Nigel Oram was an ethnologist and academic. In 1946, after military service in World War II, he read history at Oxford University. This was followed by a career in the British Colonial Service in East Africa and Uganda. In 1961, Oram helped set up the New Guinea Research Unit, Port Moresby, which was an offshoot of the Australian National University. His role was to undertake social research. To facilitate his information gathering, Oram learnt the Motu and Hula languages. In 1969, he was appointed a fellow at the University of Papua New Guinea, where he remained from 1969 to 1975. Oram returned to Australia where he taught history for nine years at La Trobe University and where, upon his retirement, he became an honorary senior research fellow. An extensive collection of Oram’s PNG research papers is held at the National Library of Australia (MS 9436).

The mystery of Guise: conflict between missionaries, colonial administrators and foreign traders during the British New Guinea Protectorate, Ts., 29pp., is a biography of Reginald Edward Guise, grandfather of Sir John Guise, G.C.M.G., K.B.E., Hon. Ll.D., the first Governor-General of the independent state of Papua New Guinea. This version of Nigel Oram’s manuscript dates from sometime after 1994. In the late 1990s Oram’s health went steadily down hill, and completing the manuscript was beyond him. After Oram’s death, Janet Fingleton rescued the manuscript from her father’s computer. Donald Denoon has since worked on an edited version of this paper which is to be submitted to the Journal of Pacific History. This is a complete copy of the existing manuscript, but note that the references and some of the footnotes are missing.

Papers gathered on field research during the political crisis in the Solomon Islands. Some of the results of Dr Scales research have been published, see Ian Scales (2007) “The coup nobody noticed: the Solomon Islands Western State Movement in 2000”, Journal of Pacific History 42(2): 186-209.

Papers arranged in five series.
Series 1/1-36. Papers on the Western State Movement, 1999-2001.
Series 2/1-4. Papers relating to Solomon Islands Government Provincial Government Review Committee.
Series 3/1-11. Report of the State Government Task Force 2001.
Series 4/1-7. Newspaper cuttings related to the Western State Movement 1999-2001.
Series 5/1-2. Additional documents.
See Finding aids for details.

