-develop protocols for community-based knowledge collection, ethical consent procedures, and multilingual content production.
   3. Adjust governance and communication models based on field experiences and cultural context.
3. Develop communicational capacities and advocacy
   1. Organise local and transnational public listening sessions, symposia, and dialogues on oral knowledge.
   2. Hold Wikipedia editing workshops in Benin, Finland, and Estonia to enhance public access.
   3. Produce multilingual communication materials, including posters, audio-visual content, and outreach kits.
4. Embed monitoring and learning processes
   1. Establish a project-wide reflection group with representatives from each partner organisation.
   2. Conduct quarterly learning reviews to assess methods, ethics, and cultural dynamics.
   3. Integrate adaptive learning into ongoing activities and planning.
5. Advance language diversity, equity and fair practices in the collaboration
   1. Ensure materials and communications are available in Fon, French, English, Estonian, and Finnish.
   2. Design activities to empower women, youth, and elders in knowledge-sharing roles.
   3. Include culturally appropriate compensation, hospitality, and recognition for all participants.
6. Develop partnerships and coalitions
   1. Formalise cooperation with Nordic and West African academic institutions.
   2. Initiate exchange with other oral tradition and indigenous knowledge documentation projects.
   3. Create a shared repository of best practices for partners and external collaborators.
7. Improve sustainability efforts and planning
   1. Conduct joint planning for post-Globus fundraising and local ownership models.
   2. Develop long-term content-sharing infrastructure with open-access platforms.
   3. Introduce sustainability strategies in artistic outputs (e.g. reusable exhibition/audio materials).
8. Further develop financial management and fundraising strategy
   1. Provide financial training for RSACGP and Wikimediens du Benin, including budgeting, reporting, and donor communication.
   2. Develop a shared calendar of funding opportunities and a joint fundraising toolkit.
   3. Run simulations for budget preparation and financial risk mitigation.
9. Build the capacities of staff and leadership
   1. Offer intercultural leadership and ethical documentation trainings for all partner teams.
   2. Facilitate mentoring between Nordic and West African project managers.
   3. Create a resource library with guidelines, recorded training sessions, and templates.
10. Develop practices to enhance physical and digital security, e.g. working in unstable locations or contexts
    1. Conduct digital safety workshops focused on securing sensitive documentation and communication.
    2. Introduce protocols for safe fieldwork and community interactions, adapted to local realities.
    3. Set up shared digital infrastructure with access controls and data backup systems.
11. Build legal competences
    1. Host expert-led sessions on intellectual property, traditional knowledge rights, and consent frameworks.
    2. Develop a multilingual legal guidance toolkit tailored to oral knowledge contexts.
    3. Support each partner in identifying national legal support options or pro bono services.

The project is firmly anchored in artistic and cultural milieus and contributes to rethinking global knowledge relationships from a Nordic and West African perspective. All capacity-building activities are embedded within cultural and artistic milieus. Traditional musicians, oral historians, and community artists are central to training programmes, methodological development, and governance processes. Even financial, legal, and digital development activities are designed to directly support the creation, transmission, and dissemination of oral traditions as cultural and artistic knowledge. The methods integrate performative and narrative tools native to oral cultures, ensuring that the entire process remains rooted in the artistic context that defines the collaboration.

Structure and partners

The Oral–Written Network operates through a layered structure designed to support meaningful collaboration between individuals and organisations across cultural, disciplinary, and geographical boundaries. The structure allows for both grassroots engagement and institutional sustainability. Capacity-building actions are implemented across layers in a coordinated and complementary way. This model directly supports the core aims of Oral-Written Network by clarifying the structure and purpose of a transnational cultural network; fostering equity, language diversity, and intercultural inclusion; embedding artistic practice within collaborative, community-anchored processes; Enabling long-term sustainability through shared governance, fundraising strategies, and legal and ethical frameworks. By treating oral and written knowledge systems as equally valid and interdependent, the network offers a model for inclusive, decolonial cultural collaboration that is globally relevant yet locally grounded. This layered structure supports flexibility for established institutions and grassroots initiatives, agency for individual experts to act within or across organisations, sustainability by combining the creative agility of individuals with the logistical and administrative support of collectives, equity by allowing diverse forms of participation from contexts with differing traditions of formality and governance. The success of the Oral–Written Network depends on continuous interaction between the expert, organisational and beneficiaries layers. Individual members participate in the governance and strategic development of the network, while organisations offer structure, resources, and long-term coordination. This reciprocal relationship ensures:

