Newsletter of the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau

Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 0200 Australia
Telephone: (61) (2) 6251 2521 Fax: (61) (2) 6125 0198
E-mail: pambu@coombs.anu.edu.au

Table of Contents

• Editorial
• Archives of the Archdiocese of Papeete Microfilming Project, Jun-Jul 1995
• Microfilming Projects, Suva, 26 Aug-16 Sep 1995: Pacific Theological College Theses & Fiji Trades Union Congress Archives
• Microfilms for the 1995 release
• The Pacific Manuscripts Bureau: current and future operations

Editorial

Following Adrian Cunningham's return to the National Library of Australia in January 1995, Ms Kris Rogers managed the Bureau until I was appointed Executive Officer in March 1995. I have come to the Bureau on secondment from the Noel Butlin Archives Centre, an industrial archives at the ANU, where I was Senior Archivist. I bring a great deal of experience in the administration of the archives of businesses and non-government organisations and some knowledge of the archives of industrial organisations in the Pacific Islands. The position opens the doors of the Pacific Islands to me. The introduction to the Islanders, their history and current affairs is a wonderful experience for which I am very grateful.

The Bureau is now as strong and stable as it has ever been. A high rate of production has been maintained over the past two years. Details of approximately 150 reels of microfilm for the 1995 release to members are given below. The consortium of Pacific research libraries which fund the Bureau's operations now consists of seven: the National Library of Australia, the Mitchell Library at the State Library of NSW, the Australian National University Library, the National Library of New Zealand, the University of Hawaii Library and the Library of the University of California at San Diego. This year the University of Auckland Library became the seventh member of the Bureau. Several members have made commitments to continue their support over the next 3 years. On the basis of this strong level of support, the Management Committee of the Bureau kindly offered to extend my appointment for a further two years, giving the Bureau the opportunity to establish routine operations and administrative procedures, and time for longer term planning.

In 1996 the Bureau's focus will be on the Solomon Islands. With the help of Dr Ian Frazer of the University of Otago and Ms Maureen Kattau of the ANU Library, plans to microfilm post World War II Solomon Island newspapers are underway. Other microfilming programs for the Solomons have not yet been set and the Bureau welcomes advice from interested researchers on possible record groups for filming.

Other programs for 1996 are more concretely established. They include completion of the microfilming of the Catholic Archdiocese of Papeete and Fiji Trade Union Congress archives, and commencement of the microfilming of the Methodist Church of Fiji archives and Fiji Labour Party archives. Arrangements for filming records relating to the crisis in Bougainville, archives of the South Seas Evangelical Mission and submissions to the various Fiji Constitutional Review Commissions, among others, are being negotiated.

Creation of a microfilm databank of Pacific Island mining agreements and environmental impact statements is also under consideration. Any feedback on this proposal would be appreciated.

In 1997 the Bureau's focus will be on Vanuatu. It is also planned to film the Marquises Islands Catholic Diocesan archives in 1997 if the Bureau receives permission from Bishop Chevalier and if it is economically feasible to do so.

Dr Brij Lal has been fully occupied on the Fiji Constitutional Review Commission during the last half of the year, but maintains a deep involvement in shaping the Bureau's activities and has chaired both meetings of the Management Committee held this year. Happily Professor Donald Denoon has been able to act as Chair and chief advisor to the Bureau during Dr Lal's absences. The other members of the Management Committee are Dr Dorothy Shineberg, Mr Peter Grimshaw and Dr Darrell Tryon of the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, ANU, Mr Graeme Powell of the National Library of Australia, Mr George Miller of the ANU Library and Mr Michael Piggott of the Australian Archives who is representing the Pacific Regional Branch of the International Council of Archives. Although the member organisations have representative rights on the Management Committee, they rarely attend meetings for geographical reasons. Nevertheless the member organisations are fully informed of the Bureau's activites and given every encouragement to participate in its decision making processes.

