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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 43 | February 2000


Ferguson Pacific Island language collection

The National Library is fortunate to have extensive examples of materials published in the languages of the Pacific Islands, thanks to the collecting policies and interests of

Sir John Ferguson and, to a lesser extent, Rex Nan Kivell. Geraldine Triffitt, a linguistic bibliographer, has been employed from July 1999 to June 2000 to ensure that the valuable Ferguson Pacific Island language collection is catalogued and accessible on Kinetica. Nearly all the works in this collection are of a religious nature: Bible translations, catechisms, prayer books and hymn books. This in itself provides insights into the ways in which both literacy and colonialism spread through the Pacific. Often religious texts were the first works published in a language, or even the first works published in a country. The oldest item in the collection is the 1820 translation of the Gospel according to St Matthew in Tahitian by John Davies, Te Evanelia a Mataio no Iesu Christ to tatou fatu.

Ferguson corresponded with many of the missionaries, particularly in the former New Hebrides and Solomon Islands, and many of the books are inscribed by the missionaries themselves. Three parts of his A Bibliography of the New Hebrides and a History of the Mission Press have been published. Correspondence and bibliographical entries for other languages in the other two parts planned are in his manuscript collection.

As well as giving a detailed description of the history of the various presses, Ferguson gives biographical details of the missionaries and the adventurous and often dangerous lives they led, at the mercy of the forces of nature or of occasionally hostile Islanders. In 1913 Dr Bowie, the missionary on Ambrym, saw fragments of his house and hospital hurled into the air by a volcano before the mission compound was covered by eight fathoms of water. Tanna was the first New Hebridean island to attempt missionary activity, but local opposition forced the Samoan teachers and the missionaries George Turner and Henry Nisbet to flee to Samoa where two small books were printed in the Tanna language, Kwamera. These were the first publications in any New Hebridean language and are extremely rare. The Library holds both, although one is an incomplete copy.

Geraldine Triffith with items from the Ferguson Pacific Island Language Collection.

Because of the large number of languages in Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, missionaries stayed in one location where they could learn the local language and translate the Scriptures. There are 66 living languages in the Solomon Islands and 111 in Vanuatu according to Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Of these, the Ferguson collection has works in 25 languages and 36 languages respectively, representing most of the print output from the mission presses.

There is a wealth of Maori material at the National Library of Australia, evident when comparing holdings with items in A Bibliography of Printed Maori to 1900 (Williams). Librarians at the Alexander Turnbull Library at the National Library of New Zealand were particularly interested in a circular by Rev. T. Grace and printed by John Telford, warning Maori owners against selling their land. The circular was suppressed, and the Library’s copy is the only one known to exist. Other Polynesian languages well represented in the Ferguson collection are Rarotongan, Samoan, Tahitian, Tongan and Hawaiian. Although some of the material may appear unprepossessing, every item bears witness to the dedication of the missionaries to bringing literacy as well as Christianity to the Pacific Islanders, while preserving vernacular languages. A collection such as this ensures that many languages under threat of extinction remain available to researchers.

Above: Geraldine Triffitt with items from the Ferguson Pacific Island Language Collection, including the first Tahitian printed book and the first Hawaiian hymn book

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Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: tford@nla.gov.au

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