Pambu News

PAMBU NEWS

Digital copies of specific documents on PMB microfilms can now be scanned to disk, quite economically, for research users. The PMB is developing a strong digital capacity. For example, eleven rolls of PMB microfilms of Tuvalu land records (about 7,000 frames) have been scanned by W & F Pascoe Pty Ltd to one DVD, which holds pdf image files matching each of the documents. The disk copies have been made for the Tuvalu National Library and Archives, which does not have a microfilm reader, and for the British Library which helped fund the Tuvalu pilot project through its Endangered Archives Programme.

The British Library/Lisbet Rausing Foundation have allocated a further grant to Richard Overy and the PMB to continue working with the Tuvalu National Library and Archives on a major archives reformatting project in Funafuti and the outer-islands in 2006-2007. We expect to begin in late September 2006.

Over the last six months the PMB staff have mainly been occupied with in-house processing and domestic microfilming. Fr Kevin Kerley’s personal papers documenting his work in Bougainville, 1988-1998, were surveyed at the Marist Fathers’ monastery in Hunters Hill, Sydney, and part has been microfilmed. Fr Kerley was one of very few non-Bougainvilleans who stayed ‘behind the lines’ during the Bougainville crisis.

Fred Archer’s papers on the New Guinea island of Wuvulu, which are held by Mrs Mary Roberts, were microfilmed in Brisbane. Mr Archer managed Agita plantation on Wuvulu for a period, and maintained his links with the island through his later life. Mrs Roberts has completed her biography of Fred Archer, her uncle, and is looking for a publisher.

Ms Julie Olsson, of the Nauru Rehabilitation Committee, and Professor Barry Connell, the former Chief Justice of Nauru, put together a complete transcript of the proceedings of the Commission of Inquiry into the Rehabilitation of Worked-out Phosphate Lands in Nauru, 1987-1988, for the PMB to microfilm (PMB 1268). The original transcripts are now held on long-term loan by the National Library of Australia until such time as an adequate archival facility is available in Nauru.

The NLA lent the PMB its copy of Rev Shirley Baker’s very fragile, An English and Tongan Vocabulary, also a Tongan and English Vocabulary, with a list of idiomatic phrases; and Tongan Grammar, 1897. It has been microfilmed (PMB Doc 470) and the PMB has also produced an OCR’d scanned version of the dictionary.

A good run of the Pangu Pati Newsletter has also been microfilmed from copies on loan from the NLA and the Melanesian Studies Research Centre (UCSD).

Sheryl Stanborough, the Yap State Archivist, who visited Canberra in May with Anna Lemoilug Itimai, Assistant Yap Archivist, lent the PMB a rare set of contemporary Yapese newspapers, now microfilmed, as follows:

PMB Doc 475, The Rai Review (District Administration, Yap, West Caroline Is.), Vols.1-5, 1963-1968.
PMB Doc 476, Mogethin (Office of the Governor of Yap State.) Vols.1-3, 1983-1985.
PMB Doc 477, Yap State Bulletin (Yap State Government, FSM), Vols.1-10, 1989-1999.
PMB Doc 478, The Yap Networker, Vols.1-7, 1999-2005.

The newspapers are about to be returned to the Yap State Archives, together with a digital copy of the microfilms for reference use.

Sr Nancy White's papers on teaching with the Anglican mission, Oro Province, PNG, 1948-1967, have been arranged, listed and microfilmed (PMB 1260). The papers are to be returned to Professor John Waiko in Port Moresby, but the PMB has not been able to make contact with him recently.

Dr Roy Scragg lent the PMB a copy of his thesis, Lemankoa 1920-1980: A study of the effects of health care interventions on the people of a pre-industrial village in North Solomons Province, Papua New Guinea (1983), and some related papers which have been microfilmed (PMB Doc 473). Dr Scragg also deposited 68 files of Sir John Gunther’s papers on health administration in PNG. The PMB has made a preliminary list of them.

Hank Nelson’s comprehensive papers on kuru disease (the laughing death) in PNG, 1956-2001, have been arranged and microfilmed in part (PMB 1271). They include Sir John Gunther’s file on kuru, 1956-1976, which holds his correspondence with D. Carleton Gajdusek, V. Zigas, Roy Scragg, S.G. Anderson, F.M. Burnet and D.M. Cleland, and which documents the Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine jointly awarded to Baruch S. Blumberg and D. Carleton Gajdusek for their discoveries concerning new mechanisms for the origin and dissemination of infectious diseases.