PMBPhoto 55 is a collection of 927 photographs by Jan Gammage of Papua New Guinea subjects, taken over 10 years from August 1996 to October 2006. The photos can be divided into three sections.
The first and main section has about 600 photos taken between August 1996 and October 2006 and relates to AusAID and some of its development project work. In this period, AusAID was the agency within the Australian government responsible for the overseas aid and development program. Subjects include AusAID staff posted from Canberra or engaged locally, Papua New Guineans engaged in implementation and management, and consultants and contractors. Subject bilateral projects include two in infrastructure - the National Roads Regravelling and Sealing Project (NRRSP) and the PNG Maritime College Project, and two in law and justice - the Correctional Services Development Project (CSDP) and the Royal PNG Constabulary Development Project (known as the Police project).
Other AusAID funded projects involved Papua New Guinean and Australian non-government organisations. Of such projects the Community Development Scheme (CDS), the Church Partnership Program (CPP), the PNG National HIV/AIDS Support Project (PNG NHASP) and the PNG Australia Sexual Health Improvement Program (PASHIP) are subjects. What came to be known as The GoodNews Workshop, organised in Madang by the ANU’s State Society and Governance in Melanesia project (SSGM) in collaboration with the Divine Word University, is also a subject.
AusAID projects worked at the national, provincial and community level across PNG. They are subjects in the National Capital District and the following provinces: Central, Milne Bay, Oro, Morobe, Madang, East Sepik, East New Britain, Bougainville and the Western Highlands. All project documents, including regular reports and reviews, should be available in PNG and Australian Government records. See also the complementary SSGM publication Development Bulletin, No. 67, April 2005, Effective Development in Papua New Guinea, edited by David Hegarty and Pamela Thomas.
PNG beyond the confines of the development project also became a subject including in Port Moresby the Ela Beach Craft Market and PNG Arts, Loloata, Samarai, a birdwing butterfly, birds including hornbills, George the white cockatoo, female and male eclectus parrots, and a goura pigeon. Volcanoes including KarKar off the Madang coast and Tavurvur off the East New Britain coast, were subjects. At Keltiga near Mt Hagen a re-enactment of the coming of the white man to the PNG highlands was a subject and military subjects include the memorial and plaque on Mission Hill, Wewak, and the War memorial and Library Institute on Samarai.
Among the subjects are the following people: Siwi Morep, Sam Inguba, Richard Sikani, Ruby Zarriga, Bart Philemon, Brunie Dangar-Christian, Helen Hakena, Delphine Lesi, Daisy Taylor, Daera Morgan and family, Sir Mekere and Lady Roslyn Morauta, Mike Manning, Relly Manning, Mel Togolo, Anna Ballinger Togolo, Janet Philemon, Pena Ou, Sir Pita Lus, Pauline Doonar (Nakmai), Dorothy Luana, Grace (Isako) Feka, and Nora Brash. Hartmut Holzknecht, David Kavanamur, Loa George, Elizabeth Cox and Regina Paim, Brother Pat Howley, Yerima Taylor, Sarah Garap, Scarlett Epstein, Thomas Webster, and Nono Gideon are also subjects.
The second section (December 1997 to February 1998) comprises over 300 photos. The subject is Operation Bel Isi, a regional initiative initially led by New Zealand, to support Bougainville in its effort to bring peace. The photos are a record from my perspective as a civilian truce monitor, selected from AusAID, over a period of two months. Subjects include the first phase of the Australian contribution to the mission from its beginnings in Sydney, and its arrival in Bougainville at Aropa airstrip, to the living conditions, training and establishment of teams at Loloho, Arawa, deployment to one of four team sites and the life and work of the Buka Truce Monitoring Team. Other subjects include the town and villages of Buka Island, Wakunai and Tinputz on the east coast of North Bougainville, Togerau inland from the east coast with the volcano Mt Balbi looming over it, Kunua, Kuraio and Torokina on the west coast, and Kalil and Balil on Nissan Island.
Among the subjects are the following people: Lieutenant Colonel Mele Saubulinayau of Fiji, Bougainville Transitional Government Minister for Local Level Government Agnes Titus, Sir Paul Lapun, Sister Lorraine Garasu, Major Dave Samuels, Helen Hakena, Getsi Tanahan, Ben Kamda, Joe Pais, Joan Jerome, Monica Smith, Paul Akoitai, Bessie Rerevate, Christine Hou, Eddie Mohin, Elma Kaskas, Josephine Sition, and Mariann Tonsala.
Complementing the photos is a chapter “A Truce Monitor” in Australians’ Experiences Monitoring Peace in Bougainville, 1997-2001: Without a Gun (edited by Monica Wehner and Donald Denoon, Pandanus Books, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, ANU, 2001) and a seminar paper Messages from the Women of Bougainville, given at AusAID for International Womens’ Day 1998. A short version of this paper was published in Amida Australia-Asia, Vol. 4, No.1, Mar-Apr 1998.
In addition, as with the projects in the first section, a large number of reports and reviews of this mission should be available in Australian Government records.
The third section is PNG people and events in Australia (about 16 photos over the period August 1998 to June 2006). Subjects include the launch by Hank Nelson at the PNG High Commission in Canberra of Bill Gammage’s book The Sky Travellers in August 1998, the PNG Mining and Petroleum Conference in November 1998 in Sydney, people who worked on AusAID projects visiting AusAID in Canberra (including December 2002 and May 2006), the visit of John Waiko for a showing of ‘Minister without Money’ a film made by his son Bau Waiko (September 2005) , and the fundraiser for people affected by Cyclone Larry organised by the PNG community in Canberra (June 2006).
This subject area includes the following people: Sir Rabbie Namaliu, Bill Gammage, Bill Searson, Robert Harden, Sir Anthony Siaguru, John Garnaut, Helga Griffin, John Waiko, PNG High Commissioner Charles Lepani, Kathy and Vertanya Lepani, Joe Tauvasa and Aivu Guise Tauvasa, Anna Chikali-Westcott and Hani Dietz.

The Pacific Theological College (PTC) in Suva, Fiji, is an ecumenical institution founded in 1966 to assist in providing the Pacific churches a highly trained indigenous ministry. The College established an international reputation for quality theological education, particularly in the three core areas of Biblical Studies, Theology and History of Christianity. In 1987 it began a Master of Theology programme in Pacific Church History. The thesis is an integral part of the PTC's Bachelor of Divinity and Master of Theology programmes. Theses systematically apply detailed local knowledge to topics covering a broad range of cultural, social and political matters in the Pacific Islands.

For student theses 1968– 1993 see PMB MS 1084