Recording new stories

Photographs

Winnie Dunn is a Tongan-Australian writer and the general manager of Sweatshop Literacy Movement. She is the editor of several critically acclaimed anthologies including Sweatshop Women (2019) and Another Australia (2022). Winnie's debut novel Dirt Poor Islanders (2024) won the 2025 Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelists Award and the 2025 Creative Australia Kathleen Mitchell Award.  

In October, Winnie delivered the Ray Mathew Lecture at the Library, examining the topic of representation in literature. You can watch the recording of her lecture on the Library’s YouTube channel.  

Recently we were honoured to add portrait photographs of Winnie, taken by Lisa Maree Williams, to our collection.

Oral histories 

Our interviewers have been busy recording interviews all over the country and hearing fascinating stories about librarianship in the Pacific, high-performance athletes, women journalists and ethnomusicology.  

One interview you can listen to online is with Sosefina Fuamoli. Sosefina is an award-winning Sāmoan-Australian music journalist and broadcaster. You can also hear Sosefina as host of the weekly music interview show ‘On The Record’ for ABC Pacific/Radio Australia.

Talanoa: Meetings and visits 

It has been a big few months for events, with the project team attending events in Sydney, Brisbane and hosting the Pasifika Film Fest in Canberra!

KAVA: Pukepuke Fonua 

Two library staff were honoured to attend KAVA: Pukepuke Fonua  in August, organised by our project partner Ana Tuionuku of Twinnies. This incredible performance by members of the Tongan community in Bankstown combined traditional song,dance and shadow puppetry to tell the origin story of kava and its central place in Tongan culture.  

Curatorial director Barbara Lemon was invited to take part in the kava ceremony on stage. Lauren Smith, Assistant Director of Publishing, also attended in her capacity as a judge of the associated poetry competition, providing Library publications as prizes. Other guests included NSW Minister Jihad Dib (Member for Bankstown), the Mayor, Councillor Bilal El-Hayek and Tongan-Kiwi filmmaker Vea Mafile'o.  

This was a wonderful opportunity for the Library to be part of a community event and to learn more about the history and expression of Tongan culture.

Tokelau Language Celebration Day 

On 5 October, two Library team members were honoured to attend the inaugural Tokelau Language Celebration Day in Mount Druitt. Organised by Tuluma Inc., the event brought together the Tokelau community in Sydney for a day celebrating Gagana Tokelau through spoken word, song and children’s activities. The team also enjoyed learning about Tokelau culture through dancing, singing and the display of culturally significant objects.

Digitisation Talanoa 

On the October long weekend two Library team members travelled to Queensland to take part in a Talanoa led by Dr Inez Fainga'a-Manu Sione and Dr Ruth (Lute) Faleolo at the Village Connect space in Logan.   

In the Talanoa we listened to some deeply thoughtful reflections about the importance of context in storytelling and how cultural items are enhanced by the stories and meanings connected with them. The group also discussed the value in digitisation and whether digitising items from the National Library collection to make available on Trove would be of interest.   

This was the first formal Talanoa our team had participated in, and we were grateful to the group who were so open and welcoming by allowing us to take part.  

Pasifika Vibes Festival 

While in Queensland the team also attended the Pasifika Vibes Festival in Lawnton. Our team chatted with stall holders and of course enjoyed some Otai while watching various performances. All the work the Pasifika Families team and the volunteers put in clearly paid off, with a successful festival and great vibe!   

Events

Recent

Pasifika Film Fest

On 10 October more than 100 people visited the Library to watch the Canberra screening of the short film Tales of the Diaspora and the film Remathau: People of the Ocean as part of the Pasifika Film Fest. We were lucky enough to have Her Excellency Ms Jane J Chigiyal, Ambassador of the Federated States of Micronesia to Australia, introduce the films.  

After the screenings, the audience enjoyed a fascinating panel discussion with Tales of the Diaspora writer/director Lidwina Tutuvanu and Deputy Chief of Mission Embassy of the FSM Myjolynne Kim, facilitated by Director of the Pasifika Film Festival Dr Eliorah Malifa. 

(Left to Right) Myjolynne Kim, Deputy Chief of Mission Embassy of the FSM to Australia, Her Excellency Ms. Jane J Chigiyal Ambassador of the Federated States of Micronesia to Australia, Dr Eliorah Malifa Pasifika Film Festival Director, Lidwina Tutuvanu Film Director and Rebecca Fleming, Senior Advisor, National Library.

Coming up 

This Little Light of Mine: Christmas Carols in Bankstown 

In December we’ll be partnering with Twinnies to stage a family-friendly Christmas carols event at the Paul Keating Park in Bankstown. With food trucks, live performances and activities for the kids, the event will be free and open to all. Keep an eye out on the Twinnies Facebook page for more details. 

Sharing Culture: Dancing Shadows 

In February next year, we’re hosting a very special author read-aloud for children with Hon. Frederica Tuita of Tonga. Featuring her beautiful book Dancing Shadows, this free online event will explore storytelling, culture and identity. 

From the archive 

The Library holds a rich collection of barkcloth—tapa and kapa—from across the Pacific. Most of these date from the late eighteenth century to the early nineteenth century.  

A highlight is this kapa cloth from Hawaii, and it is one of the earliest and largest surviving in the world, measuring at 349cm long. Curator Crispin Howarth called it a ‘masterpiece of Oceanic art’. It was owned by Alexander Hood, who had served on British explorer James Cook’s second voyage to the Pacific (1772–75), thought it was likely collected on Cook’s third voyage (1776–80). How Hood acquired it is unknown.

It came to the Library in 1977, as part of the Rex Nan Kivell Collection. Nan Kivell was a New Zealand-born London art dealer who was passionate about the history of and European exploration of the Pacific. In recent decades, it has been displayed in numerous exhibitions, in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Bonn, Bern and Vienna.  

It is digitised and available to view in Trove. If you’re around Canberra, you can also request to view it in person in our reading rooms with a Library login.

Unknown makers (Hawaii), Sample of Tapa Cloth … Brought Back by Alex Hood, Master’s Mate, HMB Resolution c.1779 (detail), nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135733627  

Do you know about legal deposit? 

Did you know that the Library collects one copy of everything that is published in Australia? Because of this, the national collection is made up of over 10 million print and electronic publications!

Under special legislation called legal deposit, the Library collects print and electronic books, journals and newsletters, reports, maps, sheet music, and even electronic leaflets, fact sheets and posters.

We collect the electronic publications using National edeposit (NED), an innovative and collaborative service that helps Australia’s national, state, and territory libraries to capture and preserve the digital documentary history of Australia, for the benefit of all Australians.

If you have published an electronic book or newsletter and distributed copies, even if just to a small group of people, please consider depositing a copy through National edeposit. This will help preserve your stories for future generations and contribute to a diverse and representative collection of material about the Australian people.   

Get involved! 

Do you have posters or flyers from festivals or events? Have you published a book? Maybe you have your own collections of letters or photographs you think tell a story about the life of Pacific Peoples in Australia? We would love to know! You can send us an email at select@nla.gov.au.