Cook Islands 6 – 29 August 2010
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PACIFIC MANUSCRIPTS BUREAU Room 4201, Coombs Building College of Asia and the Pacific The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200 Australia Telephone: (612) 6125 2521 Fax: (612) 6125 0198 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: http://rspas.anu.edu.au/pambu Trip Report PMB Fieldwork in Rarotonga, Cook Islands 6 – 29 August 2010 Detail of a traditional handmade hat women wear to church, Cook Islands Christian Church, Sunday 15 August 2010 Summary The main purpose of this trip was to: - Complete the microfilming of the Don Marshall papers (PMB 1337) at the University of the South Pacific, Rarotonga; - Survey the Mangaia papers of Rod Dixon; - Continue to copy documents from the Cook Islands Administration, Resident Commissioner's Office Correspondence with Resident Agents in the Outer Islands, 1893-1974 at the Cook Islands National Archive; and - Survey, list and copy (if appropriate) the papers of Professor Ron Crocombe. 9 reels of microfilm were exposed producing the following PMB titles: PMB 1337 MARSHALL, Donald Stanley (1919-2005), Cook Islands Research Papers, 1951- 1989. Reels 7-10. (Available for reference.) PMB 1354 COOK ISLANDS ADMINISTRATION, Resident Commissioner’s Office, Correspondence with Niue Resident Agents, 1905-1965. Reels 1-3. (Restricted Access.) PMB 1355 COOK ISLANDS ADMINISTRATION, Resident Commissioner’s Office, Correspondence with Rakahanga Resident Agents, 1922-1970. Reels 1-3. (Restricted Access.) It was not possible to survey Rod Dixon’s papers on Mangaia as he said that they were not yet in any kind of order for me to look at. During this trip, several other meetings and visits were made (see below) . Many of these meetings may lead to further work for the PMB in the Cook Islands (see heading Future work for PMB below). PAA Conference Mon 9 – Wed 11 August I attended the Pacific Arts Association conference in Rarotonga. I presented a paper titled “Archives and Pacific Art”. The paper was well received and I met many professionals who are involved in art galleries and museums throughout the world with a Pacific focus. I promoted the work of the PMB and handed out many flyers on PMB work and business cards. Cook Islands National Archives (CINA) Thu 12- Fri 13 and Mon 23- Thu 26 August. George Paniani, Canny Vale and Ake Willie National Archives I worked at the Cook Island National Archives copying correspondence with the Resident Agents to and from the Resident Commissioner’s Office for the islands of Niue (1905-1965) and Rakahanga (1922-1970). The papers were often out of date order and it took time to put them back into date order before I could begin the microfilming. Initially I found the papers difficult to microfilm as they were of different sizes and densities. The camera had to be high up on the main arm, 88cm, in order to capture the entire document with a border, meaning I had to stand on a box to check the positioning of the camera through the lens. The Niue papers were the first papers I microfilmed on this trip and I spent much of my time adjusting the direction of the papers and height of the camera. This microfilm will need editing. For the Rakahanga papers I chose to microfilm in landscape format and left the camera height at 88cm for the entire microfilm. I am hoping this will have worked better and the microfilm will not need as much editing. As Ewan mentioned in his 2004 report, “the correspondence includes routine reports on agricultural production, shipping, education, health, building and port construction and island Council matters together with detailed accounts of irregular events such as labour and land disputes, criminal activities, boats lost at sea, serious illness, cyclones and storms”. The papers on Niue were particularly interesting with the Resident Agent asking for cuttings of citrus, pistachio, java (coffee) as well as ladybirds, lace wings, bees, minah birds (!) and owls to destroy rats and mice – but also questioning if owls will eat the chickens! In one telegram of 2 Sep 1957 the Resident Agent says “Can you spare five thousand aspirins (to be replaced)?”. The power was out for a couple of hours one morning, however I spent this time re-organising and sorting the papers to be microfilmed. The PMB titles from the Cook Island National Archives are currently “Restricted Access”. Ewan asked me to check with Mr George Paniani, the National Archivist, if the restriction still applies or could be eased. Mr Paniani said that he had discussed this with Mr Sonny Williams, the Minister for Culture, and they want the restriction to apply because of personal names, family and land matters that appear in the papers. I assured him that the PMB and our member libraries would continue to adhere to the restriction and users of the PMB Cook Islands National Archives microfilm would contact him before accessing the PMB titles. Mr Paniani said