The Bureau is dependent on its many contacts in the Pacific Islands as well as the rim, and their collective goodwill has been strongly felt this year. In particular, two old friends, Niel Gunson and Adrian Cunningham, have continued to put their backs into making sure its operations are successsful. The past 8 months have been fruitful for the Bureau and its members and very rewarding to me. There are good prospects of implementing innovative and useful archival preservation programs over the next few years. These programs are not yet all set in concrete and your participation and support in developing and shaping them is warmly invited.

Ewan Maidment
PMB Executive Officer

Microfilming projects, 1995

Microfilming programs based in Australia are continuing. The second part of the first stage of the Mitchell Library/PMB joint project to microfilm archives of the Methodist Overseas Mission was completed by Pascoes and filming of the archives of the Fiji Independent News Service is continuing in the PMB office. A group of the Rev Dr Lindsay Lockley's research papers on the lives and careers of the early missionaries of the LMS, their families and descendants, and the beginnings of Congregationalism in Australia is also being filmed by Pascoes for the Bureau.

The operational strategy of the Bureau has had two arms. Firstly, to maintain a high rate of production. Secondly, to strike a balance of church and missionary archives with those of other contemporary Pacific non-government organisations. (See 'The Pacific Manuscripts Bureau: current and future operations', below, for a more elaborate statement of this policy.) Achieving the latter is a slower process as it involves a period of transition, but the filming of the FTUC and FINS archives are useful first steps in that process.

Archives of the Archdiocese of Papeete Microfilming Project, Papeete, 12 June-5 July 1995

Mgr Coppenrath has a serious interest in the preservation of the archives of the Archdiocese. He took a personal interest in the shape and progress of the project and freely gave it what time he had available. His staff, especially Mlle Marcelline Heitaa who is in charge of the archives, did everything possible to facilitate the success of the project. Mgr Le Cleac'h, the retired Bishop of the Marquises Islands, who is a resident of the évêché also took a strong interest and gave us kindly encouragement.

The archives and manuscripts are housed in a purpose built repository which was built in the early 1990s in the same style as the évêché to which it is annexed. The repository is a light, airy, pagoda shaped building consisting of one large room (about 12x10 meters), constructed level with the first floor of the évêché and separately from it. It has securely barred windows and a heavy door. Although the repository is not airconditioned, it does protect the archives from flood, fire and the attacks of termites.

In the repository there is a bank of 12 4-drawer filing cabinets which also hold semi-current records as well as the archives of the Archdiocese. The manuscripts are stacked on open shelves. The condition of the records is generally sound and stable. There is little active mould or evidence of currently active termites. Some older documents are very brittle and deteriorate with handling particularly where the acidic ink which was made up in French Polynesia during the 19th century is eating into and fragmenting the paper.

A good bound set of Le Messager de Tahiti is held in the repository, but large parts of it are very brittle and deteriorate with handling. The repository also holds some uncatalogued manuscripts.

Selected records of the Arcdiocese, particularly very early papers, have been transferred to the Generalate Archives of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Rome. The remaining records, those now held at the évêché in Papeete, were arranged and listed by Father Amerigo Cools a Picpus archivist, who also processed the Rarotongan and Marquisan Diocesan archives. The archives of the Archdiocese of Papeete are arranged in three chronologically successive groups: repertoire 1 (1970) covers the period to 1970, at which date the arrangement and listing were completed; repertoires 2 & 3 (1977 & 1981) mainly cover the period since 1970, but they also include a number of earlier documents.

It was agreed with Mgr Coppenrath that the project would produce a microfilm copy of the whole of the archives listed in Fr Cools' first repertoire, plus selected uncatalogued manuscripts. Father Cools', Repertoire des archives de l'archidiocèse de Papeete, thereby remains the major index to the content of the microfilms. A cut-off date of 1970 was applied. The aim was to complete about half the project during the trip and it was agreed that the Bureau would return in 1996 to complete the rest of the project.