1. Community-rooted innovation informs institutional practice;
2. Structural capacity supports creative and research-based activity;
3. Reflection and learning are shared across roles and contexts.

1. Individuals – Experts and Practitioners. Experts may act independently or in association with an organisation or working group. They form the intellectual and creative backbone of the network and contribute to knowledge production, public engagement, training, and interdisciplinary exchange. At individual expert layer, consisting of artists, researchers, tradition-bearers, and cultural facilitators actively working across oral and written knowledge systems capacity development focuses on empowering individuals to co-create, communicate, and lead within an intercultural and interdisciplinary environment. This layer consists of individual experts who bring diverse forms of knowledge and experience into the collaboration. These individuals work with affiliated organisations. They form the intellectual and artistic foundation of the network. These include:

Artists and composers working with oral traditions

Researchers and scholars in linguistics, ethnomusicology, anthropology, and cultural studies

Wikipedians and open knowledge advocates

Community elders, tradition bearers, and storytellers

Creative practitioners from interdisciplinary or non-institutional contexts

Activities:

1. Training and peer exchange in areas such as ethical documentation of oral traditions, intercultural project management, digital archiving, and multilingual publishing;
2. Mentorship and mobility support to ensure equitable participation of experts from diverse cultural and economic backgrounds;
3. Leadership development, enabling individual members to coordinate thematic working groups, co-author publications, and lead community engagement activities.

2. Organisations – Collaborating Units. Organisations do not need to be legal entities – what matters is capacity for sustained cooperation and a demonstrable contribution to the network’s aims. Organisations provide institutional or communal anchoring for the activities of individual members, carry responsibility for specific project components or work packages, facilitate continuity, resource sharing, and local implementation, help translate the network’s goals into policy, practice, education, and artistic production. This layer is composed of organisations or collaborative entities that serve as platforms for sustained cooperation. These may include:

Small working groups (of at least two individuals)

Cultural centres, archives, and residency programmes

Non-profit organisations (NGOs) and community initiatives

Universities, research institutes, and public libraries

Wikimedia chapters and other digital knowledge organisations

Activities:
At organisational layer, consisting of diverse entities – ranging from informal working groups to formally registered cultural institutions – that provide the structural foundation and long-term continuity for the network’s work, capacity-building aims to ensure stable, long-term collaboration across geographic and cultural contexts:

1. Strategic planning and cooperation agreements, clarifying the roles and responsibilities of each partner in the network;
2. Protocol development for documentation ethics, intellectual property, consent, and multilingual practice;
3. Financial and fundraising strategy, including financial management training and development of joint funding applications;
4. Embedded monitoring and learning, combining oral and written feedback systems to continuously adapt and improve practices;
5. Shared governance tools, developed to support decentralised, culturally appropriate decision-making processes.

3. Beneficiaries. The Oral–Written Network is rooted in the belief that bridging oral and written traditions is not only a cultural imperative but a path to greater equity, inclusion, and sustainability in global knowledge systems. The project benefits a broad and diverse set of stakeholders, who are actively engaged in or impacted by its work:

1. Local Knowledge Holders and Tradition Bearers

These include storytellers, musicians, ritual specialists, community elders, and oral historians—individuals who carry deep cultural knowledge within oral societies. The project enables them to preserve, share, and transmit their knowledge on their own terms, with respect for traditional protocols and performative forms. Their role is central in shaping the content and ethics of documentation processes.