Hank Nelson also transferred papers of David Moorhouse, a kiap, intelligence officer, and advisor to mining companies on land matters in PNG. A detailed list of Mr Moorhouse’s papers is available from the PMB, but access arrangements have not yet been clarified.

Other records which the PMB has received for microfilming, include:

correspondence of the Banaban Heritage Society;
Professor Ted Wolfers’ letters from PNG 1967-1971 (PMB 1276);
transcripts of interviews and lectures on aspects of PNG history, 1972-75, collected by Professor Donald Denoon (PMB 1250);
Paul and Dulcie Grant’s, Kweli Times: A Short History of the Apostolic Church Vanuatu 1946-1965 (PMB Doc 472);
documents collected by Lionel Rhys Healey, OBE, relating to murders committed on 6 Nov 1953 in Telefomin, PNG (PMB 1265);
A Warwai Ure Iesu Karisito, a translation of Gospel stories into the Blanche Bay dialect, New Britain, by Rev. Francis Trafford Walker, and Rev. Walker’s, Reflections on the Work of the Missionary, written on his return from New Guinea in 1930 (PMB 1264);
letters of Cyril G.F. Cartwright from Ocean Island (Banaba) and the Gilbert Islands (Kiribati), 1934-1937 (PMB 1261);
and papers deposited at the Royal Geographical Society by Leo Austen relating to his expedition to the upper Fly and Tedi Rivers area of Papua in 1922 (PMB 1272).

Pacific Research Collection established at the ANU

A Pacific research resources project will begin operation in the ANU Archives in July. Professor Stewart Firth, Director of the ANU Pacific Centre, will chair the project committee. Part of the ground floor of the ANU Library’s Menzies Building will be renovated to provide a special area for Pacific scholars and students to meet and study, and for the Library to show-case its Pacific reference materials.

An archivist will be appointed for three years to work on consolidating and disseminating research records gathered by Pacific scholars at the ANU over the last 50 years and by other Pacific researchers in Australia. In addition, a half-time cataloguer will be appointed for one year to integrate massive amounts of printed material, accumulated with the research records, into the ANU Library’s catalogue. The Pacific research resources project will develop a strong web-presence, making the research materials which it collects easily accessible.

There are many research records in the Coombs Building and at the offices, homes, garages and sheds of Pacific researchers in Canberra and elsewhere in Australia. The Pacific Research Collection will provide a secure repository for such material and, at the same time, build a unique research resource for Pacific studies.

The late Professor Stephen Wurm’s papers and audio recordings (34 archives boxes) have already been transferred from the PMB to the ANU Archives. With the permission of their owners, other research records that the PMB and Division of Pacific and Asian History have accommodated will also be transferred to the ANU Archives for inclusion in the Pacific Research Collection. They include records of Sir Colin Allan, Dorothy Shineberg, Ric Shand, Dorothy Crozier, Bill Coppell, Alan Ward, James Jupp, Peter Sack, Robert Norton, Hank Nelson, Donald Denoon and Robert Langdon. The ANU Archives will accession and permanently accommodate those records and other Pacific research material collected by the resources project.

The project is funded for three years by a combination of the International Centre for Excellence Asia-Pacific, the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, and the ANU’s Division of Information.

Adam Matthew Publications awarded distribution rights for PAMBU

PAMBU has reached an agreement with Adam Matthew Publications that grants the scholarly publisher exclusive global rights to sell and market selected PAMBU titles to universities, colleges and theological centres around the world.

Khal Rudin, Sales & Marketing Director for Adam Matthew Publications, said he is delighted that ‘this agreement will enable PAMBU to get further global recognition for their excellent holdings of archives, manuscripts and rare printed material relating to the Pacific Islands. It will also further enhance our reputation of supplying quality research material and strengthen our offerings of material relating to Pacific Island history and culture’.

For further information about Adam Matthew Publications please visit their website www.ampltd.co.uk.

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Jacob Hevelawa, Director of the PNG National Archives and Records Services, has just been awarded an MBE for services to the public service. Here he is working on administration archives at Losuia, Kiriwina, Trobriand Islands, in March 2000.

AUSTRALIANS IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA – A DOCUMENTARY RECORD

Some years ago the then President of the Retired Officers’ Association of Papua New Guinea (ROAPNG) became concerned that valuable research material in the form of diaries, letters, manuscripts, patrol reports, maps and photographs risked being destroyed as their owners moved on. Through Una Voce, the Association’s quarterly journal, he suggested it be collected and preserved.

