Half of the world's languages are estimated to die in a century's time. Indigenous languages are under serious threat in the most linguistically diverse regions like India where 250 languages died in just 50 years. When the information and contribution of indigenous speakers are missing from the knowledge commons, the imminent threat of neo-colonization of the Internet might lead to a situation where a vast majority of world's minority languages will be wiped off forever.
UNESCO has identified 2019 as the International Year of Indigenous Languages (IYIL) to educate people all over the world about preserving and helping grow the use of languages that are in danger. What can Wikimedians really do to bring more indigenous speakers as contributors and grow open knowledge repositories in the respective languages? The answer is probably complicated as many indigenous languages might not be viable to start a Wikipedia Incubator because of the lack of reliable content or adequate technical resources to contribute online. But where do we start from?