1. Artists and Creators

Both from oral and written traditions, artists are supported in co-creating works that integrate oral culture with contemporary artistic expressions. The project promotes equitable exchange, ensuring that oral tradition is not merely a source of inspiration, but a living practice with its own integrity.

1. Young People and Emerging Cultural Leaders

Youth in oral tradition communities often face disconnection from ancestral knowledge due to the dominance of written and digital media. The project creates learning spaces where they can reconnect with oral heritage and also develop skills in documentation, translation, leadership, and intercultural facilitation.

1. Academics and Researchers

Scholars in ethnomusicology, anthropology, linguistics, cultural heritage, and digital humanities benefit from the co-created methodologies, access to fieldwork materials, and ethical frameworks that the network develops. The project challenges extractive models of research and promotes more reciprocal knowledge production.

1. Wikimedia and Open Knowledge Communities

Through Wikipedia workshops and multilingual content creation, the project contributes to closing content gaps on oral cultures and minority languages. This expands the global commons and helps decentralise dominant narratives. Cultural Institutions and Educators

1. Museums, schools, and universities gain access to ethically documented, community-approved resources on oral traditions that can be used for education, exhibitions, and public engagement. These resources support culturally grounded learning and foster deeper understanding across knowledge systems.
2. Communities in Benin, Finland, Estonia, and Beyond

At a broader level, the project promotes cultural pride, intergenerational dialogue, and global solidarity by fostering respectful exchange between communities across linguistic, historical, and epistemological divides.

Individuals – Experts and Practitioners

1. Andrus Kallastu (composer) https://kallastu.ee/
2. Hans-Gunter Lock (composer) https://www.schoenberg.ee/hansgunterlock/
3. Heikki Kastemaa (art historian) https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heikki_Kastemaa
4. Steve Abeni (composer, singer) https://www.facebook.com/steve.abeni.96
5. Kwassi Akpladokou (Honorary Consul of Finlande to Grand-Popo, Senior Consultant at self employed) https://www.facebook.com/kwassia

Organisations – Collaborating Units

1. Repoo ry (Finland). Non-profit cultural production unit / association. A NGO focused on interdisciplinary cultural productions. Acts as a coordinating and producing body within the network.
2. Résidence Scientifique et Artistique de la Commune de Grand-Popo (RSACGP) (Benin). Community-based research and cultural development organisation. A local development organisation that supports scientific, artistic, and community-based initiatives in the Grand-Popo region.
3. L’Institut National des Métiers d’Art, d’Archéologie et de la Culture de l’Université d’Abomey Calavi (INMAAC) (Benin). Public higher education and research institution. A national academic institute focused on cultural heritage, archaeology, and the arts, providing academic grounding and methodological input. https://culturesetpatrimoines.bj/linstitut-national-des-metiers-dart-darcheologie-et-de-la-culture-inmaac-dans-une-demarche-constante-de-preservation-du-patrimoine-culturel-beninois/
4. Wikimediens du Benin (Benin). Wikimedia affiliate / user group. A Benin-based affiliate of the Wikimedia movement, dedicated to community-driven documentation and dissemination of open knowledge. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikim%C3%A9diens_du_B%C3%A9nin_User_Group
5. Honorary Consul of Finland in Grand-Popo (Benin). Diplomatic representative / honorary consular office. An official Finnish diplomatic representative, serving as a cultural liaison and supporting Finland–Benin cooperation in arts and education. https://um.fi/finland-s-representation-abroad-by-country/-/asset_publisher/dCMOY7lDMXLf/contactInfoOrganization/id/83688873
6. Eesti Arnold Schönbergi Ühing (Estonia). Non-profit cultural and artistic organisation. An Estonian organisation engaged in contemporary music and interdisciplinary art, with a strong focus on research-based artistic development. https://www.schoenberg.ee/
7. Wikimedia Finland (Finland). Wikimedia chapter / non-profit organisation. The official Finnish chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation, supporting open knowledge, multilingual Wikipedia development, and digital access. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Suomi