Fr Cools, imposed the same universal classification system on the archives of all three dioceses. The general categories are as follows:

A.	Autorités supérieures
B.	Archidiocèse de Papeete
C/D.	Personnel missionnaires
E.	Enseignement
H/K.	Rapports
L.	Administration temporel
MS.	Manuscrits
N.	Aide
P.	Géographie, histoire, &ampc
Z.	Histoire de la Mission

The group of archives listed in repertoire 1 are held in three 4-drawer filing cabinets. The documents are in files which are held in the order in which Father Cools listed them. However, some files of documents are missing, presumably having been transferred to Rome, notably the correspondence of Father Laval.

We made 36 reels of microfilm, i.e. 28 reels of the administrative archives (PMB 1080) covering classifications A-D above (amounting to about half the group - six of the twelve drawers), 7 reels of manuscript material (PMB 1081-1083) and one of printed material (PMB Doc 411). Detailed contents lists of the microfilms are available to interested readers.

The strongest series in the administration archives microfilmed so far are the Apostolic Delegates' correspondence files, 1919-1969; the papers of Mgr Jaussen, including his papers on Tahitian botany; the papers of Mgr Mazé, including his vast output of sermons; the extraordinarily systematic and detailed Parish reports and correspondence, most of which cover the period since 1920; and the correspondence of the missionaries.

The manuscripts include the following:

• Frère Martin Darque and Père Fournier on their early activities in Tahiti;
• Père Fierens on the conversion of Napuka;
• Père Albert Moniton on Tuamotu traditions;
• Père Fouqué on the conversion of the Tuamotus and Josepha Teuho a Tepage on the history and legends of the Tuamotus;
• Désiré Maigret's journal from the Gambiers, 1834-1840;
• Abbé Tryphon Putairi's histories of Mangareva, together with another, though possibly related, anonymous history of Mangareva;
• Mgr Jaussen and Père Zuhmbohm on Easter Island;
• the manuscript of Ribourt's Maori-French dictionary compiled in the 1840s;
• Jaussen's and other Tuamotu vocabularies;
• and an Arorai vocabulary. A history of the Picpus Order in Polynesia, published as four separate pamphlets between 1964 and 1968, was also copied in this series.

Microfilming Projects, Suva, 26 Aug-16 Sep 1995: Pacific Theological College Theses and Fiji Trades Union Congress Archives

Mr Semiti Ravatu is acting as PTC Librarian in the absence of Jeanette Little. He and his staff were extremely kind and helpful. The theses were filmed chronologically in the order listed by the Library. The theses produced during the period 1968 to 1982 were filmed on 18 reels at PMB 1084 in the first two weeks of the field trip.

Mr Nemani Vanua agreed to film the remaining theses, 1983-1994, using the Bureau's camera and light meter which I left at the PTC Library for his use. Mr Vanua, who is an experienced microfilm camera operator, is keen to take on further work of this nature for the Bureau.

The PTC theses have a scholarly presentation. Many involve systematic application of detailed local knowledge to topics covering a broad range of cultural, social and political matters in the Islands. They are a major scholarly resource and access to them through the microfilms will contribute to wider recognition of indigenous scholarship in the Pacific Islands.

Fiji Trades Union Congress

The third week was spent filming selected records from the FTUC archives which I had arranged last year. The FTUC Education Officer, Mr Ambika Prasad took an active part in the selection of the records which was finally approved by the FTUC Secretary, Mr Pratap Chand. There was no attempt to censor or weight the selection, only to make it as coherent as possible.

