Fr. Gerard Bruns was born on the 17 August 1932. He arrived in the Solomon Islands in September 1960 and worked as a Marist priest on Makira, Solomon Islands. Fr. Bruns took a great interest in the people of Makira and has documented much about the Kahua language and the culture of east Makira in the Solomon Islands. In 2008 he moved to the Marist Brothers at Tenaru Secondary School outside of Honiara. Fr. Bruns moved again and now lives at Tanagai parish centre close to the sea shore which has been his home ever since.

This collection includes typescript documents that Fr. Brun has written on his personal typewriter throughout more than fifty years of living in the Solomon Islands. The collection include grammars and vocabularly/dictionaries of the Kahua language. The collection also includes Fr John Espagne’s thesis on Makira religion, titled ‘Witless Trust’, written in 1953. Fr. Brun edited "Witless Trust" to make the text more readable and typed the manuscript himself, titled ‘Origins of Religion in Makira. Anthropological Investigations. Father Iron John Investigations 1918-2001’.
Also included in the collection is Fr. Brun's autobiography ‘Antipode’ (2015), his manuscript ‘Augunua, Among the Kahua’ (2011), which summarizes Espagne’s thesis and also the ideas of Lorensio Marau, a Makiran who had described origin stories and beliefs, developing syncretic approach to Catholicism and traditional beliefs. ‘Auguna, among the Kahua’ also contains kastom stories as well as insights into Makiran society. The collection also includes Fr. Brun's manuscript on "The evangelisation of Makira, 1845-1847; 1908-1960". Fr. Brun worked with Solomon Islanders and translated the Bible into the Kahua language.

Frank Filmer was a missionary with the Churches of Christ on Pentecost Island, New Hebrides from 1908-1919. Frank became engaged to Rosa Jane Fountain and in 1908 left to work as a missionary for the Church of Christ. He returned to South Australia and on 6 April 1909 Rosa and Frank were married in the Grote Street Church of Christ, Adelaide, South Australia. They had five children, four of whom were born in the islands. In 1923 Rosa developed malaria and died. Frank returned with his young children to Australia and worked as a Minister for the Church of Christ in Kadina, South Australia. Frank married Vera Edna Woodward on 2 November 1925 and returned to work on Ambryn as a plantation manager, where he had two more children. In 1929 they returned to South Australia. Frank later bought a dairy farm in Meadows where he and his three sons worked.

Four diaries written by Frank Filmer, 1908-1918

Reel 1:
Diary 1, 29 Feb 1908-31 Dec 1909;
Diary 2, 1 Jan 1910-31 Dec 1912
Diary 3, 1 Jan 1913-31 Dec 1915
Diary 4, 1 Jan 1916-31 Dec 1918

See PMB 701

The logbook and statistics cover the period 1920-49. The chronicle of important events begins with Captain Cook's discovery of Niue in 1774 and is brought down to the year 1928. The events chronicled do not necessarