NAM Official Annual Report 2022

ANNUAL REPORT 2022

VISIT US AT

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www.nationalarchives.gov.mt

The National Archives of Malta

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Courts and Tribunals Archive

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The Malta Study Centre

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The Archives Portal Europe

www.archivesportaleurope.eu

A publication of the National Archives of Malta

© The National Archives of Malta

Contributors: The staff of the National Archives, volunteers and members of the Friends of the National Archives

ISSN: 1997-6348

Design: Salesian Press - Sliema

Print ing: Government Printing Press

Cover. Seventy-five years ago, one of Malta’s worst sea tragedies took place. On 30 October 1948, a fishing boat carrying passengers from Malta to Gozo capsized and sank in rough seas off Qala. Twenty-three out of the 27 persons on board drowned. The photo shows the funeral cortege of seven of the victims moving along Palm Street in Victoria, from the Gozo hospital mortuary (then in St Francis Square) to the Cathedral. We are commemorating this event by publishing a paper about this tragedy by former Assistant National Archivist Fr Joseph Bezzina whose uncle was one of the victims.

Another event that took place seventy-five years ago was the signing of the MaltaAustralia Passage Assistance Agreement. This agreement, signed on 5 May 1948, was the first such agreement that Australia had made with any country other than Britain. Along the years it extended the benefit of subsidised travel costs to over 63,000 Maltese persons. Emigration marked and shaped the development of the Maltese society in the latter half of the 20th century. In this report, we are publishing a paper by Maltese-Australian historian Dr Barry York discussing this agreement and its significance.

Photo: Don Bosco Foundation of the Salesians, Malta.

Photo: Migrants Commission.

Once more it is time for us to come back to the public with the annual assessment of our work, that is also presented to Parliament. This is a time for us to present facts and statistics about our operations, but also to celebrate the excellent initiatives taken and hint at what waits in store for the years to come.

During the last two years we reported successes with the project MEMORJA, our oral, sound and visual archive. We also fulfilled successfully all the commitments under the European Digital Treasures (EDT) project. This brought huge satisfaction due to the extensive opportunities for local and international interaction. It also provided the academic community with new publications, an array of archives-linked merchandising and an amazing learning experience for all the staff involved in the design, implementation and dissemination of the project.

2022 was also a crucial year in our preparation for the completion of the Notarial Registers Archive that will operate in Valletta. This project will provide the reading public with a state-of-the-art repository that will facilitate the upkeep of the ever-growing 2 kms of records and research facilities in a safe and pleasant environment. We shall now inaugurate the main components of the project that were managed the Office of the Chief Notary to Government. Yet, this is not a finished project. We shall be investing in the facilities that still need to be developed and forge a formal working relationship with the Notarial Archives Foundation. This collaboration will ensure that the State shoulders its responsibility for this important component of our archival heritage.

There were also matters that did not work out in the way we had hoped. Our greatest disappointment has to do with the new National Archives project at Ta’ Qali. In line with government’s commitment to build a new national archive complex that will also cater for the national audio-visual institute (NAVI) we had dedicated a lot of time and energy to arrive at the best concept and design for the Ta’ Qali archives hub. I thank all those who dedicated thier time and energy, in particular the committee that was entrusted to support us. I also thank the National Archives of France for the technical support they have provided us and are still willing to provide. All these dreams faded away when the Ta’ Qali site was unceremoniously ‘taken over’.

The future of the new national archive building depends on the identification by government of a new site for the project. Until then, we will continue investing in our network of current buildings that with

the notarial registers archive will comprise seven repositories. We may keep adding to the repositories but in the long run the system risks collapsing. While we focus our energy on the holdings, their physical and intellectual control, develop new services for our patrons and a robust IT infrastructure, we are aware that this can never be fully achieved through the current fragmented approaches in buildings that do not even offer the basic minimum climatic conditions.

The need of a new national archives is not in any way inspired by a desire for an architectural statement. Obviously, it would be a pity if our country does not invest in a design that makes a clear statement towards culture, openness, and accountability in building its national archives. But independently of this, the new national archives premises, building on the new records management culture instilled in this country, is crucial for our country’s soul, memory, and identity.

We have most public departments and entities collaborating, building retention policies and applying them. The days when truck loads of documents reach the archives in disarray are just memories from the past. The public administration-wide system that we built means that we need 1 km of additional storage space each year. Fragmented space is not only costly but risky and will hamper the process of adequate cataloguing and opening to the public.

The silver lining in this story is that the current government is still committed to deliver on its electoral promise of building a national archive that will cater for the traditional and new media and that it will cater for current and future needs. We will keep insisting for this to happen and prepare all the reporting needed to have a state-of-the art facility.

We are also noticing a new trend where staff members resign from our entity to take employment in archives abroad. This has hit us hard with regards to the IT, audio-visuals and conservation departments. Thus, the National Audio-Visual Institute had a delay of one year in its planned operations due to the replacement procedures. Notwithstanding, we are proud that the name of our institution on the cv of staff members is adding weight to the future prospects of our staff.

The excellent collaboration we have at international level continued to flourish with the Chairmanship of EURBICA and active participation in EAG, EBNA, ICARUS, DLM and the Archives Portal Europe (APE). Another stakeholder we strengthened our collaborated with was the Department of Library, Information and Archive Sciences at the University of Malta. This collaboration helped in the establishment of joint collaborations which will strengthen the sector further.

This could not have happened without the collaborative input of all management, staff and volunteers who have kept the name of the National Archives of Malta in high esteem for another year. They all deserve our thanks and praise.

Dr Charles J. Farrugia National Archivist and CEO

“the new national archives premises... is crucial for our country’s soul, memory and identity”

Corporate Services

Joseph Scerri

Michael Zammit Munro

Leonard Callus

The Corporate Services Management Unit is a key enabler in the delivery of the National Archives’ strategic goals. The priority is to ensure that the needs of all the entity stakeholders are met, by focusing on the delivery of quality services, innovation and capabilities development, in line with the challenges that the services request, together with the general upkeep and improvement of the old and historic facilities we operate from. Throughout 2022, the Unit continued to build on the work of previous years and sought to improve the services provided by the entity by transforming the way services are delivered through teamwork, shared vision and commitment.

The main duties and responsibilities of this Unit are:

• the administration and human resources development

HR-related administration such as leave, staff records and roster planning are managed by this Unit. The recruitment of new employees and staff development are the responsibility of the Corporate Management Unit. The Unit also deals with the drafting, monitoring and execution of policies related to HR and administration. It is also entrusted with the preparation of reports and statistical data and the coordination of Parliamentary Questions’ replies. The administration of the Conservation Laboratory, the Maintenance and Cleaning units and the Reception services fall directly under this Unit.

• Procurement

Procurement is the core function of this Unit. Tender procedures for large purchases are undertaken by this Unit. Other relatively small purchases require quotations for the goods or services to be obtained and the Unit has the task of ascertaining that the best quality is being obtained at the cheapest possible price.

• Works and Maintenance of Buildings

The administration of all five premises run by the entity includes structural and assets’ monitoring and maintenance, pest control and further logistics.

Administration and Human Resources Development

Recruitment

Changes in the human resources infrastructure in 2022 included the replacement of one archivist recruited to work on the newly established audio-visuals unit. A call for Manager Finance and IT was issued to fill up the vacant post following the resignation of Etienne Ferrito. Both positions were filled by two new employees by the end of the year.

By the end of 2022, the Entity bid farewell to four employees, namely Etienne Ferrito - Manager Finance and IT, Horace Vella - Principal at the Records Management Unit, Alice Ferri - Assistant Conservator and Giovanni Copertino - archivist at the audio-visuals unit.

Fourteen new volunteers expressed their interest to contribute towards the National Archives during 2022, leading to a current number of thirty-three volunteers engaged in the various existing NAM Units. One of these volunteers was entrusted to take over the running of the old hospital pharmacy where an inventory exercise is being carried out concurrently with a review of the artefacts to be exhibited.

David Sargent

Staff training

Staff training during the year included the attendance by various staff members to general and specialised training sessions, together with attendance to international meetings and conferences.

Other courses attended dealt with procurement training and MS teams, Microsoft OneNote & OneDrive training. Staff from the Conservation Laboratory attended courses on nanocellulose films in art conservation and storage organisation.

New shelving at Ospizio Repository

Ruben Vella

In-house knowledge management sessions were regularly held, and these were devised to help spread the knowledge gained by a single employee amongst his/her colleagues, benefitting them in their job skills. This was done through various theoretical and practical training sessions held online and at the archives’ premises.

The Unit also supported two members of the staff undertaking University Degree and Master courses.

Għarb Repository (Gozo) refurbished in 2022

Monica Mallia Jamie Zerafa

Procurement

During 2022, a call for tenders for the supply, delivery and installation of archival shelving for the Ospizio repository at Floriana was issued.

This call was published by the Ministry for Justice, Equality and Governance (MJEG) Procurement Division and the Entity assisted by preparing specifications and tender documents as well as conducting the evaluation process.

Works and Maintenance of Buildings

Works on the elevator that connects the four floors at the Head Office in Rabat was completed and was commissioned on 11 July 2022. Redecoration of areas and apertures leading to the elevator doors was carried out in-house by the Maintenance Section.

Following the award of the tender for the supply, delivery and installation of archival shelving at the repository at Floriana, works where carried out and a renovated hall at the Ospizio was completed with more than 600 meters of new shelving and a heavy-duty safety ladder for staff use.

The chapel, which serves as a conference hall, was turned into an exhibition space to host three different exhibitions and a new lighting system was supplied and set in the back yard and garden area. The former mortuary underwent a total refurbishment exercise, and the space is now temporarily serving as an extension for another three additional workstations for the Conservation Laboratory.

New wooden apertures were installed on the façade overlooking Cathedral Square at the Courts and Tribunal Section building housed in the former Banca Giuratale in Mdina. Weather proofing of the roofs of two large repository warehouses at Hal-Far roofs was also carried out.

Jennifer Falzon

Rita Vella Brincat Bernard Schembri

Other minor refurbishment works including the redecorating of wooden apertures that were carried out at the Gozo Għarb repository and Mdina Section. Pest control was again this year given more attention with the further installation of pigeon roosting deterrents, anti-termite treatment and the setting up of an additional number of bait stations.

Michael Cilia

Peter Borg

Marco Camilleri

Records Management Unit

Overleaf: Lands Authority Records’ Repository

Henry Cachia

Ivan Ellul Zvetlana Pace

The Records Management Unit (RMU) assists public entities, departments and Ministries in fulfilling their records management obligations. Meetings and visits are organised to identify historical records and to plan their transfer to the National Archives. The Unit also assists the entity with proper records management practices. Ultimately, an official retention policy, endorsed by the National Archives under the provisions of the National Archives Act (Cap 477), is developed.

Records Management Assistance

As already stated, assisting public offices in the mananagement of records is one of the main functions of the Records Management Unit. During the year under review, it was decided that in order for our clients to be better informed of the scope of collaborating with the National Archives, a number of introductory meetings were held at the National Archives’ Head Office, during which the legal obligations set out by the provisions of the National Archives Act were explained to the concerned officers. Following the meeting, the participants were also given a tour of all the main functions of the National Archives. In 2022, meetings were held with officers from various public entities, including Identity Malta, the Malta Gaming Authority, Ministry for Justice and the Lands Authority.

Forty-three entities (public and private), listed hereunder, were supported by the Records Management Unit during 2022.

Public Offices supported by the Records Management Unit during 2022

Central Registry Office

Commerce Department

Environment & Resources Authority (ERA)

Festivals Malta

House of Representatives

Identity Malta

Institute for the Public Services

Jobsplus

Lands Authority

Malta Communications Authority

Malta Enterprise

Public Offices supported by the Records Management Unit during 2022

Malta Financial Services Authority

Malta Gaming Authority

Malta Police Force

Malta Statistics Authority and National Statistics Office

MFH - Karin Grech Hospital

MFH - Nursing Services Directorate

MFH - Office of the Commissioner for Mental Health

MFH - Office of the Superintendence of Public Health

MFH - Pharmacy Of Your Choice (POYC)

Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Rights

Ministry for Education, Sports, Youths, Research and Innovation

Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs and Trade

Ministry for Health (MFH)

Ministry for Justice

Ministry for Public Works and Planning

Ministry for Social Policy and Children’s Rights

Ministry for Social Policy and Children’s Rights (MSPC)

Ministry for the National Heritage, the Arts and Local Government

Ministry for Tourism and Consumer Protection (MTCP)

National Commission for the Promotion of Equality

Office of the Arbiter for Financial Services (OAFS)

Office of the Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations (OCVO)

Office of the Prime Minister (OPM)

Planning Authority

Restoration Directorate

Servizzi Ewropej f’Malta

Social Care Standards Authority (SCSA)

The Malta College of Arts, Science & Technology

Private Entities supported by the Records Management Unit during 2022

Atlas Insurance

GO p.l.c.

Migrants Commission

Times of Malta

Appraisal of Records

The National Archives issues a letter of appraisal with regards to cases of dormant collections of records that are no longer required by the creating entity or in cases of emergency, stipulating whether the records must be preserved or not. During 2022, the National Archives issued a number of such letters which helped entities to decongest their repositories.

Reference No. Entity Subject

APL2022-01 MSPC - Pensions Department Appraisal of Pension Files (Invalidity, Widow/er, Pension)

APL2022-02 Ministry for Public Works and Planning (MPWP) Appraisal of Public Works Registry Files 1950-1965

APL2022-03 Ministry for Health (MFH) Appraisal of the Disposal of Personal Effects files (of deceased residents) (1957-1994)

One of NAM offsite repositories

Processing of Historical Records still held by Public Entities

When historical records are identified, the creating office is instructed on the way forward with the final aim of transferring these records to the National Archives. This includes sorting, finding the original order, cleaning (when necessary), placing into archival quality boxes and listing. In cases where the records have traces of pest contamination, the documents are to be treated professionally under the supervision of the National Archives’ Conservators before the transfer.

Retention Policies

Retention policies for public records is a legal requirement under the provisions of the National Archives Act of 2005. In addition, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires these instruments and since its coming into force, a momentum for retention policies by public institutions was created. As shown in the following table, a total of 11 policies have been finalised during 2022, with a number of others in the pipeline to be finalised during 2023.

Reference No. Entity

REP2022-01 OPM - the Institute for the Public Services Finalised

REP2022-02

REP2022-03

MFED - MCAST (Finance) Finalised

MFED - MCAST (Wellbeing Hub) Final Stages

REP2022-04 MFH - Nursing Services Directorate

REP2022-05

Cancelled see REP2022-13

MFED - MCAST (Human Resources) Finalised

REP2022-06 Malta Communications Authority

Finalised

REP2022-07 Commerce Department - Industrial Property Registrations Directorate Finalised

REP2022-08 MEYR - Primary/Middle/Secondary Schools

REP2022-09

REP2022-10

MSPC - Office of the Umpire Finalised

MFH - Pharmacy of Your Choice Finalised

REP2022-11 Malta Police Force Finalised

REP2022-12 MSPC - Department of Social Security Finalised

REP2022-13 MFH - Nursing Services Directorate Finalised

REP2022-14

REP2022-15

Accessions

MSPC - Office of the Permanent Secretary

MFJ - Conducts and Criminal Records

Final Stages

Final Stages

2022 was another successful year for records being deposited or transferred to the National Archives’ repositories. One of the main reasons for this success was the implementation of retention policies through which historical records are being identified and transferred to the National Archives for

permanent preservation, as was the case for the Malta Police Force, the Commerce Department and the Malta Communications Authority. Apart from fulfilling its legal obligation in the accession of historical public records, the National Archives continued accessioning records through private deposits and records created under the umbrella of the MEMORJA project. Following is the list of accessions received by the National Archives during 2022:

Accession Ref Source and Description Extent

2022-001

2022-002

2022-003

2022-004

2022-005

2022-006

2022-007

2022-008

2022-009

2022-010

Private Deposit by Richard S. Cumbo - Records related to the experiences of Maltese emigrants in Canada (1930s-2020)

Private deposit by George Mangion (MEMORJA) - Interview re childhood and wartime experiences (1930s-1945).

Jobsplus - Appraised Human Resources Records.

Salvaged Records - Lorenzo Manchè Boys School Photographs (ca. 1990s).

Private Deposit by Piju Spiteri - The Piju Spiteri Collection. Private papers and audio visual material.

Private Deposit by the International Tree FoundationRecords of the International Tree Foundation (1986-2021).

Private Deposit by Joseph Schirò - DOI booklets - Radio College (ca. 1950s).

Malta Police Force - Rabat Police Station Records (1860-2010).

Circolo Enrico Mizzi, Pjazza Repubblika Valletta - Portraits and footage on VHS tapes

Private Deposit by George Azzopardi - Malta vintage postcards and photographs (1940s).

1 physical folder and 9.01 GBs

992.29 MBs

ca. 1 linear metre

5 photographs

ca. 2 linear metres

0.5 linear metres

6 booklets

ca. 30 linear metres

ca. 1 linear metre

Booklet, postcards, photographs, playing card, cigarette/tobacco package.

2022-011

Private Deposit by John Zammit - Various political and trade union printed material (1988-2014).

1 publication, 3 season’s greeting cards, 2 business cards, 1 calendar/ business card.

2022-012

2022-015

Private Deposit by J. Galea - Records re Armed Forces of Malta and the Royal Malta Artillery (1953-2002).

Private Deposit by Alan Nobbs - Digital copy of footage of houses of character renovation and the 2011 Libya crisis (1994-2011).

2 folders

11.6 GBs

2022-013

Mount Carmel Hospital - Patients’ case volumes (1825-1935). ca. 3 linear metres

Accession Ref Source and Description

2022-014 Environmental Health - Department for Health RegulationSample of appraised records - Passenger Locator Forms and Public Health Travel Declaration Forms (2021).

2022-016 Malta Police Force - Msida Police Station Records (1912-2011).

2022-017

Ministry for Public Works and Planning - Cottonera Rehabilitation Committee (CRP) and Mdina Rehabilitation Committee (1994).

0.3 linear metres

10 linear metres

ca. 2 linear metres

2022-018

Private deposit by Miriam Briffa - Tarxien street maps drawn in connection with Parish activities (1997-2021).

2022-019 Malta Communications Authority - Appraised Human Resources Records

2022-020

Private Deposit by Noel Grima - The Noel Grima Collection of private papers.

2022-021 Malta Police Force - Ħamrun Police Station Records (1910-2010).

2022-022

2022-023

Private Deposit by Ted Attard - Original photographs taken by Ted Attard.

Private Deposit by Tony Camilleri - Digital copy of a photo album entitled ‘Prisoner of War Camp. Malta. World War 1 1914-1918’ (1914-1918).

2022-024 GO P.L.C. - Telemalta/Maltacom/GO P.L.C. Drawing office records (ca. 1900-2000s).

1.26 GBs

ca. 0.3 linear metres

ca. 2 linear metres

ca. 40 linear metres

8.07 GBs

1.9 GBs

2022-025

2022-026

Office of the Prime Minister - Appraised Human Resources Records.

Private Deposit by Frans Said - Original - Writings by Frans Said (2000-2022).

85 A0 drawers with drawings. 7 Hanging file cabinets (x4 drawers). 1 hanging drawings cabinet.

ca. 10 linear metres

Pocket folder with printed material, CDs and newspaper cuttings.

2022-027

Private Deposit by Peter Darmanin - PN’s electoral campaigns (1992, 2003 & 2008). Maltese Herald issues (1972, 1979 & 1980).

ca. 1 linear metre

2022-028

Private Deposit by Noel Fabri - A collection of original Poems (1994 Edition).

48.8 MBs

2022-029

Ministry for Foreign And European Affairs and TradeMinistry of Commonwealth and Foreign Affairs Malta: Administrative Instructions (1960s).

1 volume

2022-030

Private Deposit by Nora and Rita Vella Brincat - Photographs of locations and sewing designs prepared by their late mother Prassede Vella Brincat (1950s-2016).

1 box w/designs and 50 photographs

2022-031

2022-032

2022-033

2022-034

2022-035

2022-036

Private Deposit by Joseph Calleja - Records and specimens regarding the system at the Electoral Office (1980-1995).

Private Deposit by Michael Fenech - Emigrants in Australia private correspondence and miscellanea (1970s).

Private Deposit by MaltaPost - Commemorative miniature sheet for the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth (2022).

Private Deposit by the Times of Malta - Times of Malta historic photographic archive (1940s-2000s).

Ministry for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation - Ħamrun Primary School Records (1882-1980).

Private Deposit by Henry Frendo - Henry Frendo CollectionPrivate papers, including historical research and photographs (1960s-2000s).

1 box

1 folder

1 sheet

ca. 50 linear metres

1.5 linear metres

ca. 20 linear metres

2022-037

2022-038

National Commission for the Promotion of EqualityAppraised Human Resources Records.

Private Deposit by Alfred Agius - Dowry related records, pharmaceutical recipe and Continuous Service Booklet (1930s).

1 file

1 folder

2022-039

Private Deposit by Edward Said - Several maps of the Maltese Islands and plans/drawings related to Tigné Barracks, Fort Manoel and Ta’ Xbiex church (1950s-1960s).

19 items

2022-040

Private deposit by Shan Francois Hussain (MEMORJA) - One MEMORJA interview conducted with Shan Francois Hussain carried out on 17 April 2021 on the theme of COVID-19 Pandemic Memory Project.

5.47 GBs

2022-041

Private Deposit by Tony Abela - Copies of documents and research notes mainly re the RAF history in Malta and Malta’s Early Warning System During the Second World War.

1 linear metre & 141.35 GBs

2022-042

Private deposit by the May Micallef-Scicluna family - Digital surrogate of an Empire Stadium Visitors’ book (1940s).

2.52 GBs

2022-043

Private Deposit by Clive Sammut - A print of a painting by Edwin Galea showing the SS Ohio limping into the Grand Harbour in 1942 – Operation Pedestal/The Santa Maria Convoy.

2022-044 Private deposit by Ġorġ Mallia (MEMORJA) - COVID-19 Pandemic Memory Project - Limited Edition Cartoons Publications (2020-2022).

2022-045 Private deposit by Richmond Foundation (MEMORJA)COVID-19 Pandemic Memory Project - Photographs and other material (2020-2021).

2022-046 Deposit by the Ministry of Education - COVID-19 Pandemic Memory Project - Published material re health guidelines (2020-2021).

2022-047 Anonymous Private Deposit (MEMORJA) - COVID-19 Pandemic Memory Project - Diary (2020-2021).

2022-048 Private deposit by Horace (Grazio) Vella (MEMORJA)

- COVID-19 Pandemic Memory Project - Photographs (2020-2021).

2022-049 Private Deposit by Mick Halliday - The Ernest Rice Collection. A collection of photographs of various Maltese locations (1920s-1930s).

2022-050 Ministry for Health - Central Procurement & Supplies UnitAppraised procurement records (1980-1990).

2022-051 Digital copy of a number of Maltese Band Club Archives.

2022-052 Private Deposit by Max Farrugia - Material about the Maltese political scene and various correspondence

2022-053 Acquisition by the National Archives - Declaration of payment to the family of Giuseppe Bajada (1919).

2022-054 Private Deposit by George Azzopardi - Record related to the compensation to the families of the victims 7-8 June 1919.

2022-055 Private Deposit by George Azzopardi - Vintage Postcards (ca. 1930s).

2022-056 Karin Grech Hospital - Appraised records - Occupational Therapy Discharge Patients’ Records (2008-2012).

2022-057 Malta Police Force - Naxxar Police Station Records (1953-1999).

2022-058 Private Deposit by John Scerri - Early twentieth century ephemera and photographs.

