Pacific Island 'Memory of the World Project'. Report on Initial Research from NZETC

Abstract

The UNESCO Pacific Island Memory of the World Programme commissioned the NZETC to start Phase One of the Pacific Memory of the World Project. The NZETC was given a limited time frame of 7 weeks in which to create a list of the founding documents of each nation, and to gather information on the location and physical state of the original manuscripts or printed texts.

The aims of the Memory of the World Programme more generally are to facilitate the preservation, by the most appropriate techniques, of the world’s documentary heritage; to assist universal access to documentary heritage; and to increase awareness worldwide of the existence and significance of documentary heritage.

This part of the project was directed specifically at the Pacific Island nations covered by the UNESCO regional office in Apia: the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. We were asked to give a particular focus on Kiribati, Tuvalu, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu which are on the United Nations list of Least Developed Countries (LDRs).