The MOWCAP Bureau wishes to extend its heartfelt thanks to Roslyn Russell, who has recently stepped down from her role as Chair of the Australian Memory of the World Committee, which she co-founded in 2000 and has been chairing since 2013. She spearheaded the Australian Memory of the World Committee into becoming a thriving and active programme with 78 inscriptions on its national register to date. Regionally, she has been participating in workshops across Asia and the Pacific as an expert to promote and build capacity in documentary heritage since 2007.

Roslyn has also been an active player in the global Memory of the World community as a member of the programme’s International Advisory Committee between 2005 and 2013, first acting as Chair of the Register Sub-Committee, then as Chair of the committee itself. More recently, in 2021 she helped to launch the children’s book Let’s Explore the Memory of the World, a publication she enjoyed sharing with her family, and in 2022 supported nomination teams in developing their dossiers for the MOWCAP Regional Register and promoting Indigenous collections.

Roslyn will continue to be involved in the Australian Memory of the World Committee as its Treasurer, leaving her previous role in the good hands of her successor, Shayne Breynard. We at MOWCAP hope to continue benefiting from Roslyn’s expertise, warmth, and her positive and nurturing personality in its future activities, and welcome Shayne to his new role.

The MOWCAP General Meeting was held on 24-26 November 2022, hosted by the Korean Studies Institute (KSI), in Andong, Republic of Korea. The hybrid meeting gathered 109 participants, including six MOWCAP Bureau members, 20 Member States, three UNESCO representatives and 80 observers from various institutions across the region.

Latest updates in national documentary heritage activities were shared, as well as the MOWCAP Register Sub Committee’s recommendations and Member State comments on the 2022 cycle of nominations to the MOWCAP Regional Register.

The 9th MOWCAP General Meeting will be held from 24-26 November 2022. The meeting is generously hosted by the Korean Studies Institute (KSI), Andong, Republic of Korea.

The event will be hybrid and delegates can attend in person or online.

A draft agenda for the General Meeting is available. Please note that this agenda may be subject to minor changes before the meeting.

For any enquiries or questions please contact MOWCAP Secretariat at: gm2022@mowcap.org

The UNESCO Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific (MOWCAP) is pleased to share the results of the 2022 round of the Asia Culture Centre (ACC)-MOWCAP Grants Program.

In 2022, thirteen applications were assessed against the application criteria (outlined in the Grant Guidelines), with four organizations from eight countries in the Asia-Pacific region awarded grants. These grantees are from Australia, Mongolia, Kyrgyz Republic and Republic of Tajikistan, and Vietnam. They will undertake projects to preserve and make documentary heritage collections accessible. The ACC-MOWCAP Small Grants Programme is made possible through the generous financial support of the Asia Culture Center (ACC). $20,000 USD was awarded under the 2022 grants cycle.

To further enhance inter-regional collaboration and promote common documentary heritage across Asia and Africa, the “Inter-regional

Dialogue: Sharing Good Practices in Documentary Heritage between Asia and Africa” was launched on 26 July by UNESCO Bangkok and Nairobi Regional Offices in cooperation with MOWCAP and Africa Regional Committee for the Memory of the World (ARCMOW).

The inter-regional dialogue between Asia/Pacific and Africa gathered 49 participants, comprising representatives from National MoW committees, National Commissions for UNESCO, and UNESCO Field Offices in Asia and Africa. Good practices in managing a regional Memory of the World committee and a regional register were shared, as well as areas for collaboration.

Following the call for nominations for the UNESCO Memory of the World Asia Pacific Regional Register (15 February-15 June 2022), we are pleased to share that thirteen (13) nominations have been deemed admissible for assessment by the MOWCAP Register Sub-Committee (RSC) as outlined under Section D of the UNESCO Memory of the World Asia Pacific Regional Register Process.

The title and a summary for each nomination form that has been accepted for assessment can be found in the table below. The summary is based on the information provided by nominators in Section 2 of the nomination form. A full text of nominations accepted for assessment will be provided on request to interested parties (a request can be submitted to the MOWCAP Secretary-General via email to mowcapinfo@gmail.com)

MOWCAP invites comments on these accepted nominations from National MoW
Committees and National Commissions or from any interested individual or organisations, to be submitted to the MOWCAP Secretary-General by 15 August 2022.

Comments that support or provide other information relevant to aspects of any current nomination are welcome, for instance, the sender may wish to provide information to supplement the nominator’s case. All comments received shall be transmitted forthwith to the Chair of the RSC for consideration by the RSC in the process of its assessment.

Any contestations must be made using the specified form and process outlined under
Section N of the UNESCO Memory of the World Asia Pacific Regional Register Process.

1. Australia

The Australian Academy of Science received a grant for the Fenner Collection Digitisation and Digital Access Project.

The manuscript collection of Professor Frank Fenner in the archives of the Australian Academy of Science covers the life and work of a distinguished Australian scientist and was added to the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register in 2019.

Professor Fenner is widely known for his significant contribution to global public health as Chairman of
the World Health Organisation Global Commission for the Certification of Smallpox Eradication. He has made major contributions to the understanding of viruses and the literature of microbiology and has stated that his proudest achievement was announcing on 8 May 1980 that smallpox was gone from the earth.

The collection records Professor Frank Fenner’s enormous contribution to scientific research and communication over more than eight decades. It is also an unexpectedly rich personal archive documenting Professor Fenner’s experience of his work, his broad-ranging intellectual interests, the history and development of the Australian National University, and his contribution to the broader community.

Applications for the 2022 round of the ACC-MOWCAP Small Grants Programme are now open, with grants of up to $5000 USD available for documentary heritage related projects in the Asia-Pacific. Applications close on the 15 June 2022. 

The Asia Culture Center (ACC) and the UNESCO Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific (MOWCAP) launched the ACC-MOWCAP Small Grants Programme to support archives, museums and libraries in the Asia-Pacific to undertake innovative projects and initiatives to preserve and provide access to their collections. The grants support the overall aim of the UNESCO Memory of the World to enhance preservation of and access to humanity’s documentary heritage.

Information on how to apply for a grant is available here.