10 reels were filmed at PMB 1085. A summary of the material filmed follows:

• FTUC Delegates Conference papers, 1962-1994

• FTUC Executive Committee minutes and related papers, 1966-1991 (gaps)

• FTUC Management Board minutes and related papers, 1974-1991 (gaps)

• FTUC Official Directories, 1979-1991

• 'Onward Labour' FTUC Silver Jubilee publication, 1976

Selected FTUC general files of the following were also filmed:

• Fiji Industrial Workers Congress, 1964-1974

• FTUC Constitution, 1981

• Special Constitutional Conference, Suva, 25 Oct 1986

• Colonial Secretary, 1955-1969

• Ministry of Labour, 1968-1977

• Ministry of Labour, 1977-1980

• Press releases, 1974-1985

• Press releases, 1985-1987

• Conference for a Nuclear Free Pacific, Suva, 1-6 Apr 1975

• Fiji Anti-Nuclear Goup, 1983-1984

• Report on the National Union of Mine Workers, 1983

• Fiji Labour Party (1), 1985

• Fiji Labour Party (2), 1985-1987

• Solidarity messages re Coup, May-Oct 1987

• Trade bans, May-Sep 1987

• Second Coup and subsequent developments, Jul 1987-Jan 1988

In discussion with Mr Prasad and Brij Lal, it was agreed that a final stage of the FTUC project would focus on Tripartite Forum and wages freeze files leading up to the formation of the Fiji Labour party and also selected affiliates files such as the Dock Workers, Mine Workers and Pastoral Employees unions. There is also a fairly good run of the FTUC newspaper, Labour Sentinel, which should be filmed as the USP Pacific Collection has a very poor set and it is unlikely that copies are held in other libraries. I would like to express my deep appreciation to the FTUC officers and staff for their good natured and solid cooperation on this project.

Microfilms for the 1995 release

The Pacific Manuscripts Bureau: current and future operations

Continuities and Strengths

The Pacific Manuscripts Bureau is small in scale: one room, one camera, one officer; a cork in an ocean of Pacific archives. Nevertheless the Bureau has a strong reputation, a resilience born out of the necessity of its task and an enormous amount of support. It is structurally sound, under good direction and has a very active microfilming program.

The Bureau is one of very few long-term archival projects in the world based on international cooperation. It has struck a balance between academic research requirements and the need to conserve the documentary heritage of the Pacific islands, which has proved extraordinarily useful and productive. Known affectionately as "Pambu" throughout the Pacific and academic communities, the Bureau's reputation has not dwindled since Bob Langdon began its operations in 1968.

With minimal resources and independent funding, the Bureau responds constructively to Pacific documentary conservation needs by making microfilm copies of Pacific archives many of which are at risk. The survey and arrangement of the archives and manuscripts for microfilming provides archival expertise (a scarce resource in the Pacific) which helps to keep the original records in good order, while the microfilms themselves provide security against their loss. The microfilms, which are distributed widely by subscription and direct sales, also provide valuable sources for academic research where the geography of the Pacific would otherwise make access to the originals, if they survive, difficult and expensive. The resilience of the Bureau is due to the reciprocity and resourcefulness of this strategy and the necessity in the Pacific and academic communities for the work to be done.

The Bureau has consistently received committed support and good will from institutions at its Australian base. Since the reconstitution of the Bureau, following Robert Langdon's retirement in April 1986, its affairs have been in the hands of a Management Committee on which the member organisations are represented. Geographical imperatives have given the Australian members a leading role, but by no means an exclusive one, in the Committee's discussions and decision making.

The Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the Australian National University, which is one of the leading academic centres for the study of the Pacific Islands region, provides an intellectual and administrative base for the Bureau's operations. Niel Gunson chaired the Committee from 1987 till 1993 when the Bureau not only maintained an active, if limited, microfilming program, but also produced much needed catalogues to facilitate access to and sale of its products. He was supported by other staff from the Research School, including Dorothy Shineberg, Peter Grimshaw, Darryl Tryon, Hank Nelson and Donald Denoon, who have all served on the Management Committee from time to time. Informal connections with many Pacific scholars and research students in the School, its internet systems and seminars have been and still are a great stimulus to the discovery of Pacific archival sources for microfilming.

In 1993 Brij Lal took over as the Chair of the Management Committee. His vigour and passion for contemporary Pacific history and politics, as well as his determination to break new ground, is well known. Brij Lal's appointment is a further demonstration of the strength of the link between the Research School and the Bureau.

The National Library of Australia and the Library of the Australian National University, both of which have developed major Pacific research collections, have maintained a continuing high level of managerial and practical interest in the Bureau's activities. Successive Directors of Australian Studies at the National Library of Australia, Catherine Santamaria and John Thompson, took personal roles in the establishment and running of the reconstituted Bureau. Graeme Powell currently brings his enormous experience gathered managing the Australian Joint Copying Project to the management of the Bureau. The Bureau works closely on a day to day level with Pacific acquisitions experts at both the NLA and ANU Library, including Adrian Cunningham and Maureen Kattau. Mitchell Librarians, particularly Baiba Berzins, have taken a strong interest in the Bureau's activities, and the current Mitchell Librarian, Alan Ventress, has indicated continuing support for the Bureau's objectives.

The Bureau's three long term international member organisations have also given it consistent financial and moral support. The University of Auckland Library has joined the Bureau this year. With seven member organisations the Bureau will be financially stronger than ever before, and there are good prospects of further extending its membership base.

Member support for the Bureau is always contingent upon producing an adequate number of microfilms as a return on the members' investments. The Bureau has produced over 2,000 reels of microfilm since 1968 and is continuing to make microfilms at an increasing rate. Its current program of microfilming activities is very intensive. Over the period 1994-1995 it will release over 240 reels of microfilm to each of its members.

The Bureau's operations are precarious to the extent that close international cooperation and relatively high levels of financial commitment are necessarily fragile. However, the future of the Bureau is not 'currently doubtful (NLA News, April 1995). Although there have been vigorous discussions over the management and direction of the Bureau, the decision has been made to continue operations. The Bureau is structurally sound, under positive guidance from its Management Committee, has the concerted support of a growing number of member organisations, and is producing useful microfilms of Pacific archives.

Momentum and Balance

The Bureau is a minimalist organisation: a barefoot doctor. It relies on goodwill, good contacts, resourcefulness and the need for its work. A bicycle rather than a truck, the Bureau needs balance and it needs momentum to maintain its balance.

Microfilming older at-risk records is the moving force of the Bureau. However the Bureau has developed new microfilming programs aimed at the archives of contemporary Pacific organisations: records documenting the cultural and political aspirations of the independent island states; and those relating to current economic and political issues affecting the islands. The impetus of these new programs, their responsiveness to Pacific and academic needs, will enable the Bureau to maintain a steady momentum.

The Bureau's new orientation toward contemporary material is not exclusive, but is balanced by parallel programs aimed at locating and microfilming older material. For example, the Bureau is currently negotiating arrangements to film Tongan judiciary archives which are considered to be at risk. The archives of the Western Pacific High Commission, stored by the Foreign Office in the UK, and the fragile archives of the Methodist Church in Fiji, held at the National Archives of Fiji, have both been identified as new projects.

Programs initiated in Gillian Scott's time or earlier are also being continued. For example, the Bureau currently has three Eastern Pacific Catholic Church projects which complement the 380 microfilms of Oceania Marist Province archives of the Western Pacific produced by the Bureau in the mid 1980s: Bill Coppell's 50 microfilms of the Rarotongan Catholic Diocesan archives have just been released by the Bureau; a major project, which will produce about 70 microfilms of the archives and manuscripts held by the Catholic Archdiocese of Papeete, is due for completion in 1996; and also there are good prospects of microfilming of the Catholic Diocesan archives in the Marquises Islands in 1996/7.

On the other hand the Bureau's new microfilming programs are aimed at documenting contemporary Pacific communities and issues. Records relating to the coups in Fiji, to the crisis in Bougainville and to Pacific trade unions have been targeted for immediate filming. Other proposed PMB projects include records relating to the mining industry, particularly in Melanesia, archives of environmental and anti-nuclear groups, women's organisations, employer organisations and businesses.

