Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1997 - (Accumulation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
54 oral history subfonds, 3 private deposit subfonds (PDE_0012, PDE_0028, PDE_0030), 1 public collection (SMTTC)
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
The initial initiatives to set up a National Archives for Malta were taken in 1971 with the setting up of Committee on the Preservation of public records chaired by Guze’ Cassar Pullicino. One year later a section housed at Casa Leone was opened up and started providing research facilities for the reading public. Initially the National Archives of Malta formed part of the Ministry for Justice and Parliamentary Affairs. A few months after its opening at Casa Leone, the archives was transferred to the Palace in Valletta. The officer in charge at that time was Architect Michael Ellul.
In January 1986, a Committee was set up by the Administrative Secretary to study practices of preservation and disposal of public records. A decision was taken to set up a proper National Archives with its main office at Rabat, in a historical building which was once the Santo Spirito Hospital. Extensive structural repairs and restoration works went into the project. The Banca Giuratale, in Mdina, was also identified as a second repository to house the records of the various Courts and Tribunals of the period of the Order of St. John, the French Occupation and the Early British Period.
Late in September 1987 work commenced on the transfer of records of the Courts of Justice from the Palace in Valletta to the Banca Giuratale in Mdina. The repository was inaugurated on 28 October 1988, and opened its doors for research soon after.
The transfer of the Palace Archives to Rabat was concluded on 28 July 1989. Dr Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, then President of Malta presided over the official opening of the National Archives on 28 May 1994. The officer in charge at that time was Mr Joe Caruana.
The first legislation regulating the National Archives was Act IV, of 1990. At that time several initiatives were taken such as the publishing of the first catalogues on CD-ROM, the inauguration of an exhibition centre; the initiation of the annual public lecture and the newsletter; the setting up of a new cataloguing unit using ISAD (G) standards; and a new computer network. A UNESCO-sponsored regional archives conference was also held in 2002.
After its first ten years of operation the management of the National Archives felt that it could fulfil its mission much better if the structures and legal framework are updated. The Maltese Parliament approved a new Archives Act (V, 2005) that came into force on 1 September 2005. This act created for the first time the post of National Archivist which is occupied by Mr Charles J. Farrugia. It also restructured the National Archives as a government entity with a distinct legal personality.
During the last eighteen years we have managed to move into three refurbished premises in Rabat, Mdina and Rabat (Gozo). Our services have improved considerably. We are now focusing on records management in government and the challenge of preserving electronic records and archives. We have worked extensively on digitization of records, which material will in the coming months be available to the reading public.
Archival history
MEMORJA traces its beginning to 22 March 2004, when the then-President of Malta, His Excellency Prof. Guido de Marco had inaugurated the 'National Memory Project' at the National Archives of Malta's Legal Documentation Section at Mdina. That event had marked the start of an extensive and ambitious project intent on becoming the Maltese Islands' main depositor of audiovisual records of national and public memory. In late-2016, following the restructuring of the project into 'MEMORJA: Oral, Sound and Visual Archive', thematic research groups were selected which initiated the National Archives' new dimension and constant communication with the community through fieldwork and meetings. Oral history and video interviews, personal photographs, documents, films and other ephemera have since been collected. As a result, more research themes have been added and volunteers have undergone training in public memory and oral tradition to carry out interviews which will be added to the project's collections in the future. Themes included are wartime experiences, the Civil Service, migration, bell-ringing, agriculture and traditional food, medicine and healthcare, transport and the sea. Because of MEMORJA's reach and collaborations, individuals and entities have thus deposited private collections which have swelled the project's holdings.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
MEMORJA is the oral, sound and visual archive of the National Archives of Malta (NAM). Our mission is to record life stories from people and groups who are underrepresented in the historical record. The roots of the project lie in the National Memory Project (NMP), initiated in 2004, followed by collaboration with the Public Memory Archive (PMA) at the University of Malta. Established in 2017, MEMORJA has now developed as the principal depositor of our national and public memory.
MEMORJA employs advanced methods in oral history, ethnography and cutting-edge archival approaches to collect, record, preserve and make accessible individual and shared histories passed on orally, visually and through sound. We are interested in the diversity of individual memories, life histories, community experiences and traditions, indigenous knowledge and shared historical events of the Maltese people.
MEMORJA’s oral history-trained staff and volunteers carry out continuous ethnographic fieldwork in the community, enriching our archives with a panoply of memories and recollections, personal photographs, documents, ephemera, artifacts, audio and video recordings and film reels which are generously donated, preserved and made available to all. The ubiquitous presence of our fieldworkers carrying out research and oral history interviews in the community has made the NAM ever more visible. This has generated extensive friendships and a unique relationship of trust between the National Archives and the public.
The project covers different themes related to life in, and experiences of, Malta during the twentieth century. The first five themes within which the research began are: Experiencing War: Survival, Shelter and Food; Migration: the British in Malta; Public Administration; Lampedusa and Malta Connections, and Bell-Ringing. There are many records in different formats, including analogue and digital audio recordings; photographic material (both print and digital); digital video recordings; original and digitised ephemera (diaries, press cuttings, books etc.) and written accounts in electronic format.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
The part of the Fonds related to Oral History is divided into 54 Sub-fonds according to name of interviewee - the number of which will continue to increase as more interviews are created by the MEMORJA team (this is an on-going project). Each series is based on record type e.g. interviews, photographs, ephemera etc. The structure of each series is the same with all sub-fonds, and numbered as such:
Series 01: Interviews [sound and video recordings (wave, mp3, MXF and MP4), transcripts and written accounts (PDF)];
Series 02: Photographic material [analogue and digital];
Series 03: Ephemera [original and/or digital surrogates]
Series 04: Correspondence [email etc.]
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Generated finding aid
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Due to the nature of the MEMORJA project, the MEMORJA Fonds is constantly evolving and there is no fixed end-date. Research themes will change and oral history interviews and their accompanying records will continue to be created/collected for the foreseeable future.