1 large Format Print

2 physical items and 64.9 MBs

127 MBs

35.1 MBs

63.3 MBs

2.19 GBs

18.8 MBs

3 linear metres

3 TBs

0.3 linear metres

1 loose document

1 double sheet report

19 postcards

0.1 linear metre

ca. 20 linear metres

33 single items

Accession Ref Source and Description

2022-059 Ministry for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation - Appraised Human Resources Records.

2022-060 Acquisition by the National Archives - Albert Ganado Collection (1696-1943).

Extent

0.5 linear metres

3.5 linear metres

2022-061 Commerce Department - Expired Registered Trademarks. ca. 118 linear metres

2022-062 The Kevin Casha Collection - The Kevin Casha Collection

- Photographic positive slides created by the Kevin Casha Photographic Services Ltd.

2022-063 Private Deposit by Anna Farrugia - Three music manuscript scores which belonged to Antonio Micallef (1867-1940) and Salvatore Mallia.

Rabat Police Station Records before archival processing and transfer to NAM

7,500 slides

3 volumes

Records Management Forum ‑ Sessions ‑ 2022

6/30/2022 13 Ministry for Health (MFH), (MSPC), Ministry for Justice (MFJ), Ministry for Public Works and Planning (MPWP), Minister for Foreign and European Affairs and Trade (MFET), Heritage Malta, Mater Dei Hospital, Planning Authority, House of Representatives, Malta Information Technology Agency, Environment and Resources Authority.

Presentation 1 by Mr Espen Sjøvoll, Director of the National Archives of Norway on the topic: ‘Archiving by Design’ - IT and archiving solutions. Presentation 2 by Mr Carlo Apap Bologna, Head of the Document Management regarding the Central Registry Office and the Central Electronic Document Management System. General Discussion regarding the challenges faced by Malta’s public sector in records management and possible way forward.

Highlights of the Records Officers Activities during 2022

Archival processing of historical records held by the Commerce Department

The Industrial Property Registrations Directorate within the Commerce Department recognised the need of preserving for posterity the inactive records pertaining to the registration of patents, trademarks and designs in line with the provisions of the National Archives Act. To this end we collaborated with the Records Management Unit (RMU) within the National Archives to ensure the proper preservation of these records and to meet the requirements set at law.

A number of these records date back to the year 1890; therefore, the archival processing, including the cleaning of these records had to be performed in a responsible manner by the department’s officers. Following guidance by the National Archives’ paper conservators, all metal objects, such as staples, paperclips and treasury tags, were carefully removed. Then, all records were shifted from their original registry container into archival quality boxes according to the specifications set by the National Archives. Such boxes are necessary for the proper preservation historical records and to prevent deterioration.

Once this preparation process was complete we started to implement the retention policy that was put in place following consultation with the RMU and the approval of the National Archivist: we started the transfer of the records that were no longer required by our department to the National Archives’ repositories for permanent preservation.

The transfer process was divided in two phases:

1. the first phase consisted of the transfer of the inactive patents and designs. The extent of these two collections was of 870 archival quality boxes (ca. 130 linear meters) and their transfer was completed in December 2021.

2. the second phase focused on the transfer of the inactive trademark records. The first batch was transferred to the National Archives by the end of 2022, while the second one is planned for the first quarter of 2023. The collection of inactive trademarks amounts to 1,300 archival quality boxes (ca. 185 linear meters).

The process will come to its conclusion once our department provides an electronic database of all these records to the National Archives; this database will eventually be used as a finding-aid for the retrieval of individual records.

This exercise ensures that these historical records are properly preserved as part of the national records collection held by the National Archives as well as ensure their accessibility for research by academics and the general public.

Matthew Pisani Director (Industrial Property Registrations)

Photo 1

Transfer of GO Archive

Photos 2 & 3

Transfer of the Times of Malta

Photographic Archive

Photos 4 & 5

Record Managers Forum held on 30th June 2022

Archival Processing

Joseph Amodio

Reno Caruana

Samuel Azzopardi

The Archives Processing Unit ensures that following their transfer to the National Archives, records of national significance and enduring historical value, are described, preserved and made accessible to all those who seek them.

Cataloguing

Work on cataloguing projects is a core business function of the Archives Processing Unit that has been going on for several years. The following are the highlights of the work carried out in this regard during 2022:

The Letard‑Ciantar Genealogy Collection

Archivists Irene Sestili and Noel D’Anastas completed the sorting, indexing and cataloguing of the Letard-Ciantar Genealogy Collection, which contains over 700 volumes and hundreds of loose documents. Patrons can view the fond’s catalogue on the National Archives portal.

The online catalogue was so well received that it sparked a surge in family history research, even among foreign researchers who came to Malta specifically to study these sources.

Consolato del Mare – Testimoniali

Over the years, the Testimoniali series, like the Acta Originalia, has been among the most extensively researched within the Consolato del Mare fonds. The Testimoniali series has recently undergone content-level cataloguing.

This collection contains testimonies collected by the Consolato del Mare in Malta from captains and crew members of ships that found themselves in Malta, either willingly or after being compelled to make port in Malta to shelter from bad weather or corsairs, to recover from damages and losses sustained in transit, or after being compelled to do so by their captors. In most cases, these testimonials describe the ship’s name, the cargo on board and the difficulties encountered by the ship while in transit. In general, these difficulties were caused by bad weather and piracy, but in some cases, merchants and captains were thwarted by uncooperative local authorities or quarantine and security policies that prevented them from entering port.

In addition to witness statements collected by the Consolato del Mare di Malta, this collection includes testimonies submitted in other foreign Consolati and before other authorities by ship captains and crew members involved in Malta-related ventures or persons in Malta, which were later deposited with the Consolato del Mare in Malta.

The entire Testimoniali collection consists of 18 bundles preserved in archival boxes. In 2021, the first five bundles were completely catalogued and in 2022, the remaining bundles. Over 5,935 consulted folios from 1750 to 1798 have been indexed and catalogued, totaling 828 individual documents.

As an ongoing part of Claire Bugeja’s internship sponsored by the Malta Study Centre at St. John’s University’s Hill Museum and Manuscript Library (Minnesota, USA), as part of her Master’s degree in Archival Science, the metadata of the Consolato del Mare fonds is well underway. The first series of the Acta Originalia, covering the period between 1697 to 1798 was completed in the first half of 2022; and the second series (1800–1814) was also completed in the second half. During 2022, metadata was completed on the four Testimoniali Series, the Registri delle Sentenze, the Registri delle Manifesti and the Registri delle Depositi, totaling approximately 267 boxes of loose bundles and 60 bound volumes. This exercise is being carried out in preparation for digitization of these records by HMML in the coming months.

Claire Bugeja gave a brief presentation about her work and current experience in archive studies at a seminar commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Department of Library, Information and Archive Sciences at the University of Malta. The seminar took place on 3 December 2022, at the University’s Valletta campus.

Tribunal Armamentorum - Acta Originalia

On October 2022, the digital preservation of the Tribunal Armamentorum fonds, spanning seven metres of shelving, by St. John’s University’s Hill Museum and Manuscript Library kicked off. By the end of 2022, around 1.2 TB of data was generated. Samuel Azzopardi, a classicist and palaeographer who also processed the Testimoniali content data, is working on this fonds’ catalogue, supplementing the digitisation project.

The Tribunal Armamentorum (1602-1798) was set up by Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt on 17 June 1605. It was constituted by four knights of different langues and a secular Judge nominated by the Grand Master, to hear and judge all the controversies between privateers and corsairs, with a second and last appeal to Rome.

The tribunal’s Acta Originalia was divided into two collections, one for 17th century cases and one for 18th century instances. The cases in these two collections primarily dealt with disputes concerning financial compensation for people employed on ships, returns on investments, debt collection and other disputes concerning the financial and logistical management of the corsairing ventures. It includes also a substantial number of documents related to disputes concerning the illegal looting of Christian shipping or mercantile goods by corsairs; Christians were supposedly excluded from being targets of the Corso

The first cataloguing process dealt with the 17th century Acta Originalia, records which were collected in 14 bundles covering 259 individual cases spread across 8,407 folios. The second phase of this project was the cataloguing of the 18th century records, which were collected in 29 bundles covering 992 individual cases spread across 18,706 folios.

The cataloguing of the other series of this fonds, which includes volumes related to slave sales, Registers of the Original Acts and Sentences is underway. All cataloguing work on the Tribunal Armamentorum and the Testimoniali series was overseen and reviewed by Noel D’Anastas.

Magna Curia Castellania - Registrum Patentarum

Claire Bugeja carried out volunteer work at the Banca Giuratale during the summer of 2022. As part of her tasks, she worked on foliating volumes two to eight of the Registrum Patentarum series from the Magna Curia Castellania fonds, as well as noting the date ranges within these volumes. Now, the collected data is ready to be electronically recorded.

The Law Courts Miscellaneous Collection

Vanessa Buhagiar, a palaeographer and historian, has been working on the Law Courts Miscellaneous Collection content catalogue, for the last two years. She catalogued 2,050 items totaling 23,777 folios of legal cases, 770 items of which were catalogued in the last year.

The Law Courts Miscellanea fonds is a collection of loose documents pertaining to different Courts that functioned in Malta between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. It contains a wealth of information and holds precious information on the economy, society and culture of over four hundred years of Maltese history.

Prior to the ongoing cataloguing process, the documents were organised chronologically. As a result, various types of documents from various Maltese Courts or legal contexts were grouped together. Furthermore, although this collection of records was uncatalogued, researchers were granted access.

This led to a challenging and complicated situation for the cataloguing process. The aim with this project is to organise and rationalise the Miscellanea Fond within these constraints. As a result, each box is sorted following the Provenance Principle. Folders representing specific Court Tribunals are created for each box and documents are chronologically sorted into these folders.

Following this, the details of each document are inputted into a standard archival database. The details include the tribunal the item was subject to, the date it was created, its scope and content, the language it was written in and its physical characteristics. Every document is also given a unique identifier number and each box is fully paginated. Then, a new archival-standard box is prepared to replace the old boxes to ensure the continued protection of the documents. In some instances, it becomes necessary to split the contents of each box into two boxes due to a lack of adequate space.

The cataloguing of this fonds presents the cataloguer with additional challenges. To properly catalogue the documents, a thorough understanding of the Maltese legal system at the relevant time period is required. Without such knowledge, it is impossible to understand the nature and origin of each document. This is exacerbated by the diverse nature of the documents contained within each box. For example, scattered randomly within these boxes are indices pertaining to various judicial bodies active in Malta, which also happen to be separate fonds held at the National Archives, namely the Consolato del Mare and the Magna Curia Castellania. In such cases, the records are removed from the Miscellanea collection and transferred

to their respective original fonds in our Courts and Tribunals Archive in Mdina. The majority of these indices have been identified as missing and serve as excellent points of reference for researchers.

The deteriorating condition of some of the records is another challenge. A significant amount of the collection had suffered water damage and developed mould staining, making the text illegible. The collaboration with the Conservation Laboratory at the National Archives is crucial for the undertaking of the necessary conservation works.

During 2022, over 13 boxes were sorted and over 770 catalogue entries. Each box contained an average of 60 items and runs into an average of 668 pages. The sorting and cataloguing of the Law Courts Miscellaneous Fond has been a demanding yet rewarding task, as it is facilitating the access to this largely untapped source of Maltese history and in the process is contributing to our understanding of Malta’s early modern legal system.

The metadata and digitised images of the French Period documents from the Law Courts Miscellaneous Fond are now available at the virtual reading room of Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, https://www. vhmml.org/readingRoom.

Subbasti

In 2022, four German students followed an internship in the Courts and Tribunals’ Judiciary Section. They spent over 160 hours working on the volumes of the Prima Aula Subbasti and the Commercial Court Subbasti.

Philomene Schebesta, Janina Kronhofmann, Kim Herrmann and Paul Engels compiled 1,133 Prima Aula Subbasti cases from between 1873 and 1879 as well as 3,485 Commercial Court Subbasti cases from the period between 1814 and 1880.

This catalogue is currently being reviewed and updated in order to make it available for future research.

Mro Frank Vassallo Music Collection

Mro Frank Vassallo’s (1924-2000) music was catalogued by Noel D’Anastas during 2022. The collection was donated to the National Archives by the composer’s son, Dr Pierre Vassallo and Mr Carmel Axiaq, the widower of mezzo-soprano Marie Terese Vassallo, who wrote lyrics for many of the compositions in this collection. It is made up of 86 compositions, including symphonic and chamber music as well as several vocal works, including songs that participated in the Malta Song Festival in the 1960s.

Each composition has been meticulously catalogued, with information on the movement and time signature of each piece, the instrumentation and the number of sheets in each music manuscript. Then each composition was placed in an archival folder; the digitisation process began towards the end of 2022.

Frank Vassallo was born in 1924, in Sliema, Malta, to Mro Carmelo Vassallo and Theresa Doneo. Frank began studying music at the age of six with his uncle Emidio Doneo. He began violin lessons at the age

of ten with Anthony Mamo, a renowned virtuoso violinist and teacher. Frank Vassallo married Theresa Theuma on 23 May 1948 and they had two children, Marie Therese Vassallo and Pierre.

Among his numerous musical pursuits, Frank Vassallo’s favourites were always teaching and composition. As a composer, he was an Associate Member of the Performing Rights Society of London. He composed works for string, woodwind, brass, pianoforte and voices, both solo and in various ensembles such as duets, trios, quartets, quintets, and octets. He also wrote symphonies for large and small orchestras, chamber works, oratorios, songs on sacred and profane subjects, two Requiem Masses and other masses and sacred music. Divertimenti and studies for various instruments are among his other works. Vassallo’s Sonata in G for Harp is a masterpiece.

Mro Vassallo’s works have been published by Lucia Publishing Co. (1946), Keith Prowse Publishing Co. Ltd, (London), Peter Morris of Milan and El Brios Publishing Co. in Malta, England, Italy, France and the United States (Firenze). Con Gioco and Mon Amour Parisien, two of his songs, are regularly played on French and Italian television and radio stations. One of his guitar books was published by Charnwood Musical Publishing Co. in London and is part of the Leicester School of Music’s examination syllabus.

Mro Vassallo spent the majority of his life teaching and writing music. He taught privately in addition to being a Music teacher and Orchestra director at St Edward’s College and St Aloysius College. He died on 7 February 2000. His daughter Marie-Therese took care of his musical collection after his death.

Continuous Professional Development

In a bid to enrich their professional development, Samuel Azzopardi and Vanessa Buhagiar participated remotely in the II International Congress on Palaeography and Diplomatics, a three-day congress held at the University of Évora (Portugal) between 5 and 7 May 2022.

Catalogue entries during 2022

Sorting, cleaning and re-boxing

Internships

During 2022, we hosted 23 students following different placement programmes, including Erasmus Plus engagement from foreign educational institutions, Systems of Knowledge-related projects and University of Malta placements. The tasks carried undertook by most students included digitisation of records, cataloguing, labelling, sorting of documents and minor conservation duties. Two students carried out tasks on paper conservation, under the guidance of our Conservators.

Some of our 2022 interns

The countries of origin of the students participating in these various placement programmes were Malta (7 students), Germany (7 students), France (2 students) and Albania, Argentina, Bangladesh, Belarus, Cyprus, Italy and the United States of America (1 student from each country).

Name Country Institution

Janina Kronhofmann Germany

Public Administration, Ludwigsburg University, Germany

Kim Herrmann Germany Ludwigsburg University, Germany

Matthew Saliba Malta M.A. Tourism and Culture, UM

Sophia Georgiou Cyprus MSc. Tourism, Development and Culture, UM

Sraboni Akter Bangladesh MSc. Tourism, Development and Culture, UM

Ruth Micallef Malta Systems of Knowledge Project

Rocio Belen Cali

Falasca Argentina MSc. Tourism, Development and Culture, UM

Philomena Schebesta Germany

Public Administration, Ludwigsburg University, Germany

Paul Engels Germany Public Administration, University of Kehl, Germany

Serendra Geffry France Public Administration, Lycee Jean Jaures, France

Geraldine Corriolan France Public Administration, Lycee Jean Jaures, France

Martina Buttigieg Malta Systems of Knowledge Project

Rosaya Vella Malta Systems of Knowledge Project

Eleonora di Mauro Italia PhD Architecture, University of Palermo, Italy

Ana Sophia Dvrinovan USA B.A. (Hons) Conservation Books and Paper, London

Nathaniel Azzopardi Malta St Paul’s Missionary College

Roman Vasilets Belarus Systems of Knowledge Project

Alina Strunk Germany

Frederick Ebert Germany

Lea Blender Germany

Enkelejd Memetaj Albania

Vocational Apprenticeship, City and District Archives, Germany

Vocational Apprenticeship, Fredrich-List Schule, Germany

Public Administration, Ludwigsburg University, Germany

Archival, Library and Information Studies, West Attica, Greece

Jacques Schembri Malta Systems of Knowledge project

Raisa Zammit Malta MCAST, Malta

Apart from the above, we also hosted seven students reading for a Master’s degree in Archival and Information Knowledge at the University of Malta, who undertook a 10-hour practicum session on cataloguing of the CSG Collection under the supervision of Dr Valeria Vanesio.

Map Room

Map Room activity during 2022 included of the digitisation of various interesting records, comprising drawings, sketches and photographs from

Giuseppe Galea Collection: 1,545 drawings and 8 photographs

Sciortino Galea Collection: 48 drawings and 2 photographs

· Sciortino Galea Bequest: 37 drawings and 1 photograph

· St.Paul’s Reliquary: 27 photographs

· Wignacourt Museum: 22 photographs

Capuchin Church, Fr Martin Micallef Collection: 34 photographs

Arch.Robert Galea Collection: 34 photograhs

The Database Digitising Works project continued as well as its inclusion into the PDM fond. These include plans, maps and drawings from fonds such as the Santa Maria Addolorata Cemetery Collection, Record Plans from the Ordnance Department, Country Tenements, Pious Foundations and St Luke’s Hospital Drawing Office. These added up to 1,984 images.

Another 296 high resolution digitised images were done for National Archives staff, which included scans from various fonds such as LGO/PWD/OPM/Building Notices, etc.

More 2022 interns

Paul Engels

“During my studies I fortunately had the opportunity to do an internship abroad and one thing is certain: I would definitely do it again at the National Archives in Malta!  In total I had the possibility to take a look at the different fields of work in an archive for over 3 months.

My main tasks during my internship were the digitisation and the cataloguing of documents to preserve the documents for the future. Furthermore, I have gained insight into the handling, storage and restoration of old documents.

Eleonora di Mauro

“When research related to the thesis led to a case study in Valletta, an attempt was made to further the study by reconstructing the route to the place where information and documents on the subject could be found.

The National Archives of Malta was the destination to go to. The possibility of an internship at the Archives provided the opportunity to enrich the study experience with an educational component, which in this case lasted three months. Thanks to the constant support of all the staff, it was possible to see and partially carry out some of the many functions that animate the archive: digitisation, cataloguing and the arrangement of documents in both public and private history.

A history made up of people and places, some of which still exist and whose function has changed over time, such as the location of the Archive itself represented by a former hospital. Being able to see up close how the activities are carried out on a daily basis, each with their own specialisation, made it possible to discover how complex and at the same time stimulating the work of an archivist can be and how important it is to preserve and promote the memory of a place and a people. In addition to providing professional enrichment, this experience allowed me to come into contact with experts in the archives and conservation sector who kindly and professionally shared their techniques and experience.”

Eleonora di Mauro PhD student, Dipartimento di Architettura, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Sicily

Conservation work on the original plan of Ta’Pinu Church in Gozo.

Our Conservation Laboratory resumed the pre‑pandemic dynamics, while developing its operating methodologies to reflect the new realities of the National Archives’ responsibilities.

During the year 2022 there was a significant increase in damage notifications coupled with requests for conservation and preservation work, more off‑sites inspections and reports, as well as work related to the Notarial Registers Archives’ project. We focused also on the continuous professional development of our team who took part in further training, both locally and abroad. Furthermore, new ventures were undertaken, such as the international internship call for a student studying book and paper conservation and the engagement in the loaning process of items exhibited abroad.

Alice Ferri, assistant conservator, resigned her post in April and a call was issued; in December the replacement process was still ongoing.

Conservation Work

During the year 2022, 50 conservation projects were carried out. These involved items from the following collections: ABP, ZM, OPM, MFA 01, MCC, EDU 02, MNA92-04, MISC., CSG, CSG 01, BN, and MEMORJA. These comprised both short term works, long-term projects and various private deposits and donations.

These works include

• the long-term works such as passport applications, the Magna Curia Castellania collection and works on drawings of the Addolorata Cemetery.

• first line of conservation works was performed on the architectural plans before digitisation (15 items). In relation to digitisation works, we also carried out the dismantling and re-sewing of 5 folders related to the Railway and Trams collection.

• the treatment on volume ZM/01/02, a 19th century copy of the 1575 Mons. Dusina Pastoral visit, pertaining to the Gozo Section.

Preventive Conservation

This work included the construction of tailor-made archival boxes, in particular six archival boxes for oversize volumes from the Giuliana Letard-Ciantar collection, condition surveys, cleaning of shelves, volumes and tailor-made wrappers for fragile bindings for the customs, OPM and CA collections, tailormade enclosures for oversized private donations, mount-making and framing and also a tailor-made

archival box housing documents for transportation overseas to Naples for the exhibition of Clément Cogitore, Ferdinandea.

Around 250 melinex pockets for the passport photos in the passport applications were manufactured to size. This was carried out by volunteers, supervised by conservators.

New support, book pillows, for volumes and manuscripts were custom-made by Isabelle Camilleri for the Reading Room and for all Sections at NAM.

Damage Notification Forms

National Archives staff submitted 98 damage notification forms from different units, mainly from the Reading Room but also by archival processing personnel, the Courts and Tribunals Archive, the Gozo Archive, the Records Management Unit, MEMORJA, and with regards to records being used in exhibitions and publications.

Forty-eight of these are still pending treatment as they were deemed of lower priority. Compared to previous years, the number of notification forms received has increased by 50% from 2021 and by over 225% when compared to 2019 and 2020. This reflects the increase in archival handling and processing of the collection which brings to light archival material that requires the attention of the Conservation Laboratory.

Legal Obligations

Following amendments in the Cultural Heritage Act, our Conservation Lab worked with the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage to develop a general method statement, in line with the requirements of the Article 56 of this law. An agreement between the two entities was reached and a Standard Operating Procedure was developed.

The methodology consists of an introduction on the collections and the Conservation Laboratory, types of archival materials and deterioration factors, the priority of work and the types of treatments (preventive and interventive conservation). In view of this procedure standard conservation treatment work on our collection will not require regular notifications, thus simplifying the bureaucracy between the two entities.

Inspections and Condition Reports

In conjunction with the Notarial Registers Archive (NRA), a visit to the collection held by Notary Spiteri Maempel was conducted to examine its condition before transferring it, following up with a report.

Other visits and reports include the Times of Malta Photographic Collection, a condition report on a mould outbreak at Identity Malta’s Public Registry in Marsa and an inspection report on a new storage facility at the Lands Authority in Valletta.

Two follow-up meetings were organised with the Salesians in St Philip Neri Oratory Library (Senglea) to see the progression of the project and to discuss good storage for fragile bindings. This long-term collaboration dealing with the Oratorian Library has been progressing steadily.

In September, the conservators were urgently requested to visit the Mdina Cathedral to offer emergency assistance and advice following a rain seepage in the Capitular Aula Magna.

Supporting the Oratorian Library in Senglea managed by the Salesian Community.

Emergency Planning

The National Archives’ emergency plan is continuously updated, expanding and refining it further.

