A virtual two hour Memory of the World workshop was held on 9 November 2023 as part of the PARBICA (Pacific Regional Branch of the International Council of Archives) biennial conference. There was much interest in the session and forty people from across the Pacific attended. MOWCAP works collaboratively with PARBICA and the workshop was the first opportunity to re-engage with many Pacific countries since the pandemic.
The purpose of the workshop was to provide an overview of the Memory of the World Programme with a focus on documentary heritage registers and the processes for submitting and assessing nominations for inscription to a register. The three speakers were from Pacific countries and all had experience with both PARBICA and the Memory of the World Programme.
Dr Roslyn Russell, a previous chair of the International Advisory Committee provided an overview of the MoW Programme and also gave tips for completing the current MOWCAP nomination form. Dianne Macaskill, a MOWCAP Bureau member, spoke about the revised MOWCAP register guidelines and gave examples of some previous Pacific inscriptions. Opeta Alefaio, a MOWCAP Register Sub-Committee member, spoke about the process used to make recommendations to the MOWCAP General Meeting.
There were many questions and comments from the attendees. One of the important outcomes was to ensure that Pacific nominators knew who to contact to obtain more information and support to develop a nomination or set up a National Committee.