Peter Cahill, a Papua New Guinea historian, was approached to co-ordinate the collection, collation and – where possible – the identification of items. He in turn approached the Librarian in charge of the Fryer Special Collections Library within The University of Queensland Library who recognised the value the material would be to students and researchers. It was decided to house it in Fryer as the ROAPNG Papua New Guinea Collection. The Collection has since been re-named the Papua New Guinea Association of Australia Collection and complements other Papua New Guinea collections in Australia.

The material donated is a unique record of how (mainly) Australian men and women – public servants, missionaries, business employees or private individuals – lived and worked as they guided Papua New Guinea to Independence in 1975. Their success was acknowledged by Sir John Guise, the first Governor-General of Papua New Guinea, in his Independence Day comment that the Australian flag was being lowered, not torn down.

The drive to collect and preserve material has proved embarrassingly successful. A very brief sample of the diverse holdings includes:

the Summary section of D.J. Clancy’s Special (Patrol) Report ex Lake Murray (19)47/48 in the Elevala/Black/Strickland and Nomad Rivers;
diary of an escape from Japanese forces Madang/Mt Hagen January-May 1942;
pre-war photographs of European lifestyles in Rabaul and other New Guinea centres;
industrial relations material including surveys, wage determinations, arbitration hearings, awards 1980/1981; transcripts of industrial disputes;
confidential circular of 25 Feb 46 – “Execution of Japanese war criminals”;
a set of water-colour paintings of Papua New Guinea pre-WW II native costumes;
(calendar) prints of pre- and post-war aircraft;
report, sketch map and CD of area photographs of the Telefomin murders in November 1953;
a diary of the occupation of Rabaul during WW1;
Christmas Dinner menu on board the S.S. Katoomba 1941 at sea between Port Moresby (sic) and Brisbane;
Tom Grahamslaw’s personal copy of his Recollections of Angau – 27th January 1942 to 25^th October 1945;
an extraordinary collection of ANGAU related material including District maps, plans and command structure;
diaries and other records of an Anglican Church medical missionary in the Gona/Buna area from ca. 1948 to ca.1995.

The list goes on. The catalogue can be viewed online at: www.library.uq.edu.au/fryer/

The Collection number in UQFL387. Note that it is not yet digitised, so individual items cannot be viewed on-line.

Advice of items received is placed regularly in the PNGAA’s Newsletter Una Voce.

Dr Peter Cahill

June 2006

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MICROFILMING PACIFIC ISLANDS RECORDS AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES (UK)

In the absence of plans elsewhere, the Australian National University Library began ordering microfilm copies of Colonial Office files on the Pacific Islands in 1994. (See: Maureen Kattau, ‘Microfilming of Pacific Records in the Public Record Office’, Pambu, 5:4, Nov 1996.)

This microfilming program continues Australian Joint Copying Project microfilms of Colonial Office file series on the Western Pacific (CO 225 and CO 537) and Fiji (at CO 83). The Public Records Office (now National Archives) has supplied the ANU Library with 35mm microfilms of selected files in the following series:

CO 83, piece Nos.245/1-264/4, Colonial Office: Fiji, Original Correspondence, 1948-1951, 10 reels.
CO 1023, piece Nos.1-238 (gaps), Colonial Office: Hong Kong and Pacific Department: Original Correspondence, 1946-1955, 12 reels. The files include some dealing with particular islands individually and others relating to the region as a whole and to Colonial Development and Welfare schemes, the South Pacific Commission and the Western Pacific High Commission.
CO 1036, piece Nos.1-1355 (gaps), Colonial Office and Commonwealth Office: Pacific and Indian Ocean Department: Registered Files (PAC Series), 1952-1964, 82 reels. This series contains records relating to the following territories in the Pacific Ocean: Fiji, Tonga, the Pitcairn Island Group, Gilbert and Ellice Islands, New Hebrides, Solomon Islands, Christmas Island and other smaller Pacific islands and groups; and also to matters affecting the Pacific generally, including the work of the South Pacific Commission.

In 2005-2006 the ANU Library continued the copying program – the National Archives has supplied the Library with microfilms of selected files in the CO 1036 series, piece Nos. 1361-1615 (gaps), 1964-1966, adding a further 16 rolls to the collection. The microfilms are available for reference in the Menzies Building of the ANU Library. The ANU Library plans to order further microfilms of files in CO 1036, completing the series to 1967. It will also commence orders for microfilm copies of files in the subsequent series:

FCO 32, Commonwealth Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Pacific and Indian Ocean Department and Pacific Dependent Territories Department: Registered Files, 1967-1976, dealing with UK and Commonwealth relations with the South Pacific Commission and the Western Pacific High Commission, Fiji, Tonga, the New Hebrides, Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Solomon Islands and Pitcairn.