The team monitored the yearly maintenance of the fire extinguishers and was assigned with suggesting new fire extinguishers for all Sections and fire safety for the Conservation Laboratory, along with numbering and creating labels for the fire extinguishers to be placed against the walls.

Professional Development

Continuous Professional Development

The National Archives has supported the members of the conservation team (including the conservators at the NRA section) to attend continuous professional development lectures and workshops both local and abroad.

These include

• a series of lectures organised by Heritage Malta, dealing with the Cultural Heritage Act, Conservation-Restoration Basics, Re-defining Chemistry Basics for Purposes of Scientific Analysis as well as Basic Health and Safety in conservation of cultural heritage.

• a seminar and workshop about Nano-systems: Research and Applications on Cultural Heritage, held in Lisbon, Portugal.

• participation in Paper in Motion: Restoration, Conservation and Transmediation, held in Denmark.

• training in the use of PVA Borax gels, organised by Cesmar 7, held in Italy.

In house training

Training in the handling of archival documents was given to volunteers and interns handling items from the collection via presentations.

International Membership

In July, the National Archives of Malta joined as an institutional membership with the IIC (International Institute for Conservation), which is a global network for distinguished fellows, members and institutions representing more than 70 countries. The conservators have access to conferences, events, publications, research papers and journals. The annual meeting of the European Heads of Conservation (EHC), for the third consecutive year, did not take place due to the pandemic.

Farewell to volunteer Nicole Vassallo (fifth from the left)

Students and Interns

The National Archives conservators invited students studying heritage skills at Level 4 at MCAST and students from the University of Malta studying Preservation studies at Level 5 and 6 to visit the Conservation Laboratory. MCAST students were taught new techniques and tools in relation to box-making and enclosures, and worked on the preservation of some shelves in Hall B at Santu Spirtu, such as condition survey, cleaning of shelves, cleaning of volumes and learnt how to make wrappers for fragile bindings.

Two other students carried out a 20-hour placement in relation to their studies in the Conservation Laboratory; one student studying Systems of Knowledge at Higher Education, and the other student studying Heritage Skills at MCAST. Students observed ongoing work and were assigned minimal cleaning with a soft brush and removal of metal inserts. Another two students doing the Systems of Knowledge placement with other departments at the National Archives carried out one of their sessions at the Conservation Laboratory.

For the first time the Conservation Laboratory issued a call offering an internship to a student enrolled in a graduate paper conservation course to gain experience to work on archival material, under the supervision of warranted conservators. This call generated interest nationally and internationally; three applications were shortlisted.

Sarah Portelli

Ana Sofia, a second year student advancing to third year studying book and paper conservation at City & Guilds in London was selected to intern at the Conservation Laboratory for the duration of four weeks between August and September. The assigned work varied and included documentation, condition assessment and surveys, cleaning of volumes and documents, pH and Fe2 testing on iron gall ink, leaf-casting for the our holdings and treatment on passport applications.

Training of Identity Malta Staff

A training programme on the safe handling of records, totalling to nine sessions, was delivered to 37 members of staff at the Identity Malta Public Registry by Simon Dimech and Maria Borg. Col. Mark Mallia, Identity Malta CEO, presented the staff with certificates of training completion during an official ceremony at their Head Office.

Outreach

With the pandemic measures lifted, the Conservation Laboratory registered an increase in visits and tours, exceeding over 26 visits in the span of a year. These visits ranged from schools, University departments and from other institutions and entities.

The team also contributed to social media by preparing posts to raise awareness, to show the ongoing work, and to highlight important events, in particular the participation in international events such as the online conference of the European Regional hub

Simon Dimech

organised by the International Institute for Conservation (IIC) and the European Day of Conservation organised by the European Confederation of Conservation-Restoration Organisations (E.C.C.O.).

The Conservation Laboratory participated in the National Archives Open Day held on the 6th November, where people had the opportunity to tour the Conservation Laboratory, see ongoing work and learn about the preservation of archival material. In a way to involve young children during this day, a small activity making small pamphlets was organised, and a handout showing each step was made in both Maltese and English.

Loan Request

A request from the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina (MADRE) in Naples, Italy, to display seven archival items from our collection was approved by the Minister. This was a new venture for us to loan items from its collection abroad. The work included the creation of policies and procedures, negotiations with Museum personnel, condition assessment and documentation of archival items, conservation treatment work, design and construction of a custom archival box for storage and transportation, preparations for the display, courier transportation as well as communication with the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage and Customs Department.

National Audio‑Visual Institute

The Conservation team worked hand in hand, giving its support and advice to the NAVI section and its archivist. This included advice on handling, storage and digitisation aspects.

Intern Ana Sofia Drinovan (United States).

Members of the Malta University Historical Society were briefed on the work of the Records Management Unit during their visit to the National Archives on 12 November 2022.

The Public Services Unit continued to provide our clients with a high level of service. Our focus as a unit is to assist and guide the National Archives’ clients, guiding them to the best possible available sources held in our repositories, always maintaining a courteous and professional approach.

The continuous improvement of the existing catalogues and the creation of new finding aids remained a top priority, as a means to improve our clients’ research experience. We continued to work on the initiative launched two years ago, the cataloguing of the Series 01 within the Chief Secretary to Government collection dealing with the departmental correspondence (CSG 01). Today, this collection has over 80,000 entries in our database, covering the period 1917-1945.

However, perhaps the most important initiative that we undertook was the opening of the Guliana Letard-Ciantar collection. The catalogue of this collection is accessible both online from our website and from our Reading Room. While this collection was only made available in April, it is now one of the most popular collections with our clients. With data about baptisms, marriages and death records pertaining to various parishes in Malta and Gozo, found under one roof, this collection is an ideal tool for anyone involved in genealogical research. In fact, several clients consulted exclusively these records every week.

Our commitment to increase the accessibility to our records resulted in the upload of various material onto our online catalogue. A case in point is the whole series of plans and drawings of the Railway and Tram within the PDM collection. With well over 1,000 images, these records can now be browsed and accessed online.

We also saw a consolidated interest by our clients in initiatives launched the previous years. Both the self-digitisation of records and the pre-ordering of documents remained high in demand, with clients making increasing use of these two services.

On‑site Research Sessions

The year under review, 2022, was in many ways a return to normality and to the pre-Covid situation, with regards to research and other activities in our Reading Rooms. We experienced a marked increase in both the number of research sessions booked at our Head Office compared to the previous two years as well as in the hours the clients spent researching. While we have not yet reached the 2019 figure of on-site researchers, 2022 figures came very close to the number of researchers visiting in 2018, with the total of research sessions standing at 1,452.

An important aspect that could be observed in our Reading Rooms was the return of foreign researchers, who were absent for the most part of the years 2020 and 2021, due to the restrictions on overseas travel during the pandemic.

Accompanying this increase in research sessions, we also experienced a significant growth in the number of items that have been consulted: over 8,100 items were consulted, the ever-highest number of documents that have been viewed in a single year.

When compared to the 2021 data, this means increase of more than 1,100 documents that have been requested by researchers. Such figures, are to be attributed also to the increase in the allowance of requested documents per day, introduced the previous year, from 10 to 15 items per person. The focus on cataloguing, particularly the CSG fonds, also led to more records being researchable and thus easier to trace, which in turn led to more items being requested.

Rachelle Mizzi

Interns Lea Blender (Germany) and Enkeljd Memetaj (Albania).

The collection that has been mostly consulted was, as in previous years, the Chief Secretary to Government (CSG). Almost 2,500 items were requested from this fonds, an increase of over 500 items when compared to 2021.

Other popular collections remained the Building Notices (BNO), the Passport Applications (MFA), Police Records (POL) and the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM). A new entry in the list of fonds requested by our clients, as already explained was the Guliana Letard-Ciantar (GLC). This collection was requested more than 250 times.

Items requested by fonds ‑2022

Customer care

The pattern registered during the past years has been an ever-increasing number of e-mails received through our customer care e-mail address from year to year.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic back in 2020, this increase has been even more marked. However this year we noticed a slight decline in numbers, 187 e-mails less than the previous year. The total amount of emails received was 1,412.

Melvin Caruana

This is an overview of the number of e-mails received per month during 2022 and a comparison with those received in 2020 and 2022:

Evidently, the lifting of travel restrictions and other preventive measures have led to an increase in on-site visitors.

Upon carefully examining the numbers of monthly requests, one may notice that there was a gradual decrease in e-mails received every month last year except for January and November, which alternatively increased in number from both 2020 and 2021.

The numbers were more or less the same for July and August with around 5 e-mails less than last year and around 10 to 20 less e-mails received during February, March, May, June and December. April, September and October registered the largest decrease in e-mails received, with around 35 to 50 less e-mails than last year.

The requests were mainly centred on the same research topics as previous years, namely:

• Passport applications with regards to genealogical research;

• Plans, drawings and maps for specific areas or locations;

• Birth/baptism, marriage and death records;

• Military service personnel records;

• Malta-related photographic material .

Building applications were also popularly requested.

As already mentioned, this year was crucial with regards to the opening for public access of the Guliana Letard-Ciantar collection, acquired recently by the National Archives of Malta.

In fact, while before we used to direct persons requesting baptism, marriage and death records to

Deborah Vella

the Public Registry or to the respective parish records, we are now informing clients to consult about this collection. Obviously, the Public Registry is still responsible for issuing birth, marriage or death certificates.

National Archives personnel do not carry out genealogical research within the GLC collection on the clients’ behalf. Such research is carried out by the clients themselves on-site or through the ordering of digital copies. E-mail requests to digitise specific volumes or selected pages are taken into consideration by those residing overseas. In fact, one specific client ordered copies from four different volumes within this collection; one of which contained around 200 pages which had to be digitised from beginning to end.

The overall response was very positive as most of the clients who ordered selected pages/volumes for specific towns or villages, found what they were searching for.

When analysing the figures for the combined on-site sessions and online requests, it transpires that once again this year saw the Public Service Unit dealing with a record number of clients’ requests. With 2,864 requests, the year under review, saw an increase of 120 queries over the previous year.

Combined Requests

Ancillary Services

Besides our core operation of assisting our clients in their research, the Public Services Unit offers other ancillary services. These are mainly focused on the re-production, both in digital format and paper copies, of records as requested by our clients. This service is offered beyond the possibility enjoyed by our clients to use their own digital photographic camera and a self-digitisation scanner.

Of the above figures, it is worth noting the amount of 4,173 digital images for documents that have been requested, which when compared to the 3,025 images requested in 2021, an increase of more than 1,000 images.

Visits and media initiatives

Visits

Educational and Cultural visits came back to forefront of our activities during 2022. Throughout this year we hosted 44 visits, almost equalling the figure of visits organized in 2019. The number of persons participating these activities was 377.

Most of these visits were from various educational institutions and 8 of these were specifically targeted, in collaboration with the Education Department to Secondary School students studying history as a main option. In such instances, apart from having a tour of the National Archives, the students could carry out fieldwork on selected primary sources, thus gaining first-hand experience on how to carry out research.

University students, reading for various Degrees and Masters, were another important presence during such visits.

At the beginning of the year, St Paul’s Missionary College organised a career exposure outing at our Head Office. The aim of such an activity was to introduce aspects of the archives to those students interested in choosing history in their post-secondary studies. As a result of this visit, we had one student, who applied to carry out an

Stephanie Schembri

internship during the summer months. A very encouraging outcome indeed!

During 2022, we also had an added incentive for groups to visit the National Archives of Malta, having the opportunity to experience the three exhibitions developed within the European Digital Treasures project. List

Media Initiatives

This unit was also involved in five media initiatives, both through research and preparation of documents but also, in two instances, when a member of the staff was interviewed. All the four initiatives were broadcast on TV stations. The subjects of these programmes were Passport Applications, Addolorata Cemetery and Smyrna Refugees.

Michael Borg

Overleaf. A scribble sketch of a tartana on the frontispiece of the Registro delli patenti et bollettini (Register of Departures), covering the years 1599 to 1600.

Detail from the ornate façade of the Courts and Tribunals Archive in Imdina

The Courts and Tribunals Archive houses the Court records for the period 1530 up to 1899. These include the records generated by the 18 judicial fora operating during the stay of the Knights of St John (1530 1798), the Courts during the French occupation (1798 1800) and the nine courts that functioned between 1800 and 1889 (British period). This archive is at the Banca Giuratale in Mdina, built in 1726 to house the Università, the civil administrative council of the city.

Research

Following the 2020 and 2021 Covid pandemic restrictions, life returned to normal in 2022. The accessibility for research at the Courts and Tribunals Archive at the Banca Giuratale (Mdina) has remained consistent, with appointments for research on the archive’s premises as well as research assistance via electronic communication. During the 2022, we recorded a significant increase in the number of researchers and the hours spent on research in the premises. 220 researchers visited Mdina Banca Giuratale and spent approximately 568 hours researching, the majority of which occurred during the first half of the year. Close to 320 volumes were consulted.

During 2002, the Malta Study Center, Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, started a multi-annual project to digitize the Consolato del Mare and the Tribunal Armamentorum collections. This project will create an important access to Malta’s maritime history.

Apart from the research conducted on-site, there was a high demand for research conducted via phone and electronic communication, uncommon prior to the pandemic restrictions. The First Hall of the Civil Court fonds was the most researched, with a focus on the Judicial Sales and Citations Series, followed by the Officium Commissariorum Domorum fonds.

Twenty-two MA Notarial Studies 5th Year post-graduate students completed 30 hours of hands-on practical experience under the direction of Dr Joan Abela. They compiled content data from the volumes of the Denunzie within the Criminal Court fonds of the pre-Criminal Code of 1854. The catalogue compilation, started in earlier years, is now complete; it records all criminal cases from the Law Court’s inception in 1814 to the end of the nineteenth century. This information is currently being reviewed to be made available for consultation on the National Archives catalogue platform.

Outreach

Besides the cataloguing process, the contents of the Law Courts Miscellaneous fond were also studied and researched during 2022. In the most recent issue of the journal ‘Arkivju’, Rakele Fiott wrote an article “Miscellaneous Treasures: Stories from National Archives Miscellaneous boxes dating 1746-1785” highlighting interesting information about what one can expect to find in this collection.

In January, the Sunday Times of Malta published an article titled “The women raped and murdered by men in Malta 300 years ago,” in which journalist Sarah Chircop interviewed Vanessa Buhagiar about her discoveries. The article was part of a series called Malta’s Hidden Treasures, which was a collaboration between the National Archives of Malta and the Times of Malta. The project, which is part of the European Digital Treasures programme co-funded by the European Union through the Creative Europe programme, allows readers to gain an understanding of Maltese history and society by utilising our archives.

Buhagiar also presented a paper titled “The legal framework for rape prosecution: A case-study from eighteenth-century Maltese Court proceedings” in November 2022 at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in a seminar on violence against women during the early modern period in which she examined 11 trials of rape accusations identified during the cataloguing process from 1701 to 1709. This topic was later discussed on a local radio show ‘Taħdita-Clio,’ which aired in November, and in which Buhagiar was invited to speak with Dr Emanuel Buttigieg.

The fifth biennial symposium organised by Wirt iż-Żejtun on 8 October 2022, referred to sources from the National Archive. Originally planned for 2020 to commemorate the third centennial of the completion of the parish church of St. Catherine of Alexandria in Żejtun, this symposium was postponed for this year because of the pandemic. Academic Mevrick Spiteri gave a presentation titled “Capo Maestri or Maltese Architects? The roles of Giacomo Bianco (1690-1770) and Giuseppe Bonnici (1706-1779) in 18th century Baroque Malta”, making use of the Officium Commissariorum Domorum fonds. This paper was eventually published by Wirt iż-Żejtun.

“Striking a Chord: Musical Genres in Malta Throughout the Ages” was the National Library of Malta’s Public Lectures Series for 2021-2022, presented entirely in online feature format and eventually also in a publication bearing the same name. This series brought together several local experts in the field and was made available to the public in collaboration with the National Archives of Malta and the Mdina Metropolitan Chapter. In September 2022, Noel D’Anastas gave a presentation titled ‘Wine, Woman, and Song: the Vaudeville Artists and Music Halls in Malta’s Interwar Period,’ which used various sources from the National Archives, including Chief Secretary to Governor and Passport application records.

Mario Camilleri

Several members of the staff appeared as guests on a TVM show called “Għaddi s’Hawn” during the winter months. They discussed their work on a variety of topics, such as the Consolato del Mare records, the importance of Latin in documents, Maltese music archived in the National Archive and other institutions, and the MEMORJA project in relation to the covid pandemic.

The National Archive and its holdings are frequently discussed on Noel D’Anastas’ radio broadcast “Mill-Arkivji”, where guests debate their research, particularly on archival sources in the Maltese Archives. Among those who made reference to the National Archive sources were Dr Charles Xuereb, Dr Noel Buttigieg, Prof. Carmel Cassar, Dr Evelyn Pullicino, Louise and Rakele Fiott, and Vince Peresso.

Images from the Magna Curia Castellania and Consolato del Mare fonds were featured in an online exhibition called “Paper in Motion”, which took place in Prato from 27 January to 27 April 2022.

The National Archive which houses Prof. Charles Camilleri’s musical compositions, was additionally promoted through Camilleri’s music. The Intermezzo from “Il-Wegħda” - the first opera with a Maltese libretto by Charles Camilleri was performed during the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra’s European Tour 2022, presented by the European Foundation for Support of Culture. The 50th anniversary of Charles Camilleri’s album “Għanjiet minn Malta,” the first stereo album released in Malta in August 1972, was commemorated in a lengthy feature article by Noel D’Anastas. Prof. Joe Friggieri, who wrote the lyrics for every song on the album, and singer Maryrose Mallia were both interviewed for the article.

Visits and Presentations

Last March, around 20 students reading for a Master in Notarial Studies under the tutorial of Dr Joan Abela visited the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary Section at Banca Giuratale in Mdina where archivist in charge Noel D’Anastas gave an explanation about the content of the various archival fonds related to the notarial profession and information about the work assignment that they would undertake in Banca Giuratale on the volumes of the Criminal Court Denunciations.

On 5 April, archivists Irene Sestili and Noel D’Anastas gave a lecture to Dr Valeria Vanesio’s undergraduate students about the collection and cataloguing process of the Letrard-Ciantar Collection. On 4 November, a group of undergraduate students from Prof. Simon Mercieca’s course in the history of sexuality visited the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary Section at Banca Giuratale in Mdina, where Samuel Azzopardi provided information about the archive and archival material related to the topic.

Noel D’Anastas

Prof. Joe Friggieri was one of the guests at Banca Giuratale. He expressed his appreciation for the work done to archive and protect Charles Camilleri’s music. Friggieri and Charles Camilleri worked together on a variety of works, including the opera “Il-Fidwa tal-Bdiewa”.

International Fora and Online Meetings

Noel D’Anastas was appointed National Archives’ representative as Country Manager in the Archives Portal Europe project in October. On 23 November, he participated online in the first winter meeting for country managers, followed by another session on 2 December.

The records of the court case Neg. Giuseppe Falea vs Neg. Giuseppe

Ellul ed altri (Proc. App. Civ. 96/1898, Cit. No.1432), held at the Courts and Tribunals Archive, includes this extract from the Registro delle Licenze specito dal Ufficio del Collettore della Rendita Territoriale di Sua Maesta per la fabbriche di case nella campagna. It confirms that on 20 August 1856, the Government authorised Salvatore Camenzuli to occupy a small site of 15 x 15 feet on the coast of Sliema, port of Marsamcetto, precisely in the place indicated to him by the Expert of this Office marked letter A, to build a bath. He had to build also a small pier, in the point marked (a) between the existing bathhouse and the one the one to be built by him, and with the express condition that this concession must be understood and approved by the Government.

The features encountered in the several series of the Consolato del Mare fond range from the more common woodcuts and seals to rarer finds. This is a record with fabric samples still attached to it; the illustration at the top is an engraving.

My Internship at the Courts and Tribunals Archive

Claire Bugeja

My internship at the Banca Giuratale, offered by the Friends of the National Archives and sponsored by the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library Malta Study Centre, involves the cataloguing of the Consolato del Mare fond. The Consolato del Mare was a maritime tribunal established in Malta in 1697 by Grandmaster Ramon Rabasa de Perellós y Rocafull (1697-1720). With the coming of the French Napoleonic Empire in 1798, and the ousting of the knights from Malta, the Consolato was halted for a two-year period. The Consolato was reinstated when the British forces came to Malta and drove out the French occupation, and it continued running up until 1814, when it was suppressed and the Commercial Code replaced it.

During 2022, the majority of the many series within this fond were successfully catalogued. In the first half of the year, the first series of the Acta Originalia was concluded, covering the years 1697 to 1798, and the second Acta Originalia series, covering the years 1800 to 1814, was started and finished.  In the latter half of the year, the four Testimoniali series, the Registri delle Sentenze, Registri delle Manifesti, and the Registri delle Depositi were also fully catalogued, totalling to around 267 boxes of loose bundles and 60 volumes this year.

The cataloguing is done on Google Sheets and follows the DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard) international standard, in accordance to the rest of the vHMML online repository. Examples of fields included in this catalogue are the binding dimensions of the volume or bundle, the languages found in the items, the typology of the documents, the features that might be present within the item, and also the item condition. It is interesting to note the political shifts that can be seen throughout the years simply from the items themselves, especially the rise of the French Republic, which can be seen in the later bundles of the many series through the sudden appearance of the slogan ‘Egalité, Fraternité.’ With regards to the languages found, one can note the internationality found on the Maltese Islands during the period of time the tribunal was active, with a wide variety of European languages like Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, English, French, Russian, Armenian and Greek, as well as languages from beyond the European border, like Arabic, Ottoman Turk, and Hebrew. These are seen alongside the ever-present Italian and Latin, which were the languages of the Maltese court.

“interesting to note the political shifts that can be seen throughout the years simply from the items themselves”

An example of Arabic in the Consolato del Mare fond.

The Notarial Registers Archive

Overleaf. The Kantilena, the earliest known literary text in Maltese forms part of the Notarial Registers Archive.

New shelving installation at the Notarial Registers Archive, Valletta.

Following the enactment of LXIII of 2021 (Archives Laws (Amendment) Act) the historical original copies of the Notarial Archive became part of the National Archives of Malta; the latter is now entrusted with the guardianship and management of the Notarial Registers Archive.

Rehabilitation Project

During 2022, National Archives’ staff was heavily involved in the rehabilitation project of the Notarial Registers Archive building in St Paul and St Christopher Streets in Valletta, co-funded by the European Union. This entailed weekly on-site visits and regular exchanges whereby our conservators monitored the works, liaised on behalf of National Archives and gave advice on the works being carried out to the project leaders.

Before (top) and after (bottom) treatment

Now that this rehabilitation project is reaching its final stages, work on a migration plan of the collection within the building has also commenced. Moreover, we are working on the development of management of this archive, which will be the first National Archives’ building in Valletta.

Vanessa Buhagiar has been entrusted with the drafting and design of the captions for the Notarial Registers Archive’s museum exhibits, which amount to over 50 individual items. For this task each item being exhibited had to be researched and different caption styles and formats had to be tested.

The conservation team was responsible for drawing up the designs and measurements of the book cradles being used in the museum. The team frequently visited the workshop of the supplier to discuss the progress and ensure that the work being carried out was up to standard.

Conservation

Fifteen conservation projects were carried out during the year under review. These involved items that will be displayed in the Notarial Registers Archive Museum, as well as a few volumes from the collection of Notary Giovanni Luca Mamo. The items included notarial deeds, single leaf items and log books from the Maritime Collection.

Conservation treatments mainly consisted of mechanical surface cleaning, paper repairs, consolidation of text, sewing consolidation and replacement where necessary, and consolidation of various aspects of the bindings. Condition reports and before and after photography were also updated accordingly.

The Notarial Registers Archive collection is being disinfested using anoxia treatment. The disinfestation cycle is 40 days long, and when ready, the conservators inspect volumes for any signs of insect activity. Boxes are barcoded according to storage space’s system of identification, to ease the retrieval of documents and overall access to the collection. Storage personnel proceed to seal the boxes in plastic provided by the Office of the Notary to the Government and prepare them on pallets for delivery to the storage facility. Boxes are then transferred to the storage facility, and the next batch is transferred for the

Chanelle Briffa Mifsud

next re-disinfestation process. As of December 2022, nine batches of approximately 250 boxes each, have been disinfested.

Maria Borg and Chanelle Mifsud Briffa were assigned to list and pack notarial volumes stored at the office of Notary Spiteri Maempel. Seven hundred volumes were listed according to date, packed, disinfested and transferred to the storage facility, where they will be stored until the rehabilitation project is finalised.

Research and Analysis

Scientific analysis was undertaken on a portolan chart reused as a cover for an Index of Notary Giovanni Domenico Spiteri. In December of 2021, Chanelle Mifsud Briffa, Maria Borg, and Simon Dimech, transported the chart to the Heritage Malta Diagnostic Science Laboratories. Matthew Grima and Marie Camilleri used MSI and XRF to identify the pigments. The results helped the conservators determine the types of treatments and materials to be used on the chart. The conservation treatment was finalised in 2022.

In 2022, Vanessa Buhagiar and Chanelle Mifsud Briffa led a multi-disciplinary research project on the sixteenth-century poem Ad Patriam. This record can be found on the last (unnumbered) folio of the second volume of the Cedulae Supplichae et Taxationes series, forming part of the Magna Curia Castellania Fond at the Courts and Tribunals Archive within the National Archives of Malta. The researchers investigated this poem, previously though to be written by Luca d’Armenia in the sixteenth century, from a palaeographical and codicological perspective; the results of their study will be published in the journal Nuovi Annali della Scuola Speciale per Archivisti e Bibliotecari of Sapienza University in Rome.

Outreach and Other Activities

This year, the National Archives of Malta collaborated with Times of Malta to issue a series of articles on Malta’s ‘hidden treasures’. This formed part of the larger European Digital Treasures project, which was co-funded by the European Union. The topic that was unearthed from the archives in January concerned femicide and the rape of women in eighteenth century Malta. This article was widely circulated in social media and prompted the researcher Vanessa Buhagiar to further her studies. Linked to this, Buhagiar has also written a paper on the legal

Maria Borg

framework of rape proceedings in eighteenth-century Malta. This was researched and written on the basis of the same primary sources consulted for the Times of Malta feature.

On 25 August 2022 Vanessa Buhagiar was interviewed about Notary Brandanus de Caxario as part of a documentary on the European Digital Treasures exhibition held at the National Archives of Malta. The interview concerned Notary de Caxario’s link to Protestantism and Renaissance humanism, particularly his quote of Erasmus in one of his notarial volumes. This was filmed at the National Library of Malta.

Throughout the month of October, Maria Borg assisted with book handling sessions given to staff from Identity Malta at the National Archives conservation lab. Topics covered included storage conditions, recommended advice, good handling practices and a general overview of different binding styles. Participants also had the chance to have a closer look at some ongoing conservation projects in the Conservation Laboratory. After all sessions were concluded, participants were given a certificate.

Administrative Duties

Due to the limited access to the collection, the team has been accessing documents at the storage facility to assist notaries and researchers with scans and copies of the requested material.

The conservation team, namely Chanelle Mifsud Briffa and Maria Borg, have also ensured that paperwork, reports, databases and meeting minutes related to the Notarial Registers Archive Museum are drawn up and updated accordingly.

Bastaredelli Records at the Notarial Registers Archive, Valletta (2010).

The Kantilena and the Memory of World Register

One of the first steps undertook by the National Archives after the Notarial Registers Archive became part of its holdings was to start the process of inscribing the Kantilena in the Memory of the World Register. Vanessa Buhagiar has been tasked with preparing the draft nomination.

The Kantilena is a 20-lined lyrical poem and the earliest known literary text in Maltese. It is found on the penultimate folio of Brandano Caxaro’s first volume of notarial deeds and was written by Notary Pietro Caxaro who in the preamble to the poem is described by his relative Brandano as an orator, poet and philosopher. Pietro Caxaro died in 1485 so the poem definitely predates that year. Its transcription, well after the poet’s death, at the end of the notarial acts of Brandano Caxaro remains a mystery on a number of counts: it is written; it is irrelevant to the manuscript as a collection of bound legal contracts; and it is written in Maltese using Latin characters – a language that was not used for drawing up notarial deeds. The Kantilena was discovered by Fr Mikiel Fsadni OP and Professor Godfrey Wettinger in 1966.

In the late 20th century, there was a growing awareness of the parlous state of preservation and access to, documentary heritage in various parts of the world. Significant collections worldwide have suffered looting and dispersal, illegal trading, and destruction. In 1992 a United Nations committee discussed how to preserve significant documentary heritage from across the globe by cataloguing and protecting historical archives for future generations. The result was the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme, the documentary heritage equivalent of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

The Memory of the World Programme was set up as a global plan to safeguard the world’s documentary heritage against collective amnesia, the ravages of war, decay and deterioration.

The Memory of the World Register, within the Memory of the World Programme, recognises documentary heritage of global significance and inspires both nations to identify, list and preserve their respective documentary heritage for the collective memory of humankind.

This Register lists documentary heritage which has been recommended by the International Advisory Committee and endorsed by the Executive Board of UNESCO, as corresponding to the selection criteria regarding world significance and outstanding universal value. Inscription on the Register publicly affirms the significance of the documentary heritage, makes it better known and allows for greater access to it, thereby facilitating research, education, entertainment and preservation over time. There are 432 inscriptions on the Memory of the World Register, as of December 2017, composed of 429 inscriptions and 3 additions to existing inscriptions.

Upon successful receipt of the draft nomination by the National Archives, Vanessa Buhagiar attended the workshop organised by the Korean National Commission for UNESCO in Amman (Jordan) between 5 and 7 September 2022. These annual workshops help countries with the drafting of their nomination with UNESCO experts’ assistance in order to increase their chances of successful submissions. The 2022 workshop was organised in collaboration with the Jordan National Commission for UNESCO (JONATCOM). During the workshop, Vanessa presented the draft nomination for the Kantilena and discussed it with the experts present there.

Our participation in the workshop was of great value and will hopefully lead to the successful submission of the Kantilena nomination on the Memory of the World Register in the next cycle of nominations.

View of the Ċittadella. Donated to the Gozo Archive by Dr George Azzopardi

The remit of the Gozo Archive (NAG) within the National Archives of Malta (NAM) is to serve public record office for the documentation produced and received by Government departments and establishments in Gozo and Comino. It includes two depositories in Għarb, one housing the Notarial Registers Archive (Gozo) and the other is an extension of the main depository in Victoria.

Records Management

During the year under review, Gozo Archives staff carried out visits at the Gozo Law Courts at Cittadella and at the Nadur Primary School.

A small collection of thirty volumes from Nadur Primary School was transferred to the Għarb depository since refurbishment works were scheduled to commence at the school.

A number of volumes at the Gozo Law Courts have been earmarked for transfer to the NAG; unfortunately, since both the main hall of the NAG in Victoria as well as the Għarb Deposit are full to capacity, these volumes could be transferred. Another substantial amount of passport applications currently at the Gozo Passports Office have also been identified for transfer to the NAG; this exercise too cannot be undertaken due to storage space shortage.

Outreach and information visit at the Gozo Archive, April 2022

Accessions

This table below lists the new records that were added to the NAG during the year 2022.

Francesco Pio Attard together with school children visiting the Gozo Archive

A very important donation was made by John B. Pace KM, MD, B.Pharm, FRCS (Edin), consisting of twenty-nine original letters related to the 1798 Gozitan insurrection against the French led by Archpriest Saverio Cassar. This collection significantly enhances the related fonds already in existence at the NAG. One more, Dr George Azzopardi of Ta’ Sannat Gozo, made significant donations throughout the year to the NAG mostly consisting of old postcards, photographs and ephimera related to Gozo.

Archival Processing

One hundred and thirty three volumes/items were added to the NAG depository during the year under review. This is significantly less than those registered during the previous two years: 710 (2021) and 604 (2020). This was mainly due to the lack of space available at the Gozo Archive premises.

Up to the end of the year, the NAG held fonds from twenty-eight different entities, each of which is subdivided to reflect the diverse activity carried out by the entity that created the fonds. The fonds, by the cataloguing code, are:

AG Archives Gozo (National Archives – Gozo section)

CA Civil Abattoir

CC Civic Council

CG Curia Gubernatorali (Courts of Law)

CI Charitable Institutions

CP Circulars and Posters

CR Cremona Collection

DF Documentaries and Films

GB Malta Government Savings Bank

GL Ġurdan Lighthouse

GM Ġuljana Masini

HI Hospitals and other Institutions

IR Inland Revenue

LC Local Councils

MG Ministry for Gozo

MH Medical and Health Department

MP Monte di Pietà

PA Photographs. Albums

PD Police Department

PM Plans and maps

PO Passport Office

PW Public Works

SG Secretariat to the Government

SN Street naming

SS State Schools

ST Statistics

UG Universitas Gaudisii

ZM Miscellanea

Paul Falzon

Digitisation

During the year under review, the digitisation process was continued mainly with regard to the MH Fonds consisting of building applications submitted to the Medical and Health Department between 1894 and 1981.

Given the popularity of this fonds with customers as well as the records’ very fragile nature, the digitisation process would make the fonds’ accessibility and research easier. Digitisation has also been completed on the Indexes related to the Curia Gubernatoriale CG Fonds consisting of documents originating from the Gozo Law Courts. With the help of students during the summer holidays, records related to a public consultation carried out by the Department of Eco Gozo at the Ministry for Gozo have been digitised.

Public Services

Research sessions during 2022 amounted to 101, less than the previous two years – 257 (2020) and 212 (2021). The number of research hours amounted to 240, also less than the previous two years: 511 (2020) and 354 (2021). The number of items consulted amounted to 488.

During the year 2022, the Medical and Health fonds proved to be the most popular; followed by the Ġuljana Masini fonds and the Curia Gubernatoriale.

The following is a break-down of statistics per month (2022):

The following table shows number of consultations from each fond per month (2022):

The binding and conservation project of the Universitas Gaudisii Fonds was completed during this year. The project, which was funded by the Ministry for Gozo, provided binding or conservation boxes to the 305 volumes that make up this fonds. Several volumes were found in need of extensive restoration which will eventually be carried out at a later date.

Staff members from the audio-visual and cataloguing units at the National Archives in Malta paid a visit to the NAG with a view of assessing the collections at the NAG and advising on the best storage and conservation methods for these fonds.

Outreach

The NAG uploaded several posts on the Facebook page of the National Archives with the aim of consolidating its presence on social media. A short article on an item from the NAG written by the former Assistant National Archivist Mgr Dr Joseph Bezzina and featured in the Diocesan monthly magazine Il‑Ħajja f’Għawdex continued to be shared on the NAM Facebook page every month.

A member of the staff attended the Careers Awareness Day at the Minor Seminary in Gozo where he had the opportunity of raising awareness about the work of the National Archives and about possible career opportunities in the sector.

Staff at NAG were always welcoming to groups and individuals who show an interest and visit the NAG.

Appointment of an Assistant National Archivist.

After acting in the role for more than two years, John Cremona has been appointed as the Assistant National Archivist responsible for the Gozo Section of the NAG. He succeeds Mgr Dr Joseph Bezzina who was the first Assistant National Archivist and who was responsible for the creation and setting up of the NAG.

The Assistant National Archivist attended the meetings of the National Archives Council as an ex‑officio member as provided by the National Archives Act.

Maryanne Curmi

Josianne Cassar

Visit by the Minister for the National Heritage, the Arts and Local Government and the Minister for Gozo to the NAG

Dr Josè Herrera, Minister for the National Heritage, the Arts and Local Government and Clint Camilleri Minister for Gozo visited the NAG on 11 February 2022 and assisted for the donation of original manuscripts and other written material by Frank Bezzina related to World War II in Gozo. The presentation was made by Charles Bezzina, son of the late Frank Bezzina to the NAG.

The problem of lack of space at the NAG and the National Library (Gozo) that share the same premises was discussed during the visit. A memorandum of understanding was signed between the two Ministers committing to make the premises of the Victoria Primary School in Vajrinġa Street available for an extension of the two institutions once the Primary School moves to the newly built school in Fortunato Mizzi Street.

Charles Bezzina donating documents to the Gozo Archive

Exchanges with our Malta colleagues about archival methods and practices

Overleaf. ‘A baker in Qormi’ story from the MEMORJA project on the European Citizens’ app.

George Pisani

James Baldacchino

Richard Stedall

MEMORJA is the oral, sound and visual archive of the National Archives of Malta, designed to become the Maltese Islands’ main repository of public memory. Employing cutting‑edge research, methodologies, theoretical and archival approaches, MEMORJA collects, records, transcribes and preserves community/shared and individual memories, oral history/traditions, knowledge, and experiences as well as makes them available for research, interpretation and educational purposes.

MEMORJA’s team had started fieldwork in 2017 through face‑to‑face pre‑interview meetings, leading to the creation of networks in the community. These new relationships with individuals from different backgrounds allowed members of the public to share their stories with the project through oral and video interviews and the donation of personal photographs, letters, film reels and artefacts. Given the opportunity to have their experiences documents for future research, these ‘partners’ are today addressing a lacuna often not found in official documentation and are thus providing more balanced and rounded perspectives on numerous themes and subjects.

2022 was a year of consolidation for the Project. After the launch of MEMORJA’s website back in November 2021, the team members’ focus shifted to populating the website with research themes and to broadening outreach on different media. Radio, television and online portals were used to showcase and give access to the pool of stories, memories, photographs and different kinds of ephemera which had been preserved by the Project, along with the digitisation of the University of Malta’s Public Memory Archive which will add hundreds more stories in the years to come.

Edgar Staines, civil servant, 1950s. Patrick Staines Collection

Populating The Website

Upon the launch of the MEMORJA website in November 2021, 11 themes had been selected to give researchers an idea about the NAM’s audio-visual holdings. In 2022, the team identified further themes and interviewees which were scheduled to be made public throughout the year on the website’s ‘Voices’ section. These were interviews centred on agriculture, education, social life and healthcare. While recollections from two themes – the Covid-19 pandemic and the stories from the Second World War – had already been made public in 2021, user traffic indicated that more personal stories and material should be made accessible. In addition, photographic donations from other collections were also made available. The ‘Showcase’ section now hosts the colourful May Agius Collection along with the Philip Pisani Collection – pictures of early 1950s Malta – and the Griscti Family Collection – 1920s buses as used in the local transport industry.

Public Memory Archive

The current batch of interviews from the Public Memory Archive (PMA), which is being digitised, consists of a variety of topics related to social impacts and interactions (Table 1). Throughout March and September 2022, some 50 interviews and numerous ephemera and photographic material had been digitised and ready to be catalogued. From each individual interview, biographical and technical data were sourced to help website users in their research.

The importance of the PMA is that it tackles issues relating to society and Maltese social life in general that might not necessarily have been preserved in the ‘official’ and ‘national’ narrative. These are important since they bring to light certain aspects of Maltese traditions which might not have been necessarily written down but have been passed down orally from one generation to the next. Moreover, these interviews were all done by students at the University of Malta (UM) who carried out interviews either for assignments or dissertations hence, they cover a wide variety of topics.

Dockyard Apprentices, De La Salle College, Cospicua, 1930. Brother Edward Galea Collection

A topic that was of considerable interest was the series of recollections of ‘Factory Girl’ interviews. These interviews were carried out by a student and are now being used by a PhD student for their research related to the subject. This further proves the value of this archive and the importance of preserving and making accessible such interviews.

These specific interviews were recorded between 2000 and 2008, when most of the interviewees were pensioners. However, those discussing certain subjects - mostly agriculture and bakeries - would have worked in the area since their youth until their body cannot physically perform the work, meaning that their interviews would be more distinct and vivid.

Deposits

As far as deposits go, we have been approached by a Francis Falzon from Mosta, who generously donated a series of interviews relating to Mosta from his parents’

1. Public Memory Archive Interviews

Salvu Farrugia 'Tal-Marokk', Mqabba, 1940s. Salvu Farrugia Collection

perspective, who had owned a bar in the middle of the town. This deposit consists of a series of mini cassettes, which have been digitised for researchers to tackle the subject of early twentieth century society, in this case, life in Mosta.

Covid 19 Pandemic Memory Project

Work on the COVID-19 Pandemic Memory Project theme within MEMORJA is developing. As an initiative going back to March 2020, marking the pandemic’s beginnings in Malta, the objective is to preserve the memories and experiences of the public during a time when social distancing was the norm and nationwide changes had to be implemented to adapt to this challenging situation. In short, this theme had to preserve the changes individuals and groups had to wide-sweeping restrictions.

The COVID-19 Pandemic Memory Project has been divided into two phases:

Phase 1: Donations from the public about their COVID-19 experiences. These include private diaries and journals, photographs and videos documenting the way everyday life was affected during the pandemic.

· Phase 2: Oral history interviews with people working in various sectors (e.g. healthcare, education, businesses) and also with those who had been infected with the coronavirus.

Two publications by Prof. Ġorġ Mallia

Prof. Ġorġ Mallia deposited two publications during 2022. The first one, Żepp: His Pandemic Year includes the first 2,300 comic strips which had appeared in the The Times of Malta between 18 April 2020 and 23 March 2022. Adopting a satirical tone, these strips reflect on the effects of the pandemic on the Maltese population.

Sliema Ferries, 1930s. Lina Brockdorff Collection

The other publication, issued digitally, is titled L Avventura Msaħħra ta’ Melanie u Karl and consists of a story for children staying at home due to school closures.

Such deposits serve as an excellent example of how the situation inspired people to embark on creative projects; these provide an alternate and unique lens through which one can look at the pandemic’s effects on society.

Pending deposits

Deposits are still ongoing. Those pending include diaries and personal thoughts from the perspective of an individual suffering from psychological disorders.

Interviews

Interviews with healthcare workers are essential as they were the ones who were directly treating and managing the coronavirus. Opinions and sentiments across different nurses and doctors were very similar. In fact, they described the hectic atmosphere created by the changes Mater Dei Hospital was going through, especially during the initial phases. New protocols were constantly being introduced and revised while new sections at the hospital were being created. As more COVID-19 positive people started being admitted at hospitals, work increased considerably. Consequently, there was a general feeling of stress, exhaustion and burn-out. The interviewees’ fear of infecting their parents was also a recurrent topic. In fact, they had mentioned how they had to make sure to minimise direct contact. For instance, those living with their parents opted to find a separate place to stay.

Interviews were conducted with people involved in the business sector (e.g. shop owners); this is especially important considering the fact that many non-essential businesses had to close in order to blunt the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. In view of this, interviewees also talked of having psychological affects. One reason for this was the sudden change in routine and having to adapt to a different one. It was also particularly worrisome and stressful for them to watch their business suddenly go downhill after years of hard work to build it all up. When talking about these issues, some interviewees were visibily emotional and one even started crying, reflecting the gravity and depth to which people were psychologically effected.

Interviews with persons working in the education sector (e.g., teachers, heads of departments, persons involved in management, youth workers) provided another unique perspective. As with non-essential businesses, schools were made to close. Virtual lessons were a topic typically discussed in such interviews. Lesson-content had to be planned in a different manner so as to better adapt to an online environment. In this regard, certain difficulties were sometimes encountered. These included technological problems whereby IT support would then have to get involved. Another case is in relation to the Secretariat for Catholic Education where certain students did not have access to computers/laptops. Therefore, laptops started to be distributed to students so that they would be able to follow online lessons. Another issue discussed during these interviews was the pandemic’s psychological effects on school children. Of course, not all were affected in the same manner. Some of them managed the situation quite well. Others were very worried and scared about the outbreak. In fact, youth workers mentioned how students would express such feelings to them.

Outreach

February – March 2022

Television presence: The year’s first collaborations were with local production Maltarti where six snippets were televised on the national broadcaster, sharing with viewers some of the Project’s holdings. Gozitan bakeries, entertainment, stories from wartime Malta as well as childhood and the connections between Malta and Lampedusa were publicized. Features on Malta U Lil Hinn Minnha and Tgħid X’inhu? were also broadcast which enticed people to make contact with the NAM, preparing the ground for future collaboration.

April 2022

Drop-in session: The MEMORJA team set up in Siġġiewi to engage with the community, discuss the Project and gather new deposits. The set-up included a looping presentation showing photos related to Siġġiewi which the MEMORJA project had already acquired.

Television interview: Ms Rachelle Mizzi, the co-ordinator of the COVID-19 Pandemic Memory Project, was interviewed on the TVM programme Għaddi s’Hawn, presented by Antonella Vassallo. Main topics of discussion were the COVID-19 theme and donations in relation to it.

June 2022

Radio interview: The Project was also invited for a slot on the University of Malta’s radio channel CampusFM. Administrator James Baldacchino was interviewed on Taħdita Clio by Prof. Emanuel Buttiġieġ and Liam Gauci.

Zvetlana Pace speaking on the theme ‘Childhood’ for Maltarti, 17 March 2022

Autumn 2022

Heritage Malta publication - Tesserae 12: An article titled “The COVID-19 Pandemic Memory Project: Transforming a Challenge into an Opportunity”, written by Dr Charles Farrugia and Rachelle Mizzi, was published in Heritage Malta’s periodical Tesserae. It delves into the COVID-19 Pandemic Memory Project and the importance of preserving diaries about people’s personal experiences of the pandemic.

My House of European History

2022 offered to be a fruitful one in our collaboration with the European Union platform, My House of European History (MyHEH). The team curated snippets and recollections sourced from the PMA, on both the interview front as well as images found in the same collections. These uploads covered an array of topics:

Fishing: Il memorji ta’ Louis Cutajar tas sajd fi jiem li għaddew; Food culture: Salt harvesting in Gozo; Women in the workforce: the story of Sylvia Rapinett;

· Organic medicine: Herbal medicine in Gozo of yesteryear;

· The Malta buses;

· A baker in Qormi; The village festa;

Fireworks: Fireworks: A local tradition in the words of Ġanni Bonello; Covid-19: The experiences of a Maltese doctor Wartime Experiences;

· Pregnancy, births, and baptisms: Childbirth in mid-20th century Malta.

Three of the uploads mentioned were translated and published in the 24 official languages of the EU. The result of this exercise is to further spread abroad orally transmitted traditions of shaded areas in Maltese public memory, some of which are dying out if not out cold already.

Volunteers and Contributors

Individuals who desired to play a part in the Project sat for an oral history course led by MEMORJA’s academic advisor Prof. John Chircop. At the end, some opted to carry out oral history fieldwork whereas others chose to transcribe interviews. In all, the different media used and collaborations forged with groups and individuals ultimately offered MEMORJA the chance to better project its aims and to reap better results.

Rabat Ajax, 2 Division, 1948-1949. Joseph Scerri Collection

Cultural Tourism and Memory Making. The Case of Campanarian Culture in Malta

Rocío Belén Cali Falasca

BA in Sociology (University of Buenos Aires)

M.Sc. in Tourism Development and Culture (University of Glasgow)

As part of my M.Sc. in Tourism Development and Culture I had the opportunity to take a placement at the National Archives of Malta (NAM), where I got to know some of the procedures in this outstanding cultural institution, and contributed with some tasks. What impressed me the most about NAM’s work was MEMORJA, that aims to preserve and make visible the Maltese Islands’ history through a democratic process (Baldacchino & Mizzi 2020), which opens the opportunity for the formerly disenfranchised to contribute to the process of remembering.