that he is still waiting on the outcome of the Ministry of Culture re-structure. Before, the Ministry consisted of nine Divisional Heads. The new re-structure will see four managers with the National Records and Information Manager overseeing the National Library and National Archive. There will then be a supervisor for the Library and a separate supervisor for the Archives. He is expecting that the re-structure will be announced next week. The Ministry of Culture has a slightly increased budget for the next financial year and he is hopeful that the Ministry will pay the PARBICA fees that are outstanding for the Cook Islands National Archives. The Ministry also needs to back-pay staff for individual salary increases that have not yet been awarded. Mr Paniani said that he is also waiting to hear on the outcome of a large amount of UNESCO funding which the Archives has applied 2 for. This will deliver digital equipment including new computers, scanners and a laser printer for the archives. The total amount applied for is around US$30-35K. Mr Paniani said that he would like to receive PMB CINA titles in digital format in future. University of the South Pacific Mon 16 – Sat 21 August I worked at the USP Cook Islands Centre and copied the remainder of documents from the Don Marshall papers which Ewan had begun copying in 2009 held by Rod Dixon in his office. I also elaborated on some of the listings. The microfilming was routine and went smoothly, producing another four reels for this title. Ron Crocombe’s papers Tue 24 – Fri 27 August I created a listing (see Appendix 1) of Ron Crocombe’s papers at the Crocombe home. Crocombe was a Pacific Historian and lecturer. He was the founding Professor Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific and the founding Director of the Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific. He was awarded a PhD. from the Australian National University in 1961. From 1957 to 2009 he published extensively on a large range of topics relating to the Pacific including land policy, rural sociology, ethnohistory, regional organization, social, cultural and educational policy, politics and international relations. Much of his work was devoted to facilitating and coordinating research by Pacific Islanders. The Crocombe collection is a significant resource for scholars of Pacific studies. Scope and organisation of the collection: The Ron Crocombe collection is held in two rooms. The main study room includes: • 10 large archival boxes, • 7 plastic tubs, • 1 cardboard box covered in plastic (inaccessible in back portico storage cupboard), • 3 draw filing cabinet (all 3 draws full), • 2 draw filing cabinet (1 draw full) • 4 draw wood filing cabinet (all 4 draws full), • 1 tall round tub full of rolled up maps The small enclosed Verandah Room off the side of the study includes: • 3 x four draw Artmetal filing cabinets • 1 x four draw europlan filing cabinet (not listed – personal) • Large rectangular metal case labelled R.G.Crocombe, U.S.P. Suva (Land tenure Fiji/New Caledonia) Not cited Photographs (not yet cited, Marjorie is organising them) The majority of the collection is well organised and labelled with subject headings on manila folders. Ron has use of the contents indexing and numbering system 3 developed by the Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific but has also added to this listing and developed his own system of subject headings with no numbers. Document types The documents in the collection relate to Ron Crocombe’s wide-ranging professional interest in the Pacific, including land tenure in the Cook Islands and wider Pacific regions as well as more contemporary documents on Asia and the Pacific. Subject files cover topics such as individual Pacific Islands, religion, culture, politics, health, USP, etc. (see Appendix 1 for more detail). Most of the documents are from the mid 20th to the present (2009). The older material (1950s – 1990s) includes typed and handwritten correspondence, university related documents, drafts and publications, conference papers, USP student essays (specifically on land tenure), PhD drafts and correspondence with students, journal offprints, letters to the editor and other Pacific scholars, book reviews, transcripts of radio interviews, correspondence with church leaders on religion throughout the Pacific, draft research notes, correspondence and sheets of data collected as part of the Inventory of Pacific Regional Organisations, observations and opinion pieces, lectures, seminars and keynote addresses by Crocombe, rare publications with small print runs, newsletters, pamphlets, flyers, maps and photographs. The more recent (late 1990s onwards) collection includes many printouts from the Internet, press clippings, including some full editions of newspapers, photocopies of journal articles, email correspondence, hand-written letter correspondence, unpublished theses, journal offprints and journals relating to the Pacific.