International Council of Archives

My name is Kylie Moloney and I am the Executive Officer of the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau.
The Pacific Manuscripts Bureau was formed in 1968. The aim of the Bureau is to help with long-term preservation and accessibility of the documentary heritage of the Pacific Islands. The Bureau is based in the College of Asia and the Pacific at The Australian National University in Canberra. It is a non-profit organisation sponsored by an international consortium of libraries specialising in Pacific research. It is a rare example in the world of an on-going archival project involving a high level of international cooperation and commitment.
 

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The Pacific Manuscripts Bureau’s archive holds the most extensive collection of non-Government primary documentation on the Pacific Islands. It includes over 4,000 rolls of microfilm and related published indexes. The Bureau copies documents such as letters, diaries, notebooks; genealogies and family records; unpublished novels, music and drawings; mission and church records; newspapers, newsletters and images relating to the Pacific. Over the past few years, the Bureau has undertaken preservation copying projects in the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

The Bureau is staffed by an Executive Officer, one casual employee and three volunteers. My work as the Executive Officer includes administering the international consortium of specialist Pacific research libraries, communicating with owners of material, arranging and describing archives, making preservation microfilm or digital copies of archives, undertaking field trips to Pacific Islands to survey, identify and reformat significant archives, and providing reference services and responses to inquiries regarding the Bureau’s collections.
When working in the Islands it’s important to be flexible, patient and have a sense of humour! One cannot force jobs to happen quickly as the concept of “Island time” is very much alive in many Pacific Islands! For example, in January 2011 I was undertaking fieldwork in Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands, to make preservation copies of documents in the Anglican Church of Melanesia (ACoM) archives. I also planned to visit the Bishop Patteson Theological College, 30 kilometres west of Honiara, to list and copy student theses. I phoned the College from Honiara to organise a lift, however due to heavy downpours of rain (January is “wet season” in the Solomon Islands) the truck that was coming to collect me could not get through, as several of the rivers had swelled beyond crossing. The next morning staff phoned to say the rivers had subsided, but the truck now had four flat tyres and needed to be repaired. I continued to wait in Honiara.

A flooded river that I crossed on the back of a truck on my way to copy documents at Bishop Patteson Theological College, January 2011

 
At 4:30pm the next day, I was delighted to see the truck arrive in Honiara. The microfilm camera and my files were placed inside the cabin of the truck and I sat outside in the tray of the truck with twelve other students who were returning to the College to begin the new school year. We crossed several creeks and rivers that were quite deep, due to the heavy rain. The truck kept steaming and over heating each time we crossed a river and at one stage we had to stop to put more water into the radiator. After a wet and muddy ride, we eventually arrived at the beautiful College campus where I shared a lovely dinner of local food including lap lap (root vegetable pudding), fish in coconut sauce, mince with carrots and tomatoes, boiled banana, rice, pineapples and pawpaw. I began work in earnest early the next morning, and produced several rolls of microfilm over the next few days.

 Kylie Microfilming documents at the Bishop Patteson Theological College, January 2011

Over the past 10 years I have worked as a librarian, curator and archivist in a variety cultural institutions in Australia, the Pacific and Europe. I have an academic background in music, librarianship, education and museum studies with professional interests in Pacific archives and material culture. My favourite part about working at the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau is the range of work I undertake, as well as the fieldwork in the Islands. Working with Pacific Islanders and playing a small part in the preservation of their heritage is an honour.

Kylie Moloney