Prof Matthew Spriggs is a 2025 National Library of Australia Fellow.

About Prof Matthew Sprigg’s Fellowship research

We hold the collections of Sir John Alexander Ferguson (1881-1969), a judge in the Industrial Commission of New South Wales and author of the seven volume Bibliography of Australia 1784-1900. These remain as the standard reference for books published on Australia during that period. While others may have collected stamps, butterflies or exotic birds, Ferguson collected the publications from the Mission printing presses of the New Hebrides (as Vanuatu was known before 1980). These were donated to the Library upon his death. 

The earliest materials (apart from word lists) that were published in Vanuatu languages all date to 1842-3 in the languages of Aneityum, Futuna and Port Resolution (Nafe language) on Tanna - a history of books in Vanuatu languages going back over 183 years. These old texts will prove useful for communities trying to revive their languages, or those involved in Bible translation, as well as linguists who are interested in linguistic change in Vanuatu during the last nearly 2 centuries. Prof Matthew Spriggs will discuss some of the discoveries he uncovered in his research into the collection during his Fellowship.

About Prof Matthew Spriggs

Prof Matthew Spriggs is an Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at The Australian National University and an Honorary Curator of Archaeology at the Vanuatu Cultural Centre, Port Vila, Vanuatu, where he now lives.

His interests include Pacific and Island Southeast Asian archaeology, archaeological theory and the history of archaeology. His current ARC Project (with Lynette Russell of Monash University) is Aboriginal Involvement in the Early History of Archaeology (2021–23).

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