Wintranslation’s work with the Bytown Museum
Wintranslation works hand in hand with a number of museums and cultural organizations in Canada to ensure accurate and timely translations in Canada’s two official languages, English and French, but also in the languages of new Canadians and of the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. It ensures that it understands the museums’ challenges and facilitates solutions.
Wintranslation worked with the Bytown Museum in Ottawa, ON on its updated exhibition panels and its recent digitization project: Stories from the Collection. Here, we explore wintranslation’s contributions to the project, through a Q&A with the Bytown Museum.
As a local, not-for-profit community museum, the Bytown Museum is committed to serving the many and diverse communities that make up Ottawa. We were pleased to work with wintranslation on two major recent projects; the translation of our permanent gallery text panels and a new storytelling website into French and Anishinaabemowin. Working with wintranslation allowed the museum to offer its exhibition and programming to a wider audience and ensured the work was done with reliability, integrity to community values, and professionalism. – Courtney Gehling, Executive Director
Q: What was the Bytown Museum’s process to hire a translation firm?
A: The hiring process depends on the scale of the project; we solicit quotes from qualified firms and work with existing partners. What is important in our hiring process is finding a firm that can facilitate the languages we are hoping to translate content into and that their process involves working with community members and native speakers of the languages.
Q: What qualities did wintranslation have that helped Bytown Museum decide to work with them?
A: We appreciated
● The variety of languages they offer translation services in
● Their commitment to working with Indigenous language keepers
● They are local to Ottawa
● They are efficient and communicative
Q: What exactly did wintranslation do for Bytown Museum?
A: Wintranslation worked with the museum to translate the renewed text panels in our permanent gallery into French, and Anishinabemowin (Algonquin language). They translated website content for the latest digitization project: Stories from the Collection, which is fully trilingual in English, French, and Anishinabemowin.
Q: What was the work process with wintranslation?
A: It involved sending wintranslation the text documents we wanted to have translated. It’s important to organize the information you want to be translated well so that only the text you want to be translated will be, and when you get it back you know what all the text is and are able to slot it into its appropriate places upon return. Then they work their magic and return the text documents fully translated. During and after the translation work there is an opportunity to ask questions and seek clarifications.
Q: How long did Bytown Museum’s translation process take?
A: About 1 week for French and about 2 weeks for Anishinabemowin.
Q: What was it like to work with wintranslation?
A: Great! Very prompt, efficient, and communicative. If they had questions or issues with the text documents for translation, they were very clear about what they needed from us. And vice versa when we had questions regarding the translations, they were always willing to help.
Q: How did the translation affect Bytown Museum’s ability to work with your community and the First Nations communities, and help visitors understand your museum’s story telling?
A:
- Committing to translating the museum’s work allows us to better serve our museum’s diverse communities. We have visitors who are local to the area, from elsewhere in Canada, and from abroad, so the fact our panels are trilingual helps us to serve our community better and reach a wide audience. It also increases access to the museum, our collection, and the information we are presenting to the public. Translation really helps make history more accessible.
- Translation helps us serve those who haven’t yet visited the museum. By offering our content in a variety of languages, we can draw in and reach new audiences.
- It is important to look at what languages are being spoken throughout the city and how we can deliver for those who are not presently visitors but may be able to come to the museum and listen to our audio guide in their language and feel represented and seen here.
- Translation is also important for the museum’s commitment to reconciliation in action. Translating the text panels and online projects into Anishinabemowin recognizes the importance of Indigenous languages, particularly those of the First Nations communities that our museum serves – Algonquins of Pikwàkanagàn First Nation and Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation
- Translation is not only a point of access but also serves as a point of visibility.
Q: What problem or challenge did wintranslation help you address?
A: They helped us to reach a wider audience, as well as serve and broaden our community. They helped us ensure more people could access history.
Wintranslation is pleased to support a variety of sectors, including arts and culture. Cultural organizations that have worked with us include, for example: the Art Gallery of Ontario, Royal Saskatchewan Museum, New Brunswick Museum, Diefenbunker, Canada’s Cold War Museum, Library and Archives Canada, Discovery Centre, Biosphere, and Canadian Museum of History.
*Header Image – Bytownmuseum, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
