The Pacific Manuscripts Bureau (PMB or Pambu) was established at the Australian National University (ANU) back in 1968 to catalogue and make preservation copies of archives, manuscripts and rare printed materials held in, or relating to, the Pacific Islands. We prioritise materials at risk of loss or damage due to the Pacific climate with its high humidity and frequency of natural disasters. We also prioritise collections that are in private hands that would otherwise be inaccessible to researchers. We travel to collections using portable copying equipment and we invite the collection custodians to set access conditions.

In 1992, then PMB Executive Officer, Gillian Scott, published Women in the Pacific: A guide to the records on microfilm written by, or about, women in the Pacific copied by the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau. Thirty years later, the ANU Gender Institute awarded the Bureau a grant to update this guide. Since 1992, around 500 collections – at least 60 by or about women – have been added to the PMB collection. The creation of a new finding aid will contextualise these collections for present day researchers and apply a contemporary research lens to highlight records of diverse women in the Pacific.

Join Kari James, Dr Deborah Lee-Talbot and Annie Kwai to learn about how the new guide is progressing (findings, challenges, limitations) and hear stories about some of the women you can find in the PMB collection.