After my experience at the NAM, I wrote a report analyzing the contributions of cultural tourism to memory institutions in their duty of enhancing remembering processes and keeping collective memory alive. Additionally, I designed an experiential tourism product based on Maltese bell-ringing culture, one of the main themes covered by MEMORJA, and I analyzed its potential benefits to preserve this heritage.

Cultural tourism is a growing field (Richards, 2014; WTO, 2018) and within it, intangible aspects of culture are appreciated more by tourists and institutions (Lenzerini 2011; UNESCO, 2018; Vecco 2010). As a result, processes of heritagization and cultural revival occur (Cole 2006; Engelhardt 2005; Timothy 2011), and new tourism niches emerge and grow, for example, those focused on vernacular life and ‘low culture’ (Richards 2014; Timothy 2014; WTO 2018) and memory tourism (Timothy 2014; Smith 2006; Winter 2009). The growing interest in cultural tourism and the emerging new niches prompts heritagization processes that create new opportunities for preserving memory. Memory institutions are increasingly being assisted through the tourism industry and many studies highlight its contributions to preserve collective memory (Hyung Yu Park 2020; Marschall 2015; Winter 2009).

Once a memory has been selected and rearticulated, to not be forgotten and erased, it needs to be regularly rehearsed or

Bellringing at Mellieħa Church, 26 July 1972 Otto Henry Collection, National Archives of Malta

narrated, through ritualized practices (Bessière 1998; Halbwachs & Coser 1992), that can be provided by cultural tourism experiences.

Bell Ringing Culture and Experiential Tour

Maltese bell-ringing is a centennial tradition dated back to 1370 (Cassar 2004), that has diverse purposes, ranging from announcing times of the day, praying moments and masses; commemorating important days for Christian; celebrating local festas; indicating the death of a parishioner; and celebrating official secular dates (Cassar 2004). While Maltese campanarian culture has been resisting attempts to be restricted over the time (Carabott 2021), some scholars highlight its potential as resource for Maltese tourism, arguing that the diversity of meanings, techniques and communication codes encapsuled in this tradition, should be recognized as a Cultural Intangible Heritage by UNESCO (Grima 2014; Pace 2020)

In line with some of the current MEMORJA researched themes, I propose the development of an experiential tour based on Maltese campanarian culture, based on MEMORJA’s Rayden Mizzi Collection, which includes more than one thousand recordings of Maltese bells and interviews. A strategy based on unique experiences is central for product differentiation and its success (Pine and Gilmore 1999). Before the beginning of the tour, participants will receive an audio guide with recordings from bell-ringing which will be heard in the place they were recorded. It will also include relevant emotionally-charged fragments of the Rayden Mizzi collection. During the tour, participants will have the opportunity to meet and talk to a bell ringer, who will explain more about this tradition, through informative but also emotive storytelling. Then they will go up through one of the belfries and see the bell-ringing on live. For this, it is vital to assure a good timing, respecting the hours and ceremonies in which ringing usually takes place, to maintain its authenticity (MacCannell 1999). At the end of the tour, they would be encouraged to visit the digital archives to learn more about campanarian culture and other collections developed by MEMORJA

Expected Outcomes

Socially articulated, collective memory reflects characteristics of a society in a given time. Cultural tourism contributes to remembering when providing engaging and educating experiences. The development of the tours I propose with an storytelling approach, will generate a deep engagement to a broader audience than the one that accesses MEMORJA website. An in-person experience will complement the digital repositories, offering a hands-on experience and increasing campararian culture understanding and appreciation among visitors, enhancing their knowledge about Maltese heritage and MEMORJA Moreover, it would serve as an additional funding source for the MNA. Finally, it would enhance the city-tourism dimension, in line with the guidelines proposed by the Malta Tourism Strategy 2021-2030 (Visit Malta 2021). Based on cultural heritage that can be visited all-year round, it would be a means of de-seasonalizing tourism flows and would help differentiate Malta from competitors.

Local communities’ participation in tourism enhances their sense of belonging, local pride and ownership (Cole 2006; Engelhardt 2005; Reid 2003; Zarb 2020), shaping individual and social identities (Nuryanti 1996; Timothy & Nyaupane 2009). This engagement is crucial to increasing local awareness of their heritage and, consequently enhancing its preservation and passing to future generations.

References

Assmann, A. & Conrad, S., 2010. Memory in a global age: discourses, practices and trajectories. 1st ed. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

Assmann, J., 2008. Communicative and cultural memory. In: A. Erll & A. Nünning , eds. Cultural Memory Studies: An Interdisciplinary Reader. Berlin: de Gruyter, pp. 10-18.

Baldacchino, J. & Mizzi, R., 2020. MEMORJA: An Oral, Sound and Visual Archive in the Making. Journal of Maltese History, 6(1), pp. 79-89.

Barthel-Bouchier, D., 2015. Cultural heritage. Tangible and intangible markers of collective memory. In: A. L. Tota & T. Hagen, eds. Routledge International Handbook of Memory Studies. London: Routledge, pp. 221-232.

Bessière, J., 1998. Local Development and Heritage: Traditional Food and Cuisine as Tourist Attractions in Rural Areas. Sociologia Ruralis, 38: 21-34.

Bessière, J., 2013. ‘Heritagisation’, a challenge for tourism promotion and regional development: an example of food heritage. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 8(4), pp. 275-291.

Burgess, J., Klaebe, H. & McWilliam, K., 2010. Mediatisation and Institutions of Public Memory: Digital Storytelling and the Apology. Australian Historical Studies, 41(2), pp. 149-165.

Carabott, S., 2021, ‘Bell-ringing to war: archives to have new look and sound Memorja will be an oral, sound and visual archive’, Times of Malta, June 15, viewed 14 May 2022. <https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/bell-ringing-to-war-archives-tohave-new-look-and-sound.878864>

Cassar, R., 2004, ‘The Bells of Malta (1370-1900) : an art historical consideration’, Masther’s thesis, University of Malta, Available at: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/74452

Cole, S., 2006. Information and Empowerment: The Keys to Achieving Sustainable Tourism. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 14(6), pp. 629-644.

Engelhardt, R. A., 2005. Culturally and ecologically sustainable tourism development through local community management. In: A. Hopper, ed. Culture and Sustainable Development in the Pacific. Canberra: ANU Press, pp. 174-186.

Farrugia, C. J., 2018. Whose voices count? From public records to public memory. Prato, Monash University Prato Centre, pp. 263-271.

Grima, N., 2014. The largely unsung history of Malta’s bells. Baroque Routes Newsletter, Volume 10, pp. 14-17.

Halbwachs, M. & Coser, L. A., 1992. On collective memory. London: University of Chicago Press.

Lenzerini, F., 2011. Intangible Cultural Heritage: The Living Culture of Peoples. European Journal of International Law, February, 22(1), pp. 101-120.

MacCannell, D., 1999. The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Marschall, S., 2015. The role of tourism in the production of cultural memory: The case of ‘Homesick Tourism’ in Poland. Memory Studies, 9(2), pp. 187-202.

Marschall, S., 2015. Touring memories of the erased city: memory, tourism and the notion of home. Tourism Geographies, 17(3), pp. 332-349.

Nuryanti, W., 1996. Heritage and postmodern tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 23(2), pp. 249-260.

Pace, D., 2020. Maltese church bell ringing: a religious tourism attraction?. s.l.:University of Malta-Bachelor’s dissertation.

Park, H. y., 2010. Heritage Tourism: Emotional Journeys into Nationhood. Annals of Tourism Research, 37(1), pp. 116-135.

Pine, J. & Gilmore, J., 1999. The experience economy: Work is theatre and every business a stage. Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press.

Reid, D. G., 2003. Tourism, Globalization and Development: Responsible Tourism Planning. s.l.:Pluto Press.

Richards, G., 2014. Tourism trends: The convergence of culture and tourism. Academy for Leisure. NHTV University of Applied Sciences.

Smith, L., 2006. Uses of Heritage. 1 ed. New York: Routledge.

Times of Malta, 2017b, ‘Watch: Ring those church bells... while you can still hear them’, Times of Malta, June 24, viewed 14 May, 2022 <https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/watch-ring-those-church-bells-while-you-can-still-hear them.651474%20%20 %20%20Watch:%20Ring%20those%20church%20bells...%20while%20you%20can%20still%20hear%20them%20%20 %2024%20june%202017>

Timothy, D. J., 2011. Cultural Heritage and Tourism: An Introduction. s.l.:Channel View Publications.

UNESCO, 2010. Basic Texts of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Paris, UNESCO. Visit Malta, 2021. Malta Tourism Strategy for the years 2021 2030. [Online] Available at: https://www.mta.com.mt/en/newsdetails/348 [Accessed 27 April 2022].

Winter, C., 2009. Tourism, Social Mmeory and The Great War. Annals of Tourism Research, 36(4), pp. 607-626. World Tourism Organization, 2018. Tourism and Culture Synergies, Madrid: UNWTO.

YouTube, 2022. Maltese Bell Ringers. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/c/RaydenMizzi/channels?view=49&shelf_ id=3 [Accessed 2 May 2022].

Zarb, J. C., n.d. How Religious Tourism and Pilgrimages Can BE Beneficial to Communities. International Journal of Religious Studies, 8(2), pp. 12-19.

Supporting Organisations and Volunteers

The National Archives Council is set up in line with Article 14 of the National Archives Act (2005) which stipulates that :

(1) There shall be a National Archives Council, appointed by the Minister, which shall be composed as follows:

(a) a Chairperson

(b) the Superintendent of Cultural Heritage ex officio or his representative;

(c) the Chairperson of Heritage Malta ex officio or his representative;

(d) the National Librarian ex officio or his representative;

(e) the Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister ex officio or his representative;

(f) a person to represent the non-governmental archives or records centers;

(g) three other persons chosen from amongst persons known to be users of and familiar with archives, records management and information professions, or working in nongovernmental organizations dedicated to information and archives, one of whom shall be appointed by the Minister responsible for Gozo.

National Archives Council with Minister Owen Bonnici

In line with the National Archives Act, during the year under review, the Council continued to fulfill the functions assigned to it by the Archives Act, mainly:

(a) to promote the National Archives and other record keeping entities:

(b) to ensure and facilitate the collaboration between the different stakeholders with direct or indirect responsibility for the protection and management of the archives sector;

(c) to advise the Minister on the management of archives in Malta;

(d) to draw the attention of the Minister or of any organization or person responsible for archives to any urgent action that may be considered necessary for the better management of archives and records;

(e) to advise the Minister on any matter arising from the provisions of this Act and on any other matter referred to it by the Minister.

Council Members

During the year under review the Council was made up of the following members:

President

Professor Raymond Mangion

Members

Dr Joan Abela

Dr Steve Borg

Ms Maroma Camilleri

Mgr Dr Nicholas Doublet

Mr Max Farrugia

Ms Judith Frendo Cumbo

Dr Lilian Sciberras

Secretary

Ms Sarah Brincat

As in previous years Dr Charles J. Farrugia, National Archivist and Mr John Cremona, Assistant National Archivist attended all Council meetings and supported the work of the Council by regularly updating it on the workings of the National Archives.

The priorities of the council during the year under review remained the implementation of the electoral manifesto proposal with regards to the building of a new National Archives. Meetings were held with stakeholders to push for the implementation of this commitment.

The Council also discussed the shortage of space at the Gozo Section of the National Archives and the possibility of taking over part of the Victoria Primary School in Vajrinġa Street once the primary school moves to the new premises.

The Council met on 22 February 2022.

Following the General Elections held in March, the National Archives Council was reconstituted and held meetings on the following dates. 14 October, 26 October, 15 November, 29 November, 6 December and 16 December 2022.

Friends of the National Archives

The Executive Committee of the Friends of the National Archives (FNAM) was composed of Max Farrugia as President, Dr Charles Farrugia as Vice-President, Dr Evelyn Pullicino as Secretary, M’Anne Farrugia as Assistant Secretary, Dr Gerald Bugeja as Treasurer, Ivan Ellul as Membership Secretary and Web content Officer , Prof. George Cassar as Education Officer, Doris Zammit as Public Relations Officer and Marica Camilleri as International Officer and Martin Hampton as Volunteer Liaison Officer. This committee has been elected during the Annual General Meeting held in May 2021.

European Digital Treasures

The participation of the National Archives in the “European Digital Treasures: Management of centennial archives in the 21st century,” a project co-funded by the European Union through the Creative Europe programme, entailed the setting up of three exhibitions during 2023. The first was launched in January, the second in May and the third in August Merchandizing articles were purposely created for the first exhibition. The members of the FNAM executive committee supported the National Archives in this venture by their support and help in advertising the exhibitions in local programmes in which they participated.

Friends of the NationalArchives Committee, 2022

Internship/Bursary by HMML

In 2021, the FNAM had facilitated the granting of a bursary by the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library to a local student. The chosen candidate, Claire Bugeja, is now as an intern by HMML while pursuing her Master in Archives degree. She gave an online presentation to the committee about her work at the Legal Documentation Centre in Mdina. During her interesting presentation Ms Bugeja explained the work she performed in connection with the Consolato del Mare documents which the HMML hope to digitize in the future. She is preparing the metadata of the boxed documents, making this fond more accessible for researchers.

Malta Bus Archive Sponsorship

Richard Stedall worked for three years at the National Archives on the Malta Bus Archive and on the archives of Transport Malta, contributing towards the MEMORJA project by interviewing bus drivers and bus constructors. The Omnibus Society in England supported the funding of the project for six months, while FNAM assisted in dealing with the bureaucratic and administrative issues related to this sponsorship. Members of the committee also shared interesting information they had about Maltese buses and local bus constructors which according to Mr Stedall proved useful in tracing and contacting the family of a bus constructor who had migrated to New Zealand. Mr Stedall gave a PowerPoint presentation about the Malta Bus Archive and future projects to the committee members.

New Archives Building

With an approaching election in mid-2022, letters were sent to the political parties about the urgent need to move ahead with the New Archives building project which had been stalled over problems regarding the site identified and transferred to the National Archives by Government for its building. Since the National Archives officials continued to have meetings about the project, another letter about this matter was sent directly to the Prime Minister.

The FNAM’s priority was to get the two main political parties, the PL and the PN to commit themselves for the building of a new National Archives building in their electoral manifestoes. The PL manifesto promised a new national archives building in Article 780 while articles 488 and 489 of the PN manifesto promised new national archives and the audio-visual institute. The ADPD was also contacted to include the archives and the need for the construction of a purposely built structure as a new archive, in the manifesto.

Following the elections, the FNAM’s executive committee met the new Minister Dr Owen Bonnici and insisted on the necessity of new building for the National Archives, stressing the current imminent dangers of deterioration of records and lack of space.

The FNAM also asked for a meeting with the shadow minister, Ms Julie Zahra where they shared their concerns about the need for a new National Archives building.

FNAM Journal: L Arkivju

L-Arkivju, the FNAM annual journal edited by Prof. George Cassar was, this year, as usual, ready for distribution to members during the Book Festival held in November.

Book Festival

The FNAM participated in the Book fair which was held at the MCC at Ta’ Qali from 23rd to 27th November. The FNAM committee members were asked to help man the stand when National Archive staff were not available.

Volunteers

During 2022, a number of generous volunteers gave their services at the National Archives of Malta. Apart those who have become “resident” volunteers after a number of years, the year 2022 saw a surge in volunteers who started and completed a number of pending projects.

These volunteers including Anthony Mifsud, Marlene Cefai, Danica Abela and Daniel Pavia Livori contributed towards the cataloguing of the Chief Secretary to Government collection (series 01). Till the end of the year more than nine thousand records have been catalogued. Danica Abela worked also on the cataloguing of the Department of Labour and Emigration files.

With the sterling help of a number of other volunteers, the digitization projects at the National Archives has made great strides: Andrea Cachia, Norbert Gingell and Martin Hampton digitized a significant number of passport applications and the Charitable Institutions registers.

The cataloguing of the Eddie Fenech Adami and Lawrence Gonzi papers, and the Nani family collection is an ongoing project managed by Fred Bezzina and Mary Buttigieg respectively.

Other volunteers worked on other various projects including the foliating of the Registrum Patentarum series from the Magna Curia Castellania fonds at the Courts and Tribunals Archive in Mdina led by Claire Bugeja.

The Conservation Laboratory at the National Archives supervised the voluntary tasks of Skye Vassallo, who worked on the cleaning of negatives, the rehousing for the Times of Malta collection and created tailormade melinex pockets for photos in passport applications. She also ordered part of the Joe Borg Collection, while digitizing the same collection.

Another volunteer, Daphne Vella volunteered at the Conservation Laboratory by cleaning documents as well as negatives.

Ivan Mifsud Bons,Vince Pulis, Dione Azzopardi, Ivan Said, Edwin Debono, Marlene Debono, Mark Farrugia, Claire Scerri and Mariella Cachia contributed in the MEMORJA project by transcribing recorded interviews that were carried out by our staff. The same volunteers worked also on other transcripts, namely the interviews that were originally deposited at the Public Memory Archive of the Department of History at the University of Malta and now are at the National Archives.

The pharmacy housed at the National Archives was being taken care by another volunteer, Laurence Zerafa, who worked on a general inventory of all the ephemera deposited over the years and also a review of the current inventory of the artefacts. He also started planning to identify volunteers with the final aim of opening the place for tours.

Mark Caruana, the long-standing volunteer residing in Australia, has also for the past year contributed to the National Archives of Malta on various projects.

Overleaf. National Archivist Dr Charles J. Farrugia accompanied by University of Malta Lecturer Dr Valeria Vanesio at the archives and library of the Camera dei Deputati in Rome where they held discussions with Chief Archivist Dr Paolo Massa on potential future collaboration.

Professor Michael Cook (centre) was bestowed with the Distinguished Service Award during the last Archives and Records Association of UK and Ireland Conference. Cook is an authority in archival theory and was also one of the experts who visited Malta and worked on a report about the setting up of the National Archives. The ceremony was held on 21 September 2022 in Chester. (From left

to right: Chair of ARA Andrew Nicoll, Michael Cook and Charles J. Farrugia).

This year was marked by the easing of restrictions imposed by the COVID 19 pandemic. Physical travel was less restricted; however several events were held on online platforms. This is an account of the National Archives’ participation in various international for a during 2022.

27 January The National Archives hosted the members of the European Digital Treasures (EDT) Steering Committee for a meeting organised at the St Paul’s Catacombs conference centre in Rabat. This was followed by a cultural programme.

28 January Opening of the EDT exhibition at the Head Office of the National Archives with the participation of members of the EDT Steering Committee members.

31 January Dr Farrugia as President of EURBICA addressed the opening of the International Archival Symposium organised by the Alma Mater Europaea and the International Institute of Archival Science (IIAS)

9 March The European Digital Treasures team presented the various presentations held within the workshop ‘New Digital Exponential Technologies towards the Generation of Business Models.’

15-18 March Dr Ilaria Scaglia arrived in Malta for three days of events and lectures. This was a collaboration between the Malta Study Centre, the History Department and the Department of Library, Information and Archive Sciences at the University of Malta, the National Archives of Malta and the Istituto di Cultura.

16 March Public Lecture at the National Archives of Malta by Dr Ilaria Scaglia entitled ‘Archives and Emotions in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction 1850s to 1950s.

18 March

The Alma Mater Europaea organised the 7th Archival Symposium entitled ‘Archives in the Service of People – People in the Service of Archives.’ This year’s topic was ‘Ethics in Archival Science and Archival theory and practice.’ National Archivist Dr Charles J. Farrugia addressed this Conference with a presentation entitled ‘Towards an Ethical Profiling of EU National Archives.’

6-9 April National Archivists, including Dr Charles J. Farrugia, from all over the world met in virtual mode for the Forum of National Archivists (FAN) organised Conference entitled ‘Virtual Conversations’ spanning over 3 days.

9 April Dr Farrugia addressed the Forum of National Archivists and presented the project of the EDT. The lecture was part of the session entitled ‘Federating Resources for Enhanced Access’ chaired by Canadian national archivist Leslie Weir. Trapani, Italy

14 April Dr Farrugia visited the Archivio di Stato of Trapani. He had the opportunity to discuss the challenges of notarial records, especially in view of the new responsibilities for the running of the Notarial Registers Archive in Valletta. He was welcomed by archivists Dott.ssa Arianna Di Meceli and Dott.ssa Valentina Rallo.

2 May The National Archives hosted a group of young Belgian students participating in an EU project promoting youth exchange.

Istanbul, Turkey

10-13 May

Official visit by Dr Charles J Farrugia and Mr Joseph Scerri to the Ottoman Archives in Istanbul. This was the result of the MoU Signed by the two sides earlier in Malta. Ways of future collaboration were explored.

17 May Opening of the second EDT exhibition at the National Archives.

The National Archivist (left) with Prof. Dr. Uğur Ünal, Director of State Archives of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey (Centre) at the Ottoman Archives.

Paris, France

18-22 May

Paris, France

20 May

Dr Charles J. Farrugia participated at the EBNA and EAG Meetings.

Leonard Callus participated at the Archives Portal Europe Country Managers’ Meeting, the Steering Committee of the EDT Project and the Presentation of the EDT Project to the ICARUS Convention. This was followed by a visit together with national archivist Dr Charles J. Farrugia to the French national archives building at Pierrefitte-Sur-Seine.

Paris, France

22-26 May

Budapest, Hungary

3-9 July

Naples, Italy

17 August – 12 September

14 July

Mr Ivan Ellul participated at the ICARUS Convention and the Presentation of the EDT Project to the same Convention.

The EDT Youth Summer Camp was held in Budapest and the local youths were coordinated by the National Archives and led by Ivan Ellul.

Conservator Simon P. Dimech participated in showcasing documents from the National Archives of Malta during the Clement Cogitore Exhibition at the MADRE Museum in Naples.

Online launching event of the first issue of the National Archives of Malta Monography Series “Images of Empire”. The event was addressed by Dr Forget Chaterera Zambuko, Dr James Lowry, Dr Ilaria Scaglia, Professor William Zammit and Dr Charles J. Farrugia.

11-12 July

Dr Charles J. Farrugia was one of the speakers at the Discovering Collections, Discovering Communities 2022 (DCDC22) Conference held online. His presentation was about the European Digital Treasures under the heading ‘Community Building through Public Engagement’.

13 July

22 July

Hosting in Malta of Nikolai Doitzky and Martina Niedermayer from Ancestry to start discussions about potential future collaboration.

Visit to the Limassol State Archives and tour organised by Archivist Mimis Sophocleus followed by bilateral discussions with the Mayor of Limassol Nicos Nicolaides.

Dr Paolo Massa, Chief Archivist of the Italian Camera dei Deputati (left) with the National Archivist and Dr Valeria Vanesio from the University of Malta (centre, right) at the Italian Parliament in Rome.

27 July

The National Archives of Malta participated in a European archival co-operation initiative organised by the Ypres town archives (Belgium) and Historical Archives Celja (Slovenia). The NAM submitted an image of an archival item about railways which was also included in the publication.

26 July

Participation in virtual mode at the International Conference on the History of Records and Archives (ICHORA) organised by the TNA(UK) and the Forum of Archives and Records Management Education and Research (FARMER) through the presentation of a postcard about Gaetano Bruno.

28 July

Paper presented in virtual mode by Dr Charles J. Farrugia and Dr Valeria Vanesio about the Pioneers in Library and Information Professions in Malta Project at the ICHORA conference.

