Many Strands, One Basket: Seminar & Dialogue

Politics, gender, culture and history intersect in complex ways to shape lives across the Pacific. Geopolitical tensions are leading to the intensification of militarisation and securitisation processes. History tells us that there is a close connection between these political processes and transformations in gender relations and impacts on women, including gender-based violence. At the same time, national political processes are dominated by men while the gendered impacts of geopolitical processes tend to be ignored or obscured because women are excluded from decision making processes. Documentation about the impacts on and experiences of women, that may inform contemporary decision making, are also more likely to be missing from the archives and historical records.

Focusing on Papua New Guinea (PNG), the Many Strands, One Basket Seminar & Dialogue aims to create an opportunity for conversations between people working in diverse spaces (Many Strands) who may have a common interest in the nexus between politics, gender, culture and history (One Basket). We focus on questions related to the preservation of relevant historical and archival materials and how these can inform present discourses and interventions. We will hear from colleagues reflecting on challenges facing the University of PNG Library and the historical New Guinea Collection; the Pihi Manus Association, the umbrella women’s organization in Manus, PNG, as a local organization working in one Pacific site impacted by geopolitical processes; Pacific Manuscripts Bureau’s work on women in the archives; and through a case study, questions around the preservation of PNG’s national heritage as it relates to PNG’s eight-point plan’s seventh aim of the advancement of PNG women. Building on these works, participants will dialogue around some prompt questions.

Program

Time	Activity
Many Strands, One Basket: Seminar
11:00 - 11:15	Welcome and introductions. Opening Remarks by Prof. Helen Sullivan, Dean, College of Asia and the Pacific, ANU.
11:15 – 12:30	Presentations: Papua New Guinea Library and Archive Collections, Biographical Writing, and Women’s Perspectives: Lote Lisania, Acting Librarian, University of Papua New Guinea Ruth Francis, Executive Member representing interest groups in the Pihi Manus (Manus Women’s) Association, Manus Province, PNG Deveni Temu, Former University Librarian of Unitech, Lae and the ANU Pacific Collections Librarian. Research Officer, Pacific Manuscripts Bureau: The Hugh Stevenson Collection at the Michael Somare Library of UPNG. Theresa Meki and Nicholas Hoare: Department of Pacific Affairs: Revitalizing the PNG Dictionary of Biography Chaired by Jonathan Ritchie, Senior Lecturer, History, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University
12:30 – 1:30	Lunch Parallel: Archive exhibition and film screening
Many Strands, One Basket: Dialogue
1:30 – 1:40	Welcome and introductions by Emerita Professor Margaret Jolly, CHL and Gender Institute
1:40-3:00	How can we improve Indigenous Pacific and gender inclusion in the archival space? Case study: Bringing the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau (PMB), ANU Pacific Research Archives, and the Nahau Rooney archive space into conversation with each other: Kari James, Executive Officer, PMB, School of Culture, History and Language (CHL), CAP, ANU Catherine Ziegler, Archivist, ANU Pacific Research Archives Nayahamui Rooney, Lecturer, CHL, CAP and Chair of PMB
2:30-3:00	Dialogue: What questions arise for a gendered considerations in the cultural and archive preservation arise from the morning seminar and case study? What gender issues resonate with participants’ own work in the Pacific? How can the past inform or guide gender sensitive responses to present challenges in the region? Reflections and responses on the implications for archives, national heritage, and cultural preservation in the Pacific with a focus on PNG. Chaired by Prof. Matt Tomlinson, Director, CHL, CAP
3:00 – 3:30	Afternoon tea
3:30-4:10	Dialogue: As PNG approaches its 50^th Independence Anniversary, how can its past be better known? Chaired by AsPr Chris Ballard, CHL, CAP
4:10 – 4:30	Concluding reflections