The Secretary General, David Leitch was invited by the PARBICA Board to attend their conference in Honiara (Solomon Islands) in August but, unfortunately for him but not for me, he had a prior engagement so I was invited to go instead. The Pacific countries that make up PARBICA pride themselves on the warm Pacific welcome and rightly so. The conference began not only with the usual distribution of conference bags but also with “garlanding” whereby all visitors were given a beautiful hand-made garland of tropical flowers.
The theme of the conference was “Leading Archives into the Digital Age: Personal, Professional, Institutional” and the conference proper began with an inspirational keynote speech from Ruth Liloqula, who was the first woman Secretary to Cabinet in Solomon Islands. She advocated the need not just to be a leader in one’s own field but also “to poke our noses everywhere else”. She also spoke about information as a powerful commodity supporting the fight against corruption and a way of holding leaders accountable and responsible. She said we needed to be “not just good leaders but good followers and salespeople in order to walk the team through a path, do a bit in the corner, be ready to adapt and modify plans and to let others take our ideas and own them, not worrying about receiving the credit”. I was particularly struck by what she said about the cultural heritage – the memory – of the Islanders. She said the forest where they once could walk the same path as their ancestors had done was now gone, and now the only way to “touch” their ancestors was in the archives. As I said, it was inspiring to hear someone who had achieved so much appreciating the value of archives and also giving advice on how to lead not only the archives sector but also the whole heritage field and even policy makers.
Margaret Crockett at PARBICA 15
Jenny Scott
Other conference sessions presented case studies and projects demonstrating leadership and working together. There was a presentation on a records management project in the Solomon Islands Government led by an Australian volunteer, Catherine Green, based in the National Archives. This was followed by a round up of the various FIDA awards that PARBICA has used for: a conservation project on a key collection in the Solomon Islands Archives; Archives New Zealand hosting interns from Palau and Fiji; and Good Governance toolkit workshops in Tuvalu. There were also sessions on the Pacific Web Archive, the Memory of the World Programme (where I was able to contribute a short presentation on the ICA UNESCO project in partnership with IRMT to develop pilot modules for a digital preservation curriculum), a round table where each country’s representative gave an account of recent developments in their archival environment and a final session on the Universal Declaration on Archives. At the end of the conference there was a visit to the National Archives which included cultural dance entertainment and a rendition of the National Archives anthem. After the conference proper the programme also allowed for three workshops on: the Good Governance Toolkit; Developing a Digitisation Strategy; and Implementing an in-Country Training Programme (based on ICA/SAE’s Train the Trainer pack). There were also sessions on ICA AtoM and Opportunities to Engage with ICA, which was my own opportunity to tell them all about what the ICA has to offer as well as to encourage them to get involved.I was struck by the community spirit amongst the participants who have grown to know one another over a number of years. The Australian and New Zealand members clearly provide a lot of practical and logistical support to the operation of the Branch but it is also obvious that there has been steady progress across PARBICA to develop the knowledge and expertise of its members. The Good Governance Toolkit is an extraordinary example of a strategic approach to the challenge of implementing records management in Island governments. It has become second nature to the longer-standing members who are now looking to gain skills in leadership and training their own staff. I was very warmly received by this branch which is the furthest away of any ICA branch and whose members can only dream of attending one of Annual Conferences. They were clearly delighted to have someone from ICA HQ come to their conference and it was a real privilege to have the opportunity to meet them all and learn a little about their everyday working challenges and achievements.Margaret CrockettDeputy Secretary General, Conferences
PARBICA 15 attendees, Honiara, Solomon Islands
Jenny Scott