27 August

The National Archives of Malta became a member of the IIC (International Institute for Conservation), which is a global network of dfistinguished fellows, members and instititutions representing more than 70 countries. Through this membership conservators will have better access to conferences and events, publications, research papers, journals and more opportunities to collaborate and network.

Chester UK

31 August -

2 September

Amman, Jordan

5-7 September

CEO addressed the Archives and Records Association (UK) Conference. This year’s theme was ‘Facing Forward: Post-pandemic record-keeping – change, challenge, choice.’ The theme of the CEO’s presentation was ‘National Archives in post-Covid times: the challenges of memory projects.’

Vanessa Buhagiar, palaeographer at the National Archives of Malta, participated in the UNESCO Memory of the World International Training Workshop organised by the Korean National Commission for UNESCO as part of our efforts to get Petrus de Caxaro’s Cantilena included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

General Assembly of EURBICA

Rome, Italy

19-24 September

Rome, Italy

21–23 September

Rome, Italy

21 September

Rome, Italy

23 September

26 September,

3 October and

10 October

The International Conference of Archivists was held, together with the ICA Executive Meeting of the International Council on Archives on which our national archivist is a member.

Leonard Callus participated in the ICA Rome 2022 on behalf of the EDT.

Dr Charles J. Farrugia visited the archives of the Italian Parliament to hold discussions about future collaboration with the chief archivist Dott. Paolo Massa.

General Assembly of EURBICA was held and it was chaired by its President Dr Charles J. Farrugia. For the first time this was held in a hybrid mode.

EDT and Icarus Online lectures about the exhibitions created within the EDT project were held.

27 September An Online meeting of the European Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives was chaired by its President, Dr Charles J. Farrugia and attended by a number of members on site in Rome and others who joined virtually.

11 October Malta participated in the 32nd Conference organised by the International Institute for the archival science Trieste/Italy – Maribor/Slovenia, the Alma Mater Europaea – ECM/Archival Studies and the State Archives of Trieste. The themes of this year’s conference were ‘Archives in Shaping Collective Memory’ and ‘Archival Science and Collaboration on an International Level in Science, Education and Use.’

St. Pölten, Austria

14-15 November

St. Pölten, Austria

14-15 November

Valladolid, Spain

10-13 December

The National Archivist with Dr Arianna Di Meceli from the Archivio di Stato of Trapani.

Malta participated in the 29th Icarus Convention.

Leonard Callus participated in the EDT Steering Committee to be held In Vienna:  14-15 November 2022

Dr Charles J Farrugia and Leonard Callus took part in the EDT concluding event. The theme was ‘Challenges and New Alliances in the European Archives – EU Digital Treasures.’

11 December Visits by the Maltese delegation to the Archivio Real Chancelleria at Valladolid, and the Archivio Generale de La Simancas, Spain. An exhibition showcasing three Maltese documents was held at the latter venue.

Valladolid, Spain

Overleaf. On 27 January 2022, we hosted a meeting of the Steering Committee of the European Digital Treasures project with representatives from the national archives of Spain, Portugal, Norway and Hungary as well officers from the International Centre for Archival Research (ICARUS) based in Vienna.

6 November 2022/ Open day at Santu Spirtu. We hosted hundreds of guests who visited the exhibition European Discoveries: From the New World to New Technologies, the Conservation Laboratory and the pharmacy museum.

Richard Cumbo, a Maltese emigrant living in Canada, donated records related to the experiences of Maltese emigrants in Canada. 2022 is the 100th anniversary since the foundation of the Maltese Canadian Society of Toronto. 11

Anna Farrugia donated a copy of her book The Story of a Maltese Musician – Antonio Micallef 1867–1940 to the National Archives of Malta.

We hosted a meeting of the Steering Committee of the European Digital Treasures project. This meeting included representatives from the national archives of Spain, Portugal, Norway and Hungary as well officers from ICARUS, the International Centre for Archival Research based in Vienna.

The Construction of Europe – History, Memory and Myth of Europeanness over 1000 Years, the first of a series of three exhibitions developed within the framework of the project European Digital Treasures, was inaugurated at the Head Office of the National Archives of Malta.

This exhibition allowed visitors to get to know our written past through multiple channels, combining different technological tools, focussing on archival documents that include narratives that tell micro-stories contributing to the construction of Europe. Technology allowed visitors to experiment and play, to learn and share, as well as to feel moved by a common past.

February

Charles Bezzina donated a number of manuscripts and photographic material to the Gozo Archive. These documents, that relate mainly to war-time Gozo, originated from the research of his late father Frank Bezzina. Present for the event where the Minister for National Heritage, the Arts and Local Government Josè Herrara and the Minister for Gozo Hon. Clint Camilleri. 17

We evaluated our performance during 2021 and set our targets for this year.

Dr. Ilaria Scaglia from Aston University delivered a public talk on “Archives and Emotions in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, 1850s-1950s.” The event was sponsored by the Malta Study Center and the Department for Library and Archive Sciences at the University of Malta.

17

Students reading for the degrees of Master in Library and Information Studies and the Master in Archives and Records Management visited the transmedia exhibition The Construction of Europe: History, Memory and Myth of Europeanness over 1000 Years.

23

MCAST students following cultural heritage-related courses visit the transmedia exhibition The Construction of Europe: History, Memory and Myth of Europeanness over 1000 Years. 25

Sixth Form students from St Aloysius College visited the National Archives and we explained the various tasks we carry out at the Archives. They also had the opportunity to experience the ongoing exhibition that forms part of the European Digital Treasures project.

14

Dr Daniel Gullo, Director of the Malta Study Centre within Hill Museum and Manuscript Library delivered two training sessions to our staff. One session dealt with the operations of the Malta Study Centre and the other was about cataloguing standards.

7

Conservator Alice Ferri left the National Archives and is continuing her profession in Italy. 24

A drop-in session about the project MEMORJA was held in Siġġiewi. Days before, posters were put up in various businesses throughout Siggiewi, including bars, grocery shops, the local clubs, the parish church and the local council, advertising the event.

The activities included a looping presentation of Siggiewi-related images, an ‘Is this your relative?’ series of images that might have related to some of the potential attendees, a list of the 1932 Siggiewi electoral list of as well as a map of Siggiewi from 1907, discussions made with the MEMORJA team on site as well as the vintage bus parked outside the Local Council premises. The looping presentation comprised of a mix between the MEMORJA donations as well as from private collections. The ‘Is this your relative’ initiative was conducted by Richard Stedall.

Throughout, the attendees thoroughly enjoyed the event, yet unfortunately did not bring with them any photographic materials. At the beginning, the number of attendees was quite poor however, the amount

increased in the early morning. A good amount of people talked to staff members on the subject of transportation and buses, also digitising some materials.

A number of councillors from other localities showed up and were interested in hosting similar events in their localities in the future. An attendee was interested to such an extent that he left and returned to the Local Council building with his personal albums, including an 1800s camera and slides from the same period.

29

We hosted a group of young Belgian students participating in an EU project promoting youth exchange. Their visit included an explanation of our responsibilities and experiencing the transmedia exhibition The Construction of Europe.

May

2

The Gozo Archives, in collaboration with the National and Regional Festivities Committee of the Ministry for Gozo, organised a commemorative exhibition about Ninu Cremona on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his death. Dr Ninu Cremona established scientific rules for the Maltese grammar. He was also a poet, play writer and folklorist. The exhibition, held at the Banca Giuratale in Ir-Rabat, Gozo was open till 29 May.

9

University students reading for a BSc degree in Home Economics carried out a research project about the Victory Kitchens in various sources at the National Archives of Malta.

10

We visited the State Archives of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey to develop our relationship within the Protocol Cooperation signed between our institutions in 2021.

Salvaging of the GO p.l.c dormant archive. Following the news that the site of the Go Exchange building in Birkirkara was sold and earmarked for demolition, the National Archives came to an agreement with GO p.l.c. to take over the historical archive that was held into the exchange building. By preserving this extensive collection, we saved an important piece of the puzzle when it comes to the development of telecommunications in the Maltese Islands going back a century and prior to the privatisation of the sector. 17

Minister for National Heritage, the Arts and Local Government Owen Bonnici inaugurated the second of a series of three exhibitions developed within the framework of the project European Digital Treasures, co-financed by the European Union. The exhibition Exiles, Migratory Flows and Solidarity 47 documents from 22 archives from 9 countries telling micro-stories that shaped Europe.

19

During a meeting of the European Archives Group meeting in Paris, chaired by the French Presidency of the European Union, we delivered a presentation about the five merchandise items developed within the European Digital Treasures project. The other national archives participating in the project (Spain, Portugal, Norway and Hungary) presented the items they developed.

23-25

We participated in the 28th ICARUS convention, Private and public archives in the 21st century at Campus Condorcet in Aubervilliers (France). During the session Digital Treasures, Business Models, Companies, Market we delivered a presentation about Potential Avenues for New Revenue-Generating Business Models. This presentation discussed the findings of a study undertaken within the European Digital Treasures project. 26

Rachelle Mizzi discussed the COVID-19 Pandemic theme within the MEMORJA on Television Malta. 30

Joseph Calleja deposited a collection of records related to his long experience at the Electoral Commission. These records will complement the official ones, already at the National Archives, about the organisation and management of elections in Malta during the last 40 years.

June 3

Sarah Portelli from our conservation team participated in a training workshop about the use of nano-systems in conservation of organic material, held at Nova University in Portugal. This training formed part of our continuing professional development efforts. The organisers were the EU-funded project APACHE, NEON Art Conservation and the Department of Conservation and Restoration at NOVA School of Science and Technology.

7-11

We celebrated the International Archives Week; 9 June is International Archives Day, commemorating the day the International Council on Archives (ICA) was set up in 1948 during a meeting of archivists in Paris under the auspices of UNESCO. This year’s theme was #ArchivesAreYou.

We also participated in a European archival co-operation initiative organised by the Ypres town archives (Belgium) and the Celje Historical Archives (Slovenia) to celebrate the International Archives Week (see 27 July post).

Nora and Rita Vella Brincat donated a set of historical photographs and documentation related to sewing classes and training in Malta that were developed by their mother Prassede.

The exhibition Clément Cogitore - Ferdinandea and Beauty and Terror: Sites of Colonialism and Fascism was inaugurated at the Madre Museum in Naples. Records from the National Archives formed part of this exhibition organised by the Fondazione Donnaregina and curated by Kathryn Weir.

In June 1831, a volcanic island emerged in the sea between Sicily and Tunisia. It quickly attracted the attention of European powers, keen to lay claim to its strategic position. In fact, the British, the French and the Bourbons, who ruled Naples, claimed the island. They even named it, calling it Graham, Île Julia and Ferdiandea respectively. But before more problems arose, it sunk back in December.

Documents from the National Archives of Malta about this island and the conflicts surrounding it were exhibited.

Louis Casha donated his 2006 painting ‘Cells’ to the National Archives of Malta, inspired by his memory of his late mother’s stay decades ago at Santo Spirito Hospital.

July 3–11

Danica Abela, Aimee Borg, Yevgeny Spiteri participated in a Youth Camp in Budapest within the European Digital Treasures Project.

14

We met officers from Ancestry, the world’s leading resource for online family history and genealogy and explored possible avenues for collaboration and projects. 14

We held a webinar to the first issue of NAMms, a series of monographs published by the National Archives. The participants included Dr Charles J. Farrugia (National Archivist and CEO of the National Archives of Malta and editor of NAMms and Head, Department of Library, Information and Archive Sciences, University of Malta), Dr James Lowry (Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, Queens College, City University of New York), Prof. William Zammit (Department of Library, Information & Archive Sciences, University of Malta), Dr Forget Chaterera-Zambuko (Assistant Professor – Records Management & Archival Science, Sorebonne University, Abu Dhabi) and Dr Ilaria Scaglia, (Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Modern History, Aston University, Birmingham).

NAMms is a series of monographs published by the National Archives of Malta seeking to foster the academic debate around archival issues. It bridges ideas from different academic disciplines and brings to the fore archival theory, its application and its challenges. In so doing the National Archives of Malta disseminates the insights generated in the study of our holdings and promotes the value of archives to society.

This issue, entitled ‘Images of Empire’, included a number of papers discussing imperial and colonial mindsets within shared archival heritage. 20

Edward Said donated a number of copies of Sliema-related plans to the National Archives.

August

12

Clive Sammut donated a print related to Santa Marija Convoy signed by a number of sailors and military personnel involved in the operation and the attacks on Malta during World War 2.

18

The exhibition European Discoveries: From the New World to New Technologies was inaugurated at our main office in Rabat. This exhibition was the last of a series of three exhibitions developed within the framework of the project European Digital Treasures, co-financed by the European Union. We included 45 documents from 25 archives from eight countries to tell micro-stories that shaped Europe.

We hosted the family of the Perit André Zammit (1930–2020) to thank them for the donation of his archive. This archive is made up of over 800 notebooks (manuscript), dating from 1786 to the end of the 19th century, covering the works of the sixteen architects.

These records practically cover the whole careers of architects Michele Cachia (1760-1839), Francesco (1755-1820) and Giovanni Sammut (1784-1841), and Giuseppe (1812-1859) and Francesco Zammit (1844-1917) as well as works by Saverio (1740-1799), Pietro (1774-1803), Salvatore (1777-1830), Giuseppe (1741-1841) and Gaetano Xerri (1783-1853), Pasquale (1738-1817) and Vincenzo Sammut (1782-1850), Paolo (1792-?) and Alfred Zammit (18921970).

They include sketches and notes of houses or fields for calculation and valuation or partition requested by owners, heirs or the Courts, Agrimensore course notes and school copybooks.

This Collection reflects also the wider political context, e.g. the twilight of the Order of St John’s stay in Malta, the insurrection against the French in 1798 where Michele Cachia played a key role, and the establishment of the British administration.

The National Archives bid farewell to our audiovisual archivist Giovanni Copertino. Giovanni is moving to Italy to continue his archival profession.

Volunteer Nicole Vassallo will start a course leading to a Master’s degree in the conservation and restoration of photographs at the University of Amsterdam. We thanked Nicole for her contribution as a volunteer at our laboratory for the past two years.

We became institutional members in the International Institute of Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, a global network of distinguished fellows, members and institutions representing more than 70 countries. Now, our team of conservators have access to conferences and events, publications, research papers, journals and more opportunity to collaborate and network.

5-9Sarah Portelli from our conservation team co-chaired the 29th Biennale Congress organised by the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. Together with James Licari, Sarah represented the European Regional Hub.

5-7

Vanessa Buhagiar, a palaeographer at the National Archives, participated in the UNESCO Memory of the World International Training Workshop in Jordan.

We participated in this workshop, organised by the Korean National Commission for UNESCO as part of our efforts to get Petrus de Caxaro’s Kantilena included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. The Kantilena, the oldest known written literary text in Maltese, is held at the Notarial Registers Archive within the National Archives.

7

6

Mick Halliday donated a collection of photos shot by Ernest Price to the National Archives. Mr Price formed part of the RAF Photographic Unit of the photos are from the late 1920’s and early to mid-1930’s. The pictures form part of a larger collection covering many places around the world, including India, England, Scotland, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Germany and Malta.

Ted Attard donated a digital copy of a large collection of photos, primarily related to Gozo, that he shot over a number of years.

9

The National Archives collaborated with the Richard Ellis Archive in the development an exhibition to commemorate the 150 years since the setting up of the first photographic studio in Malta by Richard Ellis. This exhibition at the Centre for Creativity (St James’ Cavalier Valletta) was open until the 23 October.

Ms Josephine Fenech has donated a copy of her book Memorji ta’ Tfuliti (Memories from My Childhood) to the National Archives where she gives an account of her childhood, in particular between 1942 and 1962.

One hundred years since 407 refugees fleeing from Smyrna (now Izmir in Turkey) arrived at the Grand Harbour; 81 of these refugees were of Maltese origin. Within three months, close to 1,600 refugees landed in Malta. Half of them were of Maltese ancestry, six were born in Malta. The others were Cypriots, Dutch, Egyptians, Swiss, French, Americans, Armenians, Italians, Swedes and Turks.

The more affluent refugees who could afford to leave Malta did so by the end of 1922. Others stayed longer. Some returned to Smyrna while many were relocated to other countries such as Argentina, Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, Portugal, Serbia, South Africa, United Kingdom and the United States. The ‘Maltese’ refugees who returned to Smyrna were distrusted by the Turkish authorities and were eventually expelled in 1932.

We commemorated the 100th anniversary since the arrival of the Smyrna refugees, one of the first major challenges faced by the first Maltese self-government, barely ten months after taking office.

5-8

In collaboration with the Malta Cine Circle, we participated in the International Archive Film Festival organised in Tbilisi, Georgia. 80 documentaries, animated films and cinema-chronicles were shown in the National Archive Cinema of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia.

These included films from archives, cinemas and cinema museums from Germany, Italy, USA, Spain, Great Britain, Netherlands, Portugal, Czech Republic, Croatia, Moldova, France and Malta.

10-16

We celebrated the annual European Days of Conservation-Restoration, recalling the contribution of conservators in the preservation and accessibility of our cultural heritage, including that within archives.

25-27

Simon Dimech, from our Conservation Lab, participated in a course about the latest developments in the use of PVA-borax gel in paper conservation. The training was held the Centro per lo Studio dei Materiali per il Restauro in Reggio Emilia (Italy).

27

We commemorated the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage. Archived audiovisual records open a window to another world, allowing us to observe events we cannot attend, hear voices who can no longer speak.

Our conservators concluded the training of Identity Malta staff in the safe handling of documents. 37 Identity Malta staff members within the Public Registry participated in this training made up of nine sessions and delivered by Simon Dimech and Maria Borg.

6

Open day at Santu Spirtu. Hundreds of people visited us the exhibition European Discoveries: From the New World to New Technologies, the Conservation Lab and the pharmacy museum.

7The project MEMORJA became present on the Citizens’ App of the European Parliament. The Malta Buses features in the Citizens’ Stories section of this app. It features in the 24 EU languages within the Citizens’ Stories section of this app.

A Drop in the Waterfall, a documentary based on two Maltese documents exhibited in the The Construction of Europe – History, Memory and Myth of Europeanness over 1,000 Years, produced by Media Coop and co-financed by the European Union, was shown at a film festival in Sankt Pölten (Austria).

Archivist Irene Sestili left the National Archives and is continuing her profession as archivist in Luxembourg.

We hosted MCAST students following a course leading to the Advanced Diploma in Cultural Heritage Skills. Under the supervision of our conservators, they worked on a condition survey, carried out surface cleaning using soft brushes and learnt how to make wrappers for fragile bindings.

Vanessa Buhagiar presented her paper ‘The legal framework for rape prosecution: A case-study from eighteenth-century Maltese court proceedings’ at the Seminario sobre la violencia contra las mujeres en la Edad Moderna, held at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. This paper is based on Vanessa’s research of records at the National Archives.

We participated in the closing conference of the European Digital Treasures project held at the Archivo de la Real Chancillería de Valladolid (Spain). Leonard Callus delivered a presentation about New Business Models for the National Archives while the National Archivist, Charles Farrugia, formed part of a round table with the directors of partner institutions and the International Council on Archives discussing Challenges and New Alliances in the European Archives.

Conservator Simon Sultana Harkins left the National Archives and is continuing his profession as conservator in Scotland.

16

Conservator Simon Dimech left the National Archives and is continuing his profession as conservator in Italy.

EUROPEAN DIGITAL TREASURES

1 3

Youths participating in the summer camp held in Budapest within the European Digital Treasures project.

The year 2022 marked the end of the European Digital Treasures: Management of Centenary Archives in the 21st Century.

The National Archives of Malta has been participating in this project since its inception in late 2018. The project, co funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, aimed at bringing joint European heritage, and especially its digital versions, major visibility, outreach and use.

European archives are fundamental primary sources for discovering and reinforcing shared European culture and history. In this regard, the project addressed the challenges of the digital society, related to the management and transmission of European historical and documentary heritage.

Project Consortium

The project consortium is comprised of seven partners from seven countries uniting a multi-stakeholder team. Each partner has specific qualifications that together form an effective consortium.

· Spanish State Archives (project lead);

· National Archives of Hungary; National Archives of Malta; National Archives of Norway; National Archives of Portugal;

· ICARUS – International Centre for Archival Research;

· Munster Technological University (Ireland).

Goals

Develop new business models for European archives in the 21st century seeking to unlock the profitability and economic sustainability of digitised cultural heritage .

· Amplify the visibility of national archives in the public, underlining the importance of protecting European heritage.

Reach out to new audiences (Generation Z and Silver Generation) encouraging the use of digital products that unlock the hidden treasures of joint heritage kept in archives.

· Support transnational mobility of managers, historians, experts, graphical and industrial designers as well as archivists to activate cross-sectoral opportunities.

Outcomes in Numbers

42 European archival institutions have been contacted to gather data on the existing business models applied in each European country by the archives.

37 good practices and new trends in the management of cultural institutions have been identified.

450 persons (online and in person) and 12 professional speakers from seven EU countries participated in the “Innovation on new digital exponential technologies towards the generation of Business Models” workshop.

26 new managerial actions towards the generation of Business Models has been tested in the five National Archives partners of EDT, reaching a great deal of professionals and users.

121 persons participated from a network of over 160 archives and scientific institutions in “New Business & Conceptual Models” workshop, coordinated by ICARUS in the framework of its #28th ICARUS convention in Paris.

12 graphic and industrial designers from six different countries developed 50 merchandising product designs based on archival records.

21 professionals from the archival world and six experts from the video game sector gathered in the Archives and Videogames AltspaceVR meeting.

70 archivists have worked on the pre-selection of 320 documents for the three planned exhibitions and on the identification, selection and contextualization of the 120 documents that were finally selected.

3 Transmedia Exhibitions were developed. 140 documents from 46 archival organizations from 12 countries led to exhibitions about The Construction of Europe, Exiles, Migratory Flows and Solidarity and European Discoveries.

90,000 persons visited the 18 exhibitions in six different countries.

35 teachers from 5 countries have tested the three modules making the Archival literacy Online Course developed by the project. 12 specialists in archives and education have worked for its development alongside the Department of Technology Enhanced Learning IT of Munster University of Technology.

105 professionals from the archival and educational world were part of the webinar on the Literacy Online Course.

11 teenage students and six monitors participated a summer camp in 2019.

16 teenage students and seven monitors participated in “Young Digital Treasures” summer camp in July 2022.

889 archive clients, over 60 years of age, from eight European countries (Malta, Portugal, Austria, Hungary, Norway, Germany, Switzerland and Spain) participated in a survey about their experience and expectations.

169 persons, over 60 years of age, from 15 countries participated in crowd-sourcing activities, assisting in the development of handwritten text reading technology.

7 film directors, four experts on design thinking and storytelling (from the comic and documentary world) and three archival professionals participated in an encounter in MTU about the use of archives in audio-visual productions.

7 short documentaries of “Treasures in Archives” based on archival documents were produced.

Summer Camp in Budapest

Introduction

We are Aimee Borg, Yevgeny Spiteri and Danica Abela. Together with our supervisor, Ivan Ellul, we have spent a week-long summer camp in Budapest last summer.

During our stay, we expanded our knowledge about the archival sector and explored the city and its nearby towns. In this report, we are sharing with you some of the experiences we had in this unforgettable trip!

Our adventure started by participating in a competition held in 2021 within the European Digital Treasures project. This was a competition aimed at students (15-18 years) based in Malta, Hungary, Norway, Portugal, Austria and Spain where we had to make a free interpretation of archival documents about the Construction of Europe from these countries’ archives and from Archives Portal Europe.

The prize was the participation in an international camp week in Hungary between the 3rd and 9th of July 2022.

The Summer Camp

During our stay in Budapest, we met a lot of youngsters from Hungary, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Croatia. We all had one thing in common –interest in archives.

Apart from learning more about archives and history, we spent quite some time talking about our home countries, traditions, lifestyles and food. We learnt a lot about different cultures, lifestyles and sometimes, even about the similarities between our countries. We easily managed to make friends and we instantly became close friends. During our free time, we went around the picturesque city of Budapest, admiring the different attractions where we often had a couple of foreign friends accompanying us; all of us would get along together very well.

The National Archives of Hungary our home for the week

Throughout this week, the lovely organisation team planned for us several activities at the National Archives of Hungary. The archives are situated in Castle District, in a massive neo-gothic building. Together with the rest of the other teams, we presented our works. Yevgeny and Danica made their presentations about the Maltese language and alphabet, while Aimee presented her work about the Manoel Theatre.

At the time of our visit, a spellbinding exhibition was being organised in the basement of the archives, where fundamental Hungarian documents since the time of its first king, St. Stephen were being displayed. After visiting this exhibition, the three of us could understand better the history of Hungary, given that the three of us are keen on European history. Furthermore, this activity helped us to understand the changes and the diverse types of documents which can be found in the Hungarian Archives.

We had the opportunity to look into the actual halls, where all the documents are kept, and also the Conservation Laboratory. This gave us the chance to compare the techniques and archiving styles in Hungary to those in Malta. We could note different conservation practices on antique books covers, bindings and paper, along with some examples of completed and uncompleted restorations. The conservation team taught us how to bind books. This was a unique experience for the three of us, where we familiarised ourselves with the tools and materials used for this process. We kept the books we made as memoirs of what we had learnt there.

Doro Szabo, one of the organisers and archivist, prepared material for us regarding our countries. In our case, Szabo exhibited two detailed maps of Malta. These had cursive Italian writings with village names that could still be legible. The three of us could not help but notice the drastic changes in the sizes of our towns!

One of the exciting activities in our time spent in Budapest was the Time-Capsule activity. Every one of the students had brought a time capsule from their respective countries and we buried it in the small courtyard at the National Archives of Hungary. Together we agreed that in 50 years’ time, on the 6th of July 2072, these boxes will be opened. We truly cannot wait to visit Budapest again, as seventy-year-olds.

Other Visits

When one visits this mesmerising city, one cannot miss exploring the Parliament. The building of the Hungarian Parliament is distinct and clearly visible from several parts around the capital. During our stay in Budapest, we paid a visit to the iconic Hungarian Parliament twice.

We were given a tour by Zoltan, who works at the National Archives of Hungary. He explained the nearby monuments and the building of the Parliament itself. We learnt that this palace is the third largest legislative building in the world and is also fully constructed by material that originated in Hungary. During the second visit, we wandered through the Parliament library, which houses all Parliament records. Additionally, it contains a copy of every book published in Hungary, pertains to Hungary, like a National Library.

Together with our supervisors, we explored other landmarks such as the Hungarian State Opera House, St. Stephen’s Cathedral and Budapest’s Ferris Wheel. We also explored the Dohány Street Synagogue, the largest in Europe, together with its museum. We also visited the Rudas Baths. The House of Terror left a great impact on us. During the Soviet occupation, this former police headquarters was used as a prison

and torture house for those suspected of being spies or traitors, as well as minorities such as the Jews and Romani people.

The Hungarian capital city is well-known for its public spaces and gardens. At the first opportunity, we strolled along Budapest City Park, where we passed Heroes Square, an Art Gallery with a temporary exhibition of Goch, as well as Vajdahunyad Castle housing the Museum of Archaeology. The castle area is surrounded by neo-Gothic and neo-Classical buildings together with a moat, a gate bridge and an entrance.

It is impossible to visit Budapest without exploring Castle District. Our coordinator Doro guided us through the winding roads of Castle District and explained to us the surroundings. She also explained to us the contents of the Digital Treasures Exhibition which, at the time, was in this area. We visited landmarks such as St. Matthias Church and the Fisherman’s Bastion, which are situated in the Holy Trinity Square.

One of the most remarkable buildings that we visited is the Open Market. There we could experience the typical Hungarian produce and culture. The Open Market, a spacious market in an old railroad building - a testament to the industrial revolution - is full of food and souvenir shops.

Our week was not limited to Budapest. We visited Szentendre, a area near the capital. There, we visited the Open-Air Museum where we could experience different portrayals of Hungary across many eras. Most notably, we discovered two areas: a typical Medieval village and a Transylvanian town where one could discover how businesses, such as the tailor, pharmacist and postal shops, were like and how they operated. The Kansan employees were also dressed according to the epochs that they were in, adding more to the impression of being transported back in time. The team also paid a visit to the town of St. Andrew, where we wandered about before taking a boat across the river Danube to take us back to Hungary.

Yevgeny Spiteri, Aimee Borg and Danica Abela

Another memorable experience was in Margaret Island: among the screams and tears of joy, we formed two teams and competed with each other. Let us say that the Maltese team was not that lucky this time round. However, the organisation team made our disappointment disappear suddenly, especially when food was served! The traditional Goulash soup was as good as it claims to be! Speaking of tasty Hungarian food, we had also tried Lagos; this is a flat round fried dough, normally spread with sour cream and filled with toppings of one’s liking. Although quite different from what we are used to, the Hungarian dishes are delicious and mouth-watering.

Conclusion

The experience was memorable and priceless. We met new people, made new friends, visited many interesting places and learnt a lot about Hungary as well as about other countries. In addition, we learnt about the importance of archives while visiting an archive abroad. By the end of the week, we became one big family. We have no words to thank not only the Digital Treasures’ leaders and organisers but also the National Archives of Malta, especially Leonard Callus, our supervisor Ivan Ellul, and the National Archivist Dr Charles Farrugia, for giving us this opportunity!

Ship manifest detailing the first group of Maltese emigrants who left to Australia after World War II. 10 January 1946. National Archives of Malta.

Overleaf. Maltese emigrants boarding the ship to Australia. Photo: Migrants Commission.

The Australia Malta Assisted Passage Agreement was signed seventy five years ago, on 31 May 1948, by Arthur Calwell, for the Australian Government, and Commissioner, Captain Henry Curmi, Malta’s representative in Australia. As early as 1944, the assistance scheme received agreement in principle but the Australian government had been reluctant to take it further without a guarantee from the United Kingdom of additional shipping for Maltese migrants. The UK Government was keen to give shipping priority to its own prospective emigrants – and Australia was undoubtedly keen to receive UK immigrants above all other.

The signing of the agreement in May 1948 was made possible by the availability of shipping, due in part to the gradual post-war conversion of troopships. The agreement can also be seen as a major step in the long-standing struggle on the part of the Maltese to be classified as ‘white British subjects’ in Australian immigration policy rather than as ‘semi-white’ and subject to restrictive quotas as had been the case since 1920.

From 1946 to 1976, nearly 140,440 Maltese emigrated to various places. Most - 58 percentwent to Australia, 22 percent to Britain, 13 percent to Canada and 7 percent to the USA.

This was an extraordinary migratory movement, given that Malta’s population over the same period was about 320,000 at its peak. The number of Maltaborn people in Australia increased from 3,238 in 1947 to more than 55,000 in 1966. In other words, approximately one in every six Maltese in Malta had migrated to Australia.

“out of 40,000 workers that will be seeking employment only 10,000 are likely to find it.”

Maltese emigrants bidding farewell to families and friends just before boarding the ship to Australia.

Photo: Migrants Commission.

Most migrated under personal nomination by Maltese already settled in Australia and a chain migration occurred which favoured settlement in the cities of Melbourne and Sydney and the outer western suburbs such as Sunshine and St Albans and Blacktown and Pendle Hill.

The Australia-Malta Assisted Passage Agreement was the second such agreement entered into by the Australian Government after the War. The first was with the United Kingdom, under which any Maltese resident in the UK was eligible —such as my father, Loreto, who was stationed there with the Royal Air Force.

Australia needed labour to fuel post-war industrial expansion and the Immigration Minister, Arthur Calwell, expressed the Labor Government’s policy concisely when he said Australia had to ‘populate or perish’. The nation’s capacity for defence, economic development and population growth were seen as interconnected and formed the basis of the government’s commitment to assisted mass immigration. Australia’s population in 1947 was 7.6 million and Calwell’s aim was to attract 70,000 people a year from Britain and Europe.

“In September 1948 there were more than 20,000 prospective emigrants registered for Australia in Malta.”

The last formalities before leaving Malta.

Photo: Migrants Commission.

The migration process is characterised by push and pull factors. The Australia-Malta Assisted Passage Agreement provided an incentive for Maltese migration to Australia as it provided for the governments of Malta and Australia to cooperate ‘in order to assist suitable persons in Malta to proceed to Australia for permanent settlement’. Permanent settlement was defined as a minimum of two years. Under the agreement, prospective emigrants could be nominated by friends or relatives in Australia for assisted passage, provided the nominator could guarantee accommodation for the nominee.

The agreement also provided for group nominations to be made in Australia by government instrumentalities and other organisations for migrants belonging to specified categories. Group nominees were to be selected by Australian recruits in Malta. Over time, there were different schemes within the Group Nomination provision, including the Child Migration Scheme, the Commonwealth Nomination (Trades) Scheme, the Unskilled Workers Project and the Single Young Women Migrants’ Scheme.

In 1949 and the 1950s, Maltese tradesmen were recruited in groups to help build the national capital in Canberra, while others worked at Woomera. The State Electricity Commission of Victoria needed workers at the Yallourn brown coal mine, the South Australian Water Board and the West Australian Railways needed labourers, and the Queensland Government needed sugar cane cutters. There were also occasional group nominations by private companies such as the Metropolitan Ice and Fresh Food Company in Melbourne.

Most Maltese, however, were assisted by personal rather than group nomination. No applicant for an assisted passage could be successful unless there was a reasonable assurance that he or she would obtain employment and accommodation in Australia. The agreement stipulated that the reception and welfare of assisted migrants was the responsibility of the Commissioner for Malta in Australia; though the Commonwealth Employment Service would help them obtain work. Also, from the date of arrival, the Maltese migrants would be eligible for health and medical service benefits, maternity allowances, child endowment and sickness and unemployment benefits.

Relatives and friends on boats at the Grand Harbour watching the emigrants boarding the ferry that was to take them to their ship. Photo: Migrants Commission.

The personal nomination form was a form that had to be completed by someone in Australia guaranteeing accommodation and employment for a prospective migrant from Malta. The completed form was then sent to, or handed in, at the office of Malta's Commissioner in Melbourne (later Canberra). Once approved by the Commissioner's office, Malta's Emigration Department was notified and the nominated prospective emigrant in Malta would be cleared for assisted passage subject to the requirements of the Agreement pertaining to good character, criminal record, etc.

The extent of assistance toward passages to Australia was set out in Clauses 2, 3 and 6 of the agreement’s Schedule and stipulated that costs were to be shared by the two governments. All migrants aged nineteen and over would be charged no less than ten English pounds each; juveniles from fourteen years of age up to nineteen - no less than five pounds, and children under fourteen travelled free. Single men and women over the age of forty-five, or married childless couples over the age of forty-five, were not eligible for assistance as was also the case with married persons aged over fifty and travelling with one or more children. Exceptions could be made for elderly parents joining their children who were already established in Australia.

The Schedule listed the sums to be contributed by the Australian government and specified that the Maltese government had to make a contribution that was not less than that of Australia. The Australian government paid thirty pounds sterling for each approved migrant aged over nineteen.

The agreement also specified the procedure for selection and granting of assistance. Special application forms were designed by the Maltese government in consultation with Australian officials, these had to be submitted to the Malta Emigration Department by each applicant who was also required to provide certificates of character. Evidence of trade qualifications also had to be provided in relevant cases. The next step in the procedure involved a medical examination by a Maltese government doctor and then approved by the Australian government.

Again, and in consultation, nomination forms were prepared for distribution by the Commissioner for Malta in Australia. On being satisfied with the bona fides of the nominators, the Commissioner would forward the forms to the Australian migration authorities for approval. Once approval was received, the Commissioner would then send the nominations to the relevant Department of Emigration in Malta. The nominee needed to fulfill the requirement for evidence of good character and trade skills (where appropriate) and undergo a medical examination. The Schedule gave extensive powers to the Australian government’s representative in Malta to reject applicants, even after they had satisfied all other requirements. The Australian government had the final responsibility ‘for deciding the suitability on mental, moral, physical and other grounds of each applicant and his family’.

Each assisted migrant was required to remain in Australia for at least two years, otherwise he or she would be liable to repay the Australian government the amount jointly contributed by the Maltese and Australian governments. The agreement was renewed every so often, and with amended titles was renegotiated in 1957, 1965 and 1970.

In Australia, there was a demand for labour, which was well-publicized in Malta. Wages were relatively high, and Australia was far from the war-torn devastation of Europe. There were opportunities for the future and many of the migrants that I have interviewed over the decades mention that they migrated predominantly for the benefit of their children. My grandfather, Salvu Meilak, told my dad when he was young that Australia was ‘the Land of the Future’. This was in the 1930s but applied equally, in the perceptions of many, in the post-War period.

In the first five years after the War, nearly 5,000 Malta-born persons settled in Australia. This was more than the total number who had settled permanently during the previous twenty-five years. Australia siphoned off much of the cream of the Maltese population, especially its skilled tradesmen. In September 1948 there were more than 20,000 prospective emigrants registered for Australia in Malta: 5,245 were skilled tradesmen, and about 12,000 were wives and children.

Until the 1970s, the migrants travelled mostly by ship and these ‘migrant boats’ ranged from converted warships and comfortable passenger liners through to notorious ‘hell ships’. The scarcity of shipping after the War meant that emigrants had to take whatever was available.

A Maltese family doing the necessary paperwork to emigrate to Australia. Photo: Migrants Commission.

The first group of postwar emigrants left Malta on the ‘Rangitiki’ on 10 January 1946. There were sixtyfour Maltese in all and they were either returning migrants or related to Maltese already settled in Australia. The Times of Malta described the scene at the Valletta Customs House as ‘a mixture of sadness and gaiety... There were tears and smiles and handkerchief-waving as the ship slowly left the harbour’. This scene would be repeated many times but with much larger numbers of Maltese passengers. The conflicting emotions presumably applied to each and every voyage.

In August 1948, the largest group ever to emigrate to Australia in one ship, up to that time – 451 Maltese arrived along with 900 Polish ex-servicemen, on the ‘Strathnaver’. Even though the Australia-Malta Assisted Passage Agreement was not officially implemented until 1st January 1949, it had been signed in May 1948 and the ‘Strathnaver’ Maltese were covered by it. Such was the desperation for shipping after the War that the ‘Strathnaver’ was still in troop carrying condition when it brought its passengers to Australia.

In 1948 and 1949, migrants from Malta arrived in Australia on ships such as the ‘Moreton Bay’, ‘Partizanka’, ‘Esperance Bay’, ‘Orduna’, ‘Toscana’, ‘Asturias’, ‘Largs Bay’, ‘Cyrenia’, ‘Msir’ (one of the ‘hell ships’), ‘Surriento’ and ‘Columbia’. There were some large groups of Maltese on some of the boats. In late 1949, the ‘Columbia’ brought more than a thousand Maltese to Australia.

The push factors in Malta were overwhelming. Malta was the most densely populated place in the British Empire, with more than 2000 people to the square mile and an increasing birth rate. The cost of living had risen eightfold over the pre-War level but wages had only doubled. The Department of Emigration and Labour reported that year that ‘On an average of three dependents to each worker it will be found that in ten years’ time we shall, except for a bigger and vigorously sustained emigration drive, have a population of 120,000 unprovided for, with terrible consequences to the standard of living, the life and the economy of the Island’. In 1949, 42,000 Maltese were registered for emigration.

The above-mentioned report, by the Director of Emigration, John Axisa, to Emigration Minister John J. Cole on 28 July, 1949, made five points. Points three to eight are worth quoting here as they sum up the ‘push’ factors well:

“3. With full employment during the six years of war, and with a reconstruction programme extending over eight to ten years thereafter, the economic position of the Island has been reasonably satisfactory, the standard of living has been raised and, in spite of a big decrease in the birth rate during the worst years of the war, the population increased from 250,000 in 1939 to 305,000 in 1948. ... The net natural increase in population in 19481 was 8,000.

4. The density of population in these Islands is 2,511 to the square mile. The working population is 92,956 and well over one-third are employed in the Services including the Imperial Service. Manufactures absorb only one-fifth of the working population and

1 The original version states 1949. Evidently this was a typo given that the report is date 28 July 1949.

Up to the War, migration was a palliative but after the War it had to be, in those conditions, a remedy not a palliative’.

agriculture only one-eighth. The building trade accounts for one-tenth. It will thus be seen that industry and agriculture, which are the principal resources on which the economy of any country is normally built, account for only one-third of the working population. The remaining two-thirds depend on entirely fortuitous circumstances, namely, employment with the Services, reconstruction, and trade - the first rising and falling with the international political barometer of time, the second rapidly coming to an end, and the third largely depending on the fate of the first two.

5. The solution to an economic situation of this kind would normally be found in an expansion of industry and of agriculture - but the lack of natural resources in Malta makes such an expansion difficult. The drive that has been initiated in a few industries will, it is hoped, help to absorb quite a few men, but compared with the disproportion in the unstable openings for employment existing on the Island, the effect will hardly be perceptible.

6. It should be realized that during the next ten years no fewer than 30,000 boys will have attained the age of nineteen years, and nearly 10,000 men will have been laid off the various branches of reconstruction. Even if the present rate were to be maintained in other employment, the absorptive rate for replacing outgoing workers is not likely to exceed 1,000 a year. So that out of 40,000 workers that will be seeking employment only 10,000 are likely to find it.

7. The balance of thirty-thousand unemployed wage earners is almost equivalent to the present number of workers in employment with the Services, or to a third of the working population. On an average of three dependents to each worker it will be found that in ten years’ time we shall, except for a bigger and vigorously sustained emigration drive, have a population of 120,000 unprovided for, with terrible consequences to the standard of living, the life and the economy of the Island.

Postcard ca. late 1950s early 1960s - migrant ship in Valletta harbour Courtesy Barry York. Photographer not known

8. Even before the publication of the 1948 Census, which enables us to look so revealingly into the future, there was general agreement that emigration was our only salvation, but there was never adequate appreciation of the problem in the way the Census has placed it before us. On the above basis it is necessary for our people to emigrate at a minimum rate of 12,000 a year.”

Much of the credit for the favourable circumstances for emigration after the War goes to John J. Cole who, as Malta’s Emigration Minister, lobbied for the interests of Malta’s prospective emigrants with officials in London, Canada, the USA and Australia on a hectic trip between September and December 1948. In Australia, with his Director of Emigration, John Axisa, Cole met with Prime Minister Ben Chifley and Immigration Minister, Arthur Calwell. As an indication of the high esteem in which Cole – and Maltawas held, the Speaker of the House of Representatives in Canberra invited him to take a seat on the floor of the House.

I had the pleasure of recording an eighty-minute interview with Mr Cole at his home in Melbourne in 1984. I have digitized the original cassette recording and it is available on Youtube (use search words ‘John J. Cole Malta Barry York’). He had migrated to Australia from Malta with his wife and family in 1958. He said he was one of the scores of thousands of prospective emigrants in Malta after the War. He had been in full-time employment as a clerk in the dockyard. He had security and a guaranteed pension on retirement. He continued that he was typical of the thousands of Maltese prospective emigrants after the War: they had jobs but knew that Malta’s economic future was not good, given the inevitable decline of the number of British forces in Malta, especially the Royal Navy, and they wanted something better for their families and children.

The last photo, in front of Customs House at the Grand Harbour, before departing to Australia. Photo: Migrants Commission.

John Cole is an immensely important figure in twentieth century Maltese political history, especially its emigration story. He was the first Minister of Emigration, in a Labour government elected following self-government in 1947. Mr Cole was born at Casa Paola in 1915 and entered politics via the General Workers Union, which he had represented among the clerks in the dockyard. Prior to that he had been a schoolteacher.

Mr Cole is also noteworthy as the instigator of Malta’s Prospective Emigrants’ Organisation (MPEO), a body of great importance that requires much more scholarly attention in terms of Malta’s emigration story. Shortly after the War, Mr. Cole, who was an eloquent and knowledgeable speaker and very capable organizer, placed advertisements in the Maltese press calling for the formation of an organization of people who wanted to emigrate, with a view to investigating possible destinations, identifying obstacles and solutions, and, above all, applying pressure on the colonial authorities who administered Malta prior to self-government.

‘There was a great surge of people wanting to leave the island’, he told me, but Malta’s colonial administration was bureaucratic and undemocratic which meant that it was not responsive to people’s needs and desires. ‘People were becoming impatient’. Under the colonial administration, he said, ‘we couldn’t really get anything moving and we said the only way it could be done was to organize ourselves and pressure the government to move… [and] under the auspices of the General Workers Union we organized the Prospective Emigrants Organization’.

‘The future didn’t hold much promise because jobs were going to be very scarce and decisions were made by people who were in full employment at the time to try and find a future somewhere else and, of course, there was a search as to where to find this future… Australia presented itself as a very promising land’. Moreover, Australia was the only place with an organized mass immigration program and a Department of Information actively promoting it.

The MPEO was a remarkable organization, really a mass movement. Huge meetings were held at which prospective emigrants could voice their opinions and where information was shared. It was akin to an unofficial ‘people’s emigration department’, though, of course, with none of the authority or power of an actual governmental department. This changed with self-government in 1947 and the election of the Labour government, headed by Prime Minister Paul Boffa, with Cole appointed as Minister of Emigration.

According to Mr Cole, the colonial authorities had been very slow moving but this now changed with Malta’s new Legislative Assembly able to forge its own way forward. The MPEO’s basic platform provided the new government with a policy approach. As Mr Cole put it: ‘The whole thing was to have organized migration not disorganized… Up to the War, migration was a palliative but after the War it had to be, in those conditions, a remedy not a palliative’.

On the Maltese side, credit for the Australia-Malta Assisted Passage Agreement goes to Captain Henry Curmi, Malta’s Commissioner in Australia, Frank Corder, Curmi’s Legal Advisor, John J. Cole, Malta’s Emigration Minister and John Axisa, Malta’s Director of Emigration.

On the Australian side, credit goes to Labor Prime Minister, Ben Chifley, Immigration Minister, Arthur Calwell and External Affairs Minister, Herbert V. Evatt. As early as 1945, Evatt had linked Australia’s

immigration policy to Malta’s heroism during the War. He said, ‘Australia would welcome migrants from Malta of sound health and good character, as it is such people the Australian government wishes to encourage to come to Australia’. Evatt’s words were published in the Times of Malta in April 1945.

Australia had come a long way from the days when a senior immigration officer could state, in 1934, in a policy memo, that ‘Although the Maltese are British subjects…. they are of an alien type so far as race is concerned’.

The decision to welcome, rather than restrict, Maltese migrants was made by a subcommittee of the Australian government’s Interdepartmental Committee on Migration on 22 March 1944. Reading the Minutes of the meeting I was astonished by some of the ignorance expressed. The observer from the Australian Security Service, R. Finzel, spoke against Captain Curmi’s written request that the Maltese be placed on the same footing as other ‘white British subjects’ in immigration policy. Finzel argued that the Maltese had been pro-Italian during the War! This was in 1944, two years after Malta had been awarded the George Cross by King George V1 for civilian gallantry in the struggle against Nazism and Fascism.

However, the Department of Labour’s representative on the subcommittee wasted no time in pointing out that there had been no greater number of pro-Italians in Malta during the War than there had been pro-Germans in England. W. Keays, representing the Department of Repatriation, reminded the subcommittee that the Maltese had ‘purchased with blood their right to recognition as the equal of other British subjects’. The subcommittee not only approved Curmi’s request but also raised the idea, in principle, of assisted passages for Maltese migrants after the War.