There are difficulties, particularly in relation to sensitivity and copyright, but they are not insurmountable. The advantage of the microfilm as a means of preservation is that the records are not carted away by the truck load, as Fabian Hutchinson put it. Rather than disempowering an organisation by removing its records to a remote repository and thereby divorcing it from its history, arranging and describing records for filming brings order to an organisation's archives, recognises their inherent value, adds value to them by making them accessible and in the process empowers the producing organisation.

Balancing the Bureau's programs includes meeting the members' various acquisitions requirements. For example, the Alexander Turnbull Library at the National Library of New Zealand has a specific interest in the Cook Islands, Western Samoa and Niue. Similarly, Kathy Creely of the Melanesian Studies Research Centre, University of California, San Diego, marks Melanesian material as a priority for her institution.

A balanced microfilming program will allow for the movement of archival material from the Pacific rim to the islands. This requires both a focus on records of the colonial powers and the participation of Pacific institutions. For example, the letterbooks of CSR Ltd, held at the Noel Butlin Archives Centre at the ANU, are very fragile and would be well worthwhile preserving on microfilm. At the same time the University of the South Pacific has expressed an interest in having access to CSR archives relating to its Fijian interests. Wider involvement in the Bureau's activities of Pacific institutions such as the University of the South Pacific, the French University of the Pacific, the National Library of PNG and the University of PNG are crucial to the success of such a program. Relocation of the Bureau to Suva has also been suggested as a radical possibility, but that would distance and, in the worst case, risk the loss of crucial Australian support.

If the rationale, support and structure of the Bureau is sound, if it has an energetic, useful and balanced microfilming program, then the remaining factor in considering the success of its operations is the implementation of its programs. There are two ways for the Bureau to make microfilms: either by contracting them out or using the Bureau's Executive Officer to operate the camera. Contracting options in the Pacific are very limited and, where they exist, expensive and/or unreliable. The bulk of the immediate filming in the Pacific will have to be done by the Executive Officer.

In the longer term there are possibilities of deploying a second camera to which the Bureau has access by training and accrediting camera operators in the Pacific, possibily with aid funding to support the training process. Archival preservation microfilming was well established by the British in the Pacific. Institutions such as the National Archives of Fiji and the Solomon Islands National Archives have microfilming equipment and experienced operators, but their microfilming programs appear to be dormant. This is not a reflection of inappropriate technology, as the very energetic microfilm programs of the Malayasian National Archives have demonstrated their applicability to archives in tropical conditions. It may be that the Bureau can collaborate with such organisations on projects which will reinvigorate their microfilming programs, just as the Melanesian Studies Research Centre has done with the PNG National Archives over filming patrol reports.

In any case, a closer association between the Bureau, Pacific archival agencies and established aid organisations is now a necessity. The Pacific Regional Branch of the International Council of Archives has just appointed a representative on the Bureau's Management Committee. The Bureau's current and proposed programs in French Polynesia, Fiji and the Solomon Islands are being carried out in close cooperation with the archival authorities in those countries. The Bureau has become a member of the Australian Preservation and Conservation Abroad Group (APACA). It is exploring funding from UNESCO and Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade programs for archival preservation projects in the longer term, specifically for its Vanuatu project in 1997.

Conclusion

Without the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau's microfilming programs certain records relating to the Pacific would neither survive nor be accessible. Microfilming gives strength to the Bureau to the extent that its programs have commercial viability. That viability is dependent on academic demand for its products and there being a sufficient level of production.

The shift to filming contemporary material will help maintain research demand for the Bureau's products. Maintaining a high production level is more difficult given the Bureau's limited resources. Nevertheless the Bureau is meeting the required level of production. It is possible that supplementary funding, by locking into the established preservation and conservation network, will help deal with this problem.

The continued support of the Bureau's members is an essential factor in its survival. At a personal level, a high level of cooperation between professionals has already been established and will be developed as far as possible. If a high level of institutional cooperation can be maintained and developed within Australia and internationally, then the Bureau's programs will continue to be of significant benefit to the region.

Ewan Maidment
PMB Executive Officer

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