Oceania | National Library of Australia (NLA)

Oceania

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Epi dance group

Epi (Vanuatu) cultural dance group performing at Saralana Park, 27 July 2023. Photograph courtesy of Melanesian Arts & Culture Festival 2023

Visiting Vanuatu and the Melanesian Arts and Culture Festival 2023

Library staff recently attended the Melanesian Arts and Culture Festival (MACFEST), returning with new acquisitions, knowledge and connections.

Blog
Collection guide
Tooley Collection

1277 charts and maps dating from the 16th to the late 19th centuries, including maps of the Pacific and New Zealand as well as Australia.

Collection guide
Collection guide
South Pacific Commission

The microfilm collection includes 78 manuscripts copied by the South Pacific Commission, created by missionaries, anthropologists, and linguists between 1900 and 1956. 

Collection guide
Collection guide
Sir Peter Crisp Collection

696 books and pamphlets relating to freshwater fishing mostly from Britain, as well as many from Australia, New Zealand and America.

Collection guide
Collection guide
Robinson Collection

387 books, mostly related to Australia, but also several works on New Zealand and the Pacific. It is strong in accounts of the exploration of Australia and Pacific voyages.

Collection guide
A colourful watercolour showing the mountainous coastline of Tahiti. The mountains are shades of grey, blue and purple. The sky has billowing clouds.The shore is dotted with vegetation. In the foreground, two figures row a long canoe along the coast. The canoe is carrying something, although it's unclear what it is.

Nicholas Chevalier, (1868), Otaheite [i.e. Tahiti], nla.gov.au/nla.obj-134623111

Polynesian expansion across the Pacific (c.700-1756)

Module

This resource is aligned to the Australian Curriculum: History for Year 8 students. It adopts an inquiry learning approach that develops students’ skills in investigating Asia-Pacific societies in depth.

Digital Classroom
Collection guide
Petherick Collection

About 15,000 books and pamphlets. The great strength of the collection is in Pacific voyages and early Australiana with many very rare items. Also manuscripts including papers of Joseph Banks, maps and pictures.

Collection guide
Whats On Dr Christina Thompson Fellowships

Part of Letter of Pomare II, King of Tahiti, 1806 (detail), nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1813553

Palapala: a story of reading, writing, and books with Dr Christina Thompson

Dr Christina Thompson presented a lecture on her 2023 Creative Arts Fellowship research into what happened when writing arrived on the islands of the Pacific.

Event
Video
painting of a ship in the background on the ocean and palm trees on an island in the foreground

George Gordon McCrae, [Sailing ship near Pacific island], nla.gov.au/nla.obj-139352101

Pacific research guide

The Library holds a rich and diverse range of documentary materials relating to the Pacific region, including Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia and New Zealand.

Research guide
A group of men performing a traditional dance

Terence & Margaret Spencer, Independence Day Celebration (15) Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 1975, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-145645567

Pacific collections

The National Library holds a rich and diverse range of library materials on the Pacific region, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

Information article
A detailed historical map of Sydney Cove, Port Jackson, depicting early settlement areas, marked camps, and referenced landmarks such as gardens and marine camps. Includes a list of ship names from the First Fleet and geographical details.

Francis Fowkes, Sydney Cove, Port Jackson, in the County of Cumberland, 1789, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-230578175 

Nan Kivell Collection

About 5000 books, pamphlets and periodicals, over 11,000 paintings, drawings and prints, around 800 maps and over 300 manuscripts mostly published 1770-1900. Largely relating to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific including Antarctica.

Collection guide
A sample of an emigration pass. It says 'Colonial Emigration Form, Man's Emigration Pass' with signatures and handwritten information.
Indian emigration passes to Fiji 1879 - 1916

Find out how to access over 60,000 passes issued to Indian people who came to Fiji as indentured labourers.

Research guide

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