PARBICA Conferences
PARBICA 21 REPORT
Wellington, New Zealand
November 7-8, 2025
After a five-year absence of having an in-person conference, the Pacific Regional Branch International Council of Archives (PARBICA 2) Conference took place live at the Archives New Zealand building in Wellington, New Zealand. PARBICA consists of archivists, librarians, and records managers from across the Pacific Islands, and the last time that this group came together was at PARBICA 17 in Adelaide, Australia in 2019. The few meetings in between were conducting online over Zoom. The conference was sponsored by digitalpasifik.org and the organization, PARADESIC.
The program opened with the staff from Archives and National Library New Zealand leading a mihi whakatau. This is a traditional Māori welcome that started with a whaikōrero (formal speech) from the hosts, followed by a waiata tautoki (supporting song). To support the speakers, the PARBICA attendees sung a Fijian song, which we practiced the night before. Pacific Islanders are natural born singers, so I must admit we sounded good.
After the formalities, the meeting got underway. It started with an opening speech from the PARBICA President, Timoci Balenaivalu of the National Archives of Fiji. This was followed by the PARIBCA Bureau reports that included one from the Treasurer and one from the Secretary. After this, we held elections for the PARBICA officers and members who will sit on this post for the next two years. The election was quite dramatic, especially when we waited from votes from those who were attending online. Country reports then followed, and I gave a short talk about what my nonprofit organization, Island Culture Archival Support, had achieved since 2019. Next, the conference's keynote address, "Collaboration, Education, Engagement: Digital Archiving in Action, which was presented by Jodie Kell, Steven Gagau, and Julia Miller of the Australian organization, PARADISEC. The Bureau part of the meeting was then wrapped up with the PARBICA business plan for 2026-2028.
In the afternoon of the first day, attendees had the option of either taking a tour or sitting in on a workshop. The tour took place at the Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision and was followed by a two-hour workshop. For those people who remained at the new National Archives New Zealand building, had the honor of sitting in the workshop, "Duct Tape and Downloads," presented by Gaia Resources. This presentation took on the idea of how many organizations are unable to begin preserving digital material because of a lack of budgets and skills. Thus, the workshop focused on how to utilize a small selection of digital preservation tools.
Although the conference was a short two-day event, it had a packed itinerary with the theme of "Demystifying Digital." Day two of the conference put the theme to big use. After the PARBICA's President's welcome, the day started with the presentation, "From Koha to Digital Kaitiakitang: Indigenous Values, Data, Sovereignty and Library Systems." This was given by Aleisha Amohia and Chris Cormack from the organization, Catalyst. Then, Robin Wright of Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC), talked about digitizing for the long-term. The morning presentations were then completed with James Doig, National Archives of Australia, who talked about monitoring the health of your digital collections.
After lunch, there were two more workshops that epitomized the theme of the conference. First, Erin Kingshott and Jessica Heffer of the National Film and Sound Archive, Australia, presented a workshop titled, "Digitization and Discoverability: Preparing your Audiovisual Collections for Digitization and Access through Culturally Led Co-Design." This was followed by the PARADISEC team who gave the workshop, "From Start to Finish: A Workflow for Digital Archiving." The conference was then wrapped up with PARBICA's President's closing message. But before the attendees went their separate ways, everyone sung the Fijian farewell song, "Isa Lei."
Overall, the conference was quite colorful and informative, as they have always been in the past. It was very important to have this meeting in person. It was great to see some of my colleagues who I haven't seen for many years. I rekindled old relationship and made some knew ones. The theme of "Demystifying Digital" was timely as many archival organizations throughout the Pacific are interested in digitizing their most important and fragile collections. But the conference also showcased the wonderful digital commitments and programs that have already been established in the region and have given access to some truly amazing digital collections. These organizations and the work that they are doing only stand as a positive influence and inspiration to those Pacific archival institutions who dream of creating their own accessible online, cultural collections to share with the rest of the world.
