The cultural heritage of the Pacific Islands is a lived one, brought alive by the telling of story and with knowledge passed on by dance, song, crafting, preparation of food and by the power of oratory and questioning.

We are very privileged to have three new content partners who have signed up this month and whose work reflects these traditions. As well as viewing their records, please connect with them using the details on their profile pages.

Each of these new content partners are using Youtube as the platform to share and tell their stories. As the Youtube API and metadata is relatively easy for us to gather, we are excited by how we can be a site that shares their work alongside the digitised records of GLAM institutions using other cataloguing platforms.

One of the many challenges facing Pacific Island based institutions and community groups using online platforms is how to heard alongside the many other cultural heritage institutions. As a collective space, we are pleased that each of these three, Pacific based content partners are now equal partners alongside our other content partners.

Importantly, each of these partners is in control of their work. As we are not a repository for content, when you select one of their records, you will always land on their site or Youtube channel to view the work.

Solomon Islands National Museum

We first connected with the Solomon Islands Museum in June of 2020, as part of our initial engagement with people and organisations across the Pacific region and before the site was live. At that time they didn’t have digitised content or records available to share with us. But in late May of 2021, Shirley emailed us to let us know that the Museum team and some volunteers had worked hard to get a number of their film collections online using YouTube. We are now very pleased to be able to highlight this collection on our site, and to share the culture and stories of the Solomon Islands with a wider audience.

Solomon Islands National Museum is one of oldest government institutions in the Solomon Islands and was established in 1969. Their physical collections consist of cultural materials, artifacts from World War 2, and other archaeological materials, which range from the smallest pottery shed to the biggest Taumakomask.

Their mission as a culture and heritage institution is; to collect, preserve, protect, safeguard, record, develop and promote the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of the Solomon Islands.

"Solomon Islands National Museum" (CC BY 2.0) by Adelaide Archivist

Lologo Mai

Patrick Lino was introduced to us by Kari James who is part of our co-design team. Patrick runs the Lologo Mai YouTube channel. This channel is used to promote the use of Niuean language by superimposing 'lyrics' over audio and visuals (karaoke style) to help the user recognise and understand the words and phrases being used in the Niuean context.

The team seeks to provide another way to help users recognise and understand the formation of Niuean words and phrases in the context of a composition of Niuean music. Not to mention it's fun to learn by singing!

The channel is part of an ongoing development to link with other social media platforms to encourage discussion of content and transfer knowledge between older and younger Niuean generations.

Patrick and the team also create lyrics for downloads and enable other composers and musicians to share their own lyrics and perhaps transform some old Niuean classics into music notation.

Tumeli Tuqota

We came across Meli Tuqota from his successful video podcast FIJI BC. This 4 episode series is a collaboration between Meli and Mr Simione Sevudredre, the Principal Cultural Officer at the Ministry of iTaukei Affairs in which they discuss the history, customs and practices in Fiji before the arrival of Europeans.

Meli is a very talented artist and created Fiji BC as he wanted to learn more about video production, and to do so while focusing on the context of Fijian history and culture. He is based in Suva and has over 15 years of experience with graphic design, motion design, and working with others in creative storytelling. His website showcases a number of other aspects of his work and passion, and you can follow him on a number of other online platforms.

Hero image by Linus Sandvide on Unsplash