Duplicate copies of these microfilms are available from the National Archives, Reprographic Ordering Section.

Ewan Maidment

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NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA ACQUISITIONS TRIP TO FRENCH POLYNESIA AND THE COOK ISLANDS MAY 2006

Earlier this year, I was fortunate to be asked to conduct an acquisitions trip to French Polynesia and the Cook Islands on behalf of the National Library of Australia. Both excited and nervous at the prospect, I consulted a number of reports by other librarians who had conducted similar trips, both from the National Library of Australia and overseas libraries. One of those reports was Kathryn Creely’s interesting report of her collecting trip to PNG, Vanuatu and New Caledonia in July 2002 which appeared in the June 2003 issue of Pambu. In the same spirit of information sharing, I am contributing this brief survey of my own Pacific excursion.

NLA acquisitions visits to the region began in the early 1990s as a means of supplementing the material that is acquired through the more usual channels of library suppliers and publishers. The most notable and successful visit was conducted by Adrian Cunningham in 1995. Adrian on his three week journey also took in French Polynesia and the Cook Islands and, thus, his report became my main reference point in preparing for the trip. While some material had been acquired directly from the Cook Islands by an NLA staff member holidaying there in 2001, French Polynesia had not been attempted again since Adrian’s visit.

Prior to leaving Australia, I prepared listings of NLA holdings for serials and monographs to take with me, as well as a list of items found on other databases (such as Library of Congress, National Library of New Zealand) and websites, which NLA did not hold.

I set up meetings at the Service des archives de la Polynésie française, Université de la Polynésie française and Institut de la Statistique de la Polynésie française before arriving in Tahiti and these meetings occupied my first two days there. After that, however, I was on my own, reliant on a list of contacts I had drawn up prior to leaving Australia, the advice of staff from other institutions, which I visited along the way, and a letter of introduction in French. I achieved more success than could perhaps be expected from such methods (particularly considering my limited French!), mainly due to the friendliness and helpfulness of everyone I met. I was also extremely fortunate that my visit fortuitously coincided with the annual Salon du lire, now in its 5^th year. Most of the major publishers and booksellers were represented at the Salon and this enabled me to speak to many more people than would have been possible had I been relying on transport by foot or taxi, which would have been the case otherwise.

As my pre-trip research had shown, commercial and government publishing in French Polynesia is reasonably active compared with many other areas of the Pacific. There are four or five major commercial publishers in French Polynesia. M. Morillon, Director of the Service des archives, estimated that approximately 15 new commercial titles are published each year, but the number may be higher than this as between them Au Vent des Iles and Editions le Motu have published at least 16 titles within the last twelve months. Government publishing also appears very stable and institutions like the Institut de la Statistique, Imprimerie Officielle and Institut d'émission d'Outre-Mer (IEOM) seem to have well set-up publishing and distribution networks.

My visit to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands was quite a contrast to my week in Tahiti. Prior to my departure, I had contacted the National Library of the Cook Islands and Justina Nicholas, the Chief Librarian, kindly arranged an itinerary for my visit, which was a great help. I visited 17 institutions or government departments and one bookshop during my three days on the island. Commercial publishing in the Cook Islands is almost non-existent; except for a few rare privately published books, most non-government publications are published in New Zealand or elsewhere in the Pacific. However, there is a small but important amount of government documents being published. One of my most important and successful visits in terms of acquiring publications was visiting the Parliament where I was able to purchase back issues of a number of parliamentary publications for NLA.

A major difference between this trip and Adrian Cunningham’s visit in 1995 is the increased availability of websites in the region, particularly for government departments. The currency and use of these websites varies significantly, but in both French Polynesia and the Cook Islands some government publications are now available online as well as in print. While none of the commercial bookshops I contacted have websites yet, at least two commercial publishers in French Polynesia do and this should make it easier to order and select titles from the region in future.

The summary of material acquired is listed below, but it is difficult to put a quantifiable figure on the value of the information I gathered or contacts I made. For me, this was the most important aspect of the trip, but it will take a significant amount of follow-up work to capitalise on these results. In conclusion, I would like to endorse Kathryn Creely’s comments when she wrote in 2003 that: ‘the one constant that I found in the course of this trip was the genuine helpfulness of the p