Harnessing the internet for traditional PNG archives

Pacific Media Centre: UPNG

At the National Cultural Commission's Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies, a team of local researchers has the mountainous task of recording the traditional knowledge of PNG societies.

With some 814 distinct cultures, Ralph Wari, the institute's director, freely admits that they have hardly touched the surface of local language, customs, arts, and music. But with limited resources, the team must record and archive as much material as possible as well as disseminate it, in many cases to help ensure its survival.

While most of the collected materials are currently residing at the institute's Port Moresby base, Wari is hoping that the internet will prove a useful tool in making the vast stores of local knowledge more widely available.

The Institute of PNG Studies is one of several potential information providers taking part in a project coordinated by the University of Papua New Guinea's South Pacific Centre for Communication and Information in Development (SPCenCIID) and funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) as part of its Pan-Asia Networking (PAN) programme.

The project – named PAN Information Networking and Services Papua New Guinea (PINS-PNG) – will lead to an information server being established and encourage institutions to publish electronically. Similar PAN country-level information servers have been funded in the Philippines, Vietnam and Nepal by IDRC.

PINS-PNG aims to bring together some of the country's best sources of local content to build up a PNG presence on the internet, as well as provide training for relevant organisations, and encourage the distribution of research materials within the country.

With one of the largest pockets of biodiversity in the world, PNG has long been a focal point for researchers from all parts of the globe.

Unfortunately, the same enthusiasm given to collecting data is not extended to its dissemination within the country.

Big potential
John Evans, a lecturer and book publisher within SPCenCIID and project leader for PINS-PNG, says that much of the research is published outside of the country and often does not make it back.

When it does, it is often limited to one location and its availability is not known elsewhere, particularly in outlying areas where much of it originates. To counter this, Evans will coordinate efforts to make more research information available through the internet as a result of the project.

“People used to go off and write their report somewhere else and it never got back again,” he says.

“Now people might be more inclined to put summaries of their research on the net.”

Locally, there is certainly no shortage of information providers with an abundance of potential content.

For the project, seven organisations have been identified initially - the Institute of PNG Studies, the University of Papua New Guinea, the National Parliament Library, the Government Office of Information and Communications, the Small Business Development Corporation, the National Association of NGOs (NANGO), and the Melanesian Institute.

Papua New Guinea has itself only been connected to the internet since 1997. But since then there is a growing awareness of its potential and no shortage of ideas on how best to use it within the context of PNG resources.

Webbing new and traditonal knowledge

The Ngatihine land dispute history and the media

Kia ora koutou katoa
I apologise for not being present at the PMC workshop but have been in Wellington for my address, last night at Te Papa and research today at the NZ Film Archive.
I am very pleased to be carrying out a research project under the auspices of the Pacific Media Centre/CIRI/AUT and wish to acknowledge the invaluable encouragement and support of Drs David Robie and Geraldene Peters in bringing
this about.
The Ngatihine Land/Forestry dispute of the mid-late 1970s saw a confrontation between two groups on a very uneven playing field. The imposing power of state judicial and bureaucratic agencies allied with big business was ranged against a very scattered and disorganised group of Maori landowners in the contest for control over 5514 hectares of Maori land in Northland.
Yet, against all the odds, the Maori shareholders concerned succeeded in parrying this attempt at sequestrating their property rights. The research proposal involves utilising documentary records to show how this issue was played out in the media and what effect this might have had on the final outcome.
The material at the my disposal comprises original press releases, numerous newspaper clippings, one TV2 News item transcript and a set of telephone logs kept continuously by the writer between April 1977 and May 1982 (with an additional period May-December 1983)
An adjunct to this resource will be documents kept by my late uncle, Graham Alexander, which may contain further material and the video documentation of aspects of this dispute made by the videomaker Darcy Lange, with whom I collaborated at the time.
A journey will be made to the locality of the forestry block in the mid-North where I will update my photographic record of it and visit surviving participants and record their recollections of events.
A report will be produced drawing all this material together and as the project proceeds, thought will be given to the output platform but it will be a combination of hard copy and electronic methods.
The Ngatihine legal dispute has a significant place in Maori land law but over the last 30 years has become a forgotten event. It would be valuable or both the younger generation of landowners and for scholars and others interested in this field to have some clear documentation of this period – just to show that a disadvantaged group can utilse the media to achieve a
positive outcome, for it. It will be of particular interest (and hopefully use) to the present Ngati-Hine Forestry Trust (these days, a very successful enterprise) whose own website contains no documentation relating to its
genesis.
Kia ora ano
John Miller

Photojournalist

Auckland