The past was becoming a foreign country, as the saying goes.

The Malta-born population peaked in Australia in 1981 when the Census counted 57,001, mostly in Melbourne and Sydney. Maltese interest in emigration has declined significantly since the 1970s and there was a return rate back to Malta during that decade. The need for assisted passages thus also declined.

According to the 2021 Census, there are 35,413 Malta-born persons in Australia and 198,989 persons of Maltese descent. The latter figure needs scrutiny, though, as these people can have other ancestries too.

John Cole described as ‘heroes’ those among the first thousands who made the decision to emigrate after the War. His logic was that they were alleviating the socio-economic problems of Malta and making life better for those who remained. To this I would add that, in general, those who migrated to Australia did not regret the move and were quiet achievers in their adopted homeland. The Australia-Malta Assisted Passage Agreement laid the basis for a win-win situation which is not to suggest that it was easy.

Dr Barry York PhD is of Maltese descent on his father’s side. He is an historian specializing in Australian immigration and has been published widely. His notable books are The Maltese in Australia (1987), Empire and Race: the Maltese in Australia 1881 1949 (1990) and Maltese in Australia: Wanderings through the Maltese Australian story from convict times to the present (1998). In 2005, he was awarded the Order of Australia. Copyright in the article is retained by him.

Joseph Bezzina

Overleaf. The funeral cortege of seven victims of the Ħondoq ir-Rummien tragedy moving along Palm Street in Victoria, from the Gozo hospital mortuary (then in St Francis Square) to the Cathedral.

Several initiatives were undertaken to assist the families of the Ħondoq ir-Rummien tragedy victims. Here, the La Valette Band Club of Valletta is requesting authorisation to hold two fund-raising tombolas (NAM/OPM/1998/1948).

Photo: Don Bosco Foundation of the Salesians, Malta.

One hundred years ago, on 7 March 1923, Ġużeppi Scicluna was born to Pawlu Xikluna Tal‑Ingliża and Marija Portelli Ta’ Menzju in Victoria, Gozo.

Seventy‑five years ago, on 30 October 1948, Ġużeppi’s life was cut short in a tragic end at sea.

This tragedy in the Gozo–Malta channel is a fitting epitome of the suffering that many Gozitans have to go through to earn a living.

An Eventful Upbringing

Ġużeppi, whose birth registration at the Gozo Registry is erroneously recorded as 8 March, was baptized two days later at the Gozo Cathedral. He spent his childhood between his parents’ home in Strada Assunta, just off the church of Ta’ Savina in the medieval core of Victoria and his father’s grocery in Strada Nuova, now Triq De Soldanis, where it joins Strada Palma.

A diligent pupil at the Victoria Primary School, Ġużeppi gained excellent results. He was one of the Paġġi or pageboys of the Blessed Sacrament at Ta’ Savina church and, as such, he knelt in adoration half an hour every week in front of the Blessed Sacrament and attended weekly spiritual meetings at the same church. His third interest was the Leone Band Club, where his father Pawlu was an active member and Salvu, his eldest brother, was a renowned trombone player. Since 1897, the Club was entrusted by Bishop Giovanni-Maria Camilleri with the organisation of the annual external festivities of Santa Marija held at the Gozo Cathedral.

In September 1934, at the age of eleven, he secured one of the twenty-five placements available every year at the Lyceum of Gozo. Barely four months later, on 30 January 1935, Ġużeppi lost his father.

Following his father’s death, his mother Marija had to struggle to take care of her two sons and five daughters. By then, her eldest son Salvu had emigrated to Detroit in the United States. Pawla, her eldest daughter, helped at home and was a second mother to

Ġużeppi Scicluna (1923 – 1948).

Photo: National Archives of Malta.

her siblings, especially to Ġorġina, the youngest. The dire financial situation took a good turn when three of her daughters Mananni, Ġużeppa and Ċikka, became teachers in quick succession.

On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland and three days later Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. The following June, Ġużeppi sat for the Matriculation Examinations and passed with flying colours. That same month Italy – a mere 79 kilometres to the north-west of Gozo – aligned itself with Germany and declared war on Great Britain. The following morning, Malta experienced the first air-raid.

Ġużeppi turned eighteen on 7 March 1941. He was inclined to follow on the footsteps of his three sisters and become a teacher, but circumstances dictated otherwise. On 30 December of that year, Government Notification 586 extended conscription to all men who had attained the age of eighteen. Before long he was enlisted into the armed forces forming part of the “C” Coy Tenth Battalion, KOMR, stationed at St Elmo, Valletta.

His life was in jeopardy a number of times during the air-raids but he survived unscathed. For several months, he was in charge of the German prisoners-of-war held in Malta. His kind-heartedness led him to share a cigarette with the prisoners. One of them repaid him with a photo frame sculpted in local stone. Early in 1945, he was discharged from the army.

Soon Ġużeppi started to seek new pastures. He communicated with his brother Salvu in Detroit and started preparations to join him. In December 1947, he applied for a passport. Salvu was very happy to host him. He had just rented property in the vicinity of Tiger Stadium, in the Corktown neighbourhood, where he planned to open a restaurant serving Maltese food.

In the meantime, Ġużeppi was engaged as a postman. As all young Gozitans in Government service, he commenced his job in Malta. He travelled to Malta early Monday morning and returned home to his family and his fiancée, Annie Camilleri from Victoria, on Saturday afternoon.

A Gozitan working in Malta had to face and overcome other hurdles. One had to rent a tiny room in a Valletta kerrejja, a common tenement house very often lacking the basic hygienic and other health comforts. Back in the room every evening, one had to prepare food.

To top it all, ferry service between the Islands was unreliable.

An appalling ferry service

During the immediate post-war years, the Gozo-Malta ferry service was simply appalling. Then, the winter time-table (1 November to 28 February) was made up of solely three daily round-trips between Mġarr (Gozo) and Marfa, the nearest landfall in Malta. The ferry departed from Mġarr at 6.15am, 1.00pm and 4.00pm, leaving Marfa towards Gozo at 7.45am, 1.45pm, and 4.30pm. During the rest of the year another trip was added, leavoing Gozo at 9.00am and returning from Marfa at 10.15am.

The Mġarr–Marfa ferry service was awarded following a public call for tenders and the company had to carry the mail between Malta and Gozo. Bids were assessed not only on the vessels but also on the amount of subsidy requested. An annual subsidy from the Government was provided and the successful contractor was guaranteed a monopoly on the service for ten years.

Between 1937 and 1947, the Gozo-Malta passenger service was provided by the Gozo Mail Company Limited, a partnership of some fifteen shareholders managed by Gatt & Grech, Ta’ Gelluxa. The shareholders included Gozitan entrepreneurs who were conscious of the needs of the Island and its inhabitants. At the time, the service was considered satisfactory.

As from 1 November 1947, the ferry service monopoly was managed by a company based in Malta, owned by Joseph Gasan and in which no Gozitans were involved. It purchased a twin-screw motor yacht, the Migrante, to adapt it for the channel crossings. After a botched-up modification, the company was compelled to withdraw it from service as it failed to meet contract specifications.

As a substitute, during the following twelve months, the company chartered and employed a total of six vessels. It first used the motor launch Cygnet followed by the converted motor minesweeper Nanridi and Lord Strickland, another converted minesweeper. There was the steam ferry Emily P and a larger steamer, named Supply, was used for several months. Between May and October 1948 was the turn of still another converted minesweeper, the Calypso G. This was perhaps the best of the six. However, before long, the Company negotiated an advantageous bargain for its sale to Thomas Loel Guinness, a British MP, a business magnate and a philanthropist. Guinness had financed its purchase to lease it for a symbolic franc a year to Jacques-Yves Cousteau, the famous oceanic explorer.

For twelve months, the Gozitans suffered an erratic service by mostly inadequate sea craft. The Police Okkurrenzi (log books), deposited at the Gozo Archive within the National Archives of Malta, are replete with reports of trip cancellations. The service also came under fire from the Government Commission, instituted on 15 October 1948, “to inquire into and report on the requirements of the island of Gozo and to offer suggestions to solve the inherent problems.” Gozitans frequently lamented the poor service in the correspondence columns of the Times of Malta and Il-Berqa, its Maltese counterpart. The contractor was heavily criticized as he was failing the people of Gozo and causing them unnecessary hardships.

On Wednesday, 20 October 1948, the Migrante, re-named Banċinu – but, as a matter of fact, still registered at Lloyds under its previous name – started operating on the Mġarr–Marfa route. Its conversion at the Malta Naval Drydocks had taken much longer than anticipated and it was still not concluded, but with the sale of the Calypso, the Company had no substitute. Just seven days in the service, in mid-morning of 27 October, the Banċinu ran into shallow water at Mġarr harbour and remained struck for some twenty-five minutes.

“the Gozo-Malta ferry service was simply appalling”

The fateful Saturday

On Saturday, 30 October 1948, the Gozitans who worked in Malta were more eager than usual to travel home. It was going to be a long weekend as Monday 1 November was a public holiday, the feast of All Saints.

Everyone was eager to return to Gozo. They all had a family eagerly awaiting them. Some wanted to embrace their wives and children after a six-day absence. More than one had their fiancées on tenterhooks. Another had to stand as witness in the wedding of his sister the following morning and a Żurrieq resident was traveling to the Gozo Seminary to visit an orphaned seminarian whom he was supporting.

They met at Castille Square, Valletta, to catch the Gozo bus at 3.15pm, the last one that day. Notwithstanding an unfavourable forecast – the sea was to develop a moderate swell from the south west, according to the forecast in the Times of Malta – they hoped to make it home safe and sound.

When the Gozo bus reached Mellieħa, it was usual for the driver to stop at the police-station to enquire about the ferry service. The policeman informed him that the last trip had been cancelled. On that fateful Saturday, the captain, aware that the conversion of the vessel was not yet been finalized and that the damage of the previous Wednesday had only been partly seen to, decided that the sea was too choppy for the crossing.

No one, other than a Gozitan, can understand the disappointment and frustration at the news of the cancellation of the last trip. The bus driver decided to return to Valletta. However, the passengers wanted to proceed to Marfa; they had paid the fare to Marfa. However, the driver did not give in before the passengers offered him a tip to concede to their request. Others had reached Marfa before them.

There were twenty-five in all.

The tragic crossing

Arriving at Marfa there was no shelter whatsoever. The twenty-five huddled together by a rubble wall to shield themselves from sea spray. They still hoped to make it to Gozo. As had happened on countless times during that year when the last ferry trip was cancelled, they hoped that a Gozo boat would come to their rescue.

Alerted to the cancellation, Karmnu Grima ta’ Ħanini, a thirty-six-year-old from Qala and his assistant Salvu Refalo ta’ Ħarbat, sixty years old from Għajnsielem, sailed out of Mġarr upon fishing motor-boat Number 248 to pick up the stranded passengers at Marfa. The boat was a luzzu, a sturdy carvel-built boat with a double-ended hull. Originally, equipped with oars and sails, it had been motorised by that time. The passage from Mġarr to Marfa proved uneventful. Trouble cropped up upon arrival.

Twenty-five passengers and a crew of two were too many for the boat. Karmnu insisted that he could not carry them all. He offered to take half of them and return for the other half immediately afterwards. However, the majority disagreed as they were not willing to wait for another hour or two in the cold. Their pleas finally led Karmnu to unwillingly acquiesce to their request.

Some time after six in the evening and in pitch darkness, the moorings were loosed for Mġarr. There was no shelter whatsoever on the boat. After waiting for almost two hours in the cold, drenched to the skin with the salty sea spray, hungry, exhausted and shivering, the passengers huddled together hoping for the best. Leli Camilleri, a member of the Society of Christian Doctrine from Żurrieq, the only Maltese resident on the boat, began reciting the Rosary and beseeching a safe passage to the Blessed Virgin Mary of Ta’ Pinu.

“everyone was eager to return to Gozo. They all had a family eagerly awaiting them.”

The captain decided to head towards Comino and turn around the Island to shield the boat from the wind. The first part of the passage proved uneventful, but as they sailed past Comino, the wind started whipping up waves and the boat started to take water.

Karmnu became visibly anxious. He was afraid that he would not make it to Mġarr with such a load. So he wanted to disembark them in the nearby inlet of Ħondoq ir-Rummien.

Once more, there was disagreement. Some argued that it was not possible to reach home in pitch darkness from Ħondoq at the far end of the village of il-Qala. Karmnu, once again, gave in to their wish and decided to take up the gauntlet.

As they were sailing in a patch known as Taċ-Ċawl, the boat took more and more water. The passengers panicked. The boat started going down. The shoreline was less than fifty metres away. The good swimmers tried to reach land. Those who did not know to swim clutched at others. A tragedy was in the making.

Ġużeppi was confident that he would swim to land. He was a strong swimmer, winning the traditional summer swimming competitions from il-Banju tal-Isqof to il-Menqa and back in the bay of Marsalforn. With the October salary well-tucked in his pocket, he jumped into the sea and started swimming.

“drenched to the skin with the salty sea spray, hungry, exhausted and shivering, the passengers huddled together”

Victims of the Ħondoq ir-Rummien tragedy being recovered from the sea.

Photo: Don Bosco Foundation of the Salesians, Malta. (below and facing page)

A teenager raises the alarm

Karmnu Attard Ta’ Żajjar from Qala, an orphaned sixteen-year-old and the youngest on board, knew the coastline very well and he was the first to reach land. He sped up the steep hill from Ħondoq to Qala, rushed inside the police station, and raised the alarm.

It was eight at night.

His report is recorded in the Police Okkurrenzi at the Gozo Archive:

“Together with twenty-four other passengers, he was coming from Marfa to Mġarr, Gozo. On arriving in a place so called Taċ-Ċawl, limits of Qala, the said boat accidentally overturned with its occupants.”....

“Superintendent J.E. De Piro and a strong Police Party proceeded to the place of accident and were posted all along the coast suspected to be harbouring survivors of the capsized boat.”

Yet the Gozo police were neither skilled nor equipped for a calamity. It is not recorded that they went out of Mġarr harbour to comb the disaster area. They simply lacked the means. Superintendent J.E. De Piro immediately sought the assistance of the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force in Malta. The destroyer Cheviot, a torpedo recovery boat, and an RAF launch were sent to the spot. However, they reached the site of the tragedy in the early morning, some ten hours after the incident.

Canon Joseph Zammit Tal-Kusi of Xagħra with his brother Karistu were more audacious. Having been alerted about the disaster, and aware that their twenty-three-year-old brother Pawlu was due in Gozo that evening, drove to Mġarr and immediately went out on a hired boat to the place of the incident. With the help of a torch, they succeeded to locate their brother perched on Taċ-Ċawl rocks. The police

“Yet the Gozo police were neither skilled nor equipped for a calamity”

records state that “after strenuous efforts made by the Police with the assistance of some civilians [they] succeeded in bringing him safe ashore.”

The truth is different. I know this from Canon Zammit (1908-1977) himself, my teacher at the Lyceum (1962-1963). He told me that it was he and his brother who succeeded to haul Pawlu to safety with a rope and a lifebelt. Many times, he would tell me with anguish, that the Police did preciously nothing that night.

Two other passengers, Mikiel Buttigieg ta’ Perempin, a twenty-two-year-old from Nadur and Ċikku Gauci tas-Saraċ, a twenty-four-year-old from Ta’ Kerċem, also succeeded to swim to safety.

Ġużeppi did not make it. A female passenger unable to swim – as witnessed by Pawlu Zammit – gripped him and dragged him to the bottom.

Twenty-three, including the captain and his assistant drowned that night.

Duminku Attard, Karmnu Azzopardi, Mikiel Azzopardi, Rita Buttigieg, Salvu Buttigieg, Manwel Camilleri, Ġorġ Curmi, Ġużeppi Dingli, Ġużeppi Gatt, Ġorġ Galea, Karmnu Grima, Ġanni Mercieca, Wistin Magro, Grezzju Magro, Ċikku Portelli, Salvu Refalo, Baskal Sammut, Karmnu Spiteri, Manwel Sultana, Manwel Vella, Pawlu Vella, Ġużeppi Scicluna and Manwel Zammit celebrated All Saints Day in the world beyond.

The heart‑breaking news

Sunday, 31 October 1948, seventy-five years ago. It was a rather chilly morning.

“is a fitting epitome of the suffering that many Gozitans have to go through to earn a living”

The funeral cortege of one of the victims of the Ħondoq ir-Rummien tragedy. Photo: Don Bosco Foundation of the Salesians, Malta.

Marija, Ġużeppi’s mother, had been on her feet since four o’clock in the morning, when the chimes of il-Paternoster from the parish church of St George invited her to the five o’clock mass.

After mass, Marija tucked the wicker basket under her għonnella and hurried to the butcher’s shop to buy a ratal of beef (800 grams) for the special Sunday dinner. At a time when there were no domestic refrigerators, meat was bought just before cooking it. Ċanga bil‑patata l‑forn, roast beef with potatoes, was her favourite when all the family dined together on Sunday.

The butcher, Ġanni Zammit known as Ġanni ta’ Qorru, looked rather worried that morning, a stark difference from his usual jolly self. News that a Gozo luzzu had capsized the previous evening taking a load of passengers to the bottom was penetrating and devastating every Gozitan household.

As the Ċittadella clock struck six it crossed Marija’s mind that her son Ġużeppi had promised her to be home for the long weekend, and he had not yet arrived.

She started trembling with horror and sped home upset. She broke the news of the tragedy to her five daughters: “Who knows if our dear Ġużeppi was also there?” Two of them, Ġużeppa and Ċikka, sped to the police station, from where they were unceremoniously sent to the morgue of the Victoria Hospital to find out for for themselves. All her life, Ċikka carried the anguish of the reception that she and her sister received at the Victoria Police Station on that Sunday morning.

By ten in the morning, nanna Marija knew through the survivor Pawlu Zammit that Ġużeppi was indeed on the boat and that he drowned.

Maria, my maternal grandmother told me this tragic story of the death of her son, and my uncle, Ġużeppi.

Few months later, Ġorġina, Maria’s youngest daughter, who by that time had established herself as a seamstress, married Anton Bezzina. They had a son and they named him Joseph, for uncle Ġużeppi.

This tragedy gave me my Christian name.

Joseph Bezzina, born in Victoria, Gozo, is a graduate of the University of Malta and the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, obtaining a first‑class honours doctorate in Church History. He served Head of Department of Church History at the University of Malta for seventeen years. In 1989, he set up the Gozo Archive within the of the National Archives of Malta; between 2005 and his retirement in 2020 he was Assistant National Archivist. He is the author of close to eighty books and many studies published in English, Maltese, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese.

Declaration by the heirs of Ġużeppi Scicluna that they received the belongings of the victim that where found on his corpse. Photo: Joseph Bezzina.

Above left. The funerary card of couple Salvu and Rita Buttigieg and Guseppi Dingli, all from Xewkija, victims in the Ħondoq ir-Rummien tragedy. Photo: Don Bosco Foundation of the Salesians, Malta.

Above right. The funerary card of Leli Camilleri the only Maltese victim in the Ħondoq ir-Rummien tragedy. Photo: Tony Terribile Collection, National Archives of Malta.

Below. Ġużeppi Scicluna’s passport application. Photo: National Archives of Malta.

Statement of the prizes awarded to the winners of the Victory Day Regatta held 200 years ago (8 September 1822). One may note that the prizes were awarded to the first three places in four races, namely fishing boat with 4 oars, tal-pass with four oars, tal-pass with 2 oars and caique with four oars. Evidently the oarsmen were illiterate. This record forms part of the Audit Office Collection at the National Archives. NAM/AUD/10/7/25/817

Statement of financial position

Statement of changes in equity

Statement of Cash Flows

Notes to the financial statements

1. Accounting policies

The principal accounting policies adopted in the preparation of these financial statements are set out below:

Basis of preparation

These financial statements are prepared in accordance with the requirements of the International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union and with the requirements of the National Archives Act, 2005.

Basis of measurement

These financial statements have been prepared on the historical cost basis.

Property, plant, and equipment

Property, plant, and equipment are stated at cost less accumulated depreciation.

Gains and losses on disposal of property, plant and equipment are determined by reference to their carrying amount and are considered in determining operating profit.

Depreciation is charged to the statement of comprehensive income on a straight–line basis in order to write off the cost of each asset to its residual value over its estimated useful life as follows:

Acquisition of Archival Holdings

Archival Holdings acquired by the National Archives are capitalised and recognised in the statement of financial position at their cost at the date of acquisition. After initial recognition, these holdings are not depreciated, and still shown at cost. These assets cannot be replaced or reconstructed, therefore no market value can truly reflect the assets’ value to the nation’s heritage.

Trade and other receivables

Trade receivables comprise amounts due from customers for services performed in the ordinary course of operations. If collection is expected in one year or less, they are classified as current assets. If not, they are presented as non-current assets.

Cash and cash equivalents

Cash and cash equivalents are carried in the statement of financial position at face value. In the statement of cash flows, cash and cash equivalents includes deposits held at call with banks.

Trade and other payables

Trade payables comprise obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of business from suppliers. Accounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities.

Revenue recognition

Revenue is measured at the fair value of consideration received or receivable for the sale of goods and services in the ordinary course of the entity’s activities. Revenue is shown net of returns, rebates, and discounts.

The entity recognizes revenue when the amount of revenue can be reliably measured, when it is probable that future economic benefits will flow to the entity and when specific criteria have been met for each of the entity’s activities.

Revenue from services is recognized in the accounting period in which the services are rendered, by references to completion of the specific transaction assessed based on the actual service provided as a proportion of the total services to be provided.

Government grants

Government grants consist of capital asset grants. These are recognized at their fair value where there is reasonable assurance that the grant will be received and all attaching conditions will be complied with. The fair value is credited to a deferred income account and is released to the statement of comprehensive income over the expected useful life of the relevant asset by equal annual instalments.

2. Government Subvention

Amounts advanced by Government for recurrent expenditure are made in the form of subventions from the Consolidated Fund in accordance with Section 20 of the National Archives Act, 2005. In accordance with the selected accounting policy, these amounts are accounted for upon an accrual basis. During 2022, the subvention advanced by the Government amounted to €981,930 (2021: €920,000).

3. Funds from the Ministry for Gozo

In 2007 an agreement was reached with the Ministry for Gozo to transfer monies from its vote to the National Archives of Malta to finance the Gozo branch’s employment costs and contribute towards its general and administrative running costs. An amount of €105,492 was transferred in 2022 (2021: €65,193).

4. Other Income

Other income mainly relates to the release of a capital grant, photocopy services and digital images, sale of own publications and advertising in the newsletter.

remuneration amounted to €1,993 (2021: €1,482).

6. Taxation

The National Archives of Malta is exempt from any liability for the payment of income tax in accordance with Section 13 of the National Archives Act, 2005.

9. Archival holdings acquisition

Where archival holdings of national significance are acquired or donated, other than on the open market, external valuers also play a part in the valuation of such holdings. The primary method of valuation involves the importance of the item in terms of the information content, context, and whether the item fills the gap in the archival landscape of the institution or country. However, these are unique items for which little or no comparable market data exists.

For the purposes of the statement of cash flows, cash and cash equivalents comprise the following:

13. Accumulated Fund

The accumulated fund represents the accumulated access of revenue over expenditure.

14. Trade and Other Payables

Amounts advanced by Government for expenditure of a capital nature are made from the Consolidated Fund in accordance with Section 20 of the National Archives Act, 2005.

Deferred income from government grants relates to money received/receivable from this capital vote to finance capital expenditure and shall be recognised as income over the useful life of the asset.