The Melanesian Arts and Culture Festival, co-run by the host country and the Melanesian Spearhead Group, has been held regularly since 1998. It brings together people from Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Kanaky/New Caledonia, the Torres Strait, and West Papua. Over two weeks the event brought thousands of people to Vanuatu to share their diverse Melanesian cultures through dance, song, arts and crafts and literature. This year’s theme was Rebuilding my Melanesia for our common destiny to promote and preserve traditional culture as well as provide a platform for the contemporary expression of Melanesian identity.

As part of MACFEST, the National University of Vanuatu organised a symposium where writers, poets, artists, and academics came together to share different research projects taking place in Melanesia, as well as discuss the state of writing and publishing in the Pacific. Presentations were diverse, including a hip-hop performance, poetry readings, academic papers and a panel on life writing in Melanesia.

Rowan and Leah were honoured to present about the Library’s Pacific collections, explaining that collecting from the Pacific, with a focus on Melanesia, is the Library’s next highest priority after collecting Australian material. They also shared how people can discover Pacific collections held in cultural institutions, including the National Library of Australia, through the free Digital Pasifik website. Additionally, they encouraged participants to apply for one of the Library’s Fellowships to allow them to engage deeply with relevant Library collections onsite.

Leah and Rowan were pleased to meet with colleagues at the National Library of Vanuatu, the Emalus campus of the University of the South Pacific and a meeting of the Vanuatu Library Association. Through these meetings they learned about the realities faced by colleagues in the Pacific, including the impact of natural disasters and disaster responsiveness, barriers to digitising their collections and the lack of local tertiary education for librarians in the Pacific.

They also gathered useful knowledge on the current state of publishing in the Pacific. There are a limited number of publishers, and most works are self-published with many published online. Publishing printed locally can be perceived as lesser quality, while printing overseas is expensive. The circulation of titles is limited by the cost of printing and limited distribution options are available to authors. In addition, there are few local editors available, with many authors turning to Australian editors who often do not understand Melanesian culture and concepts or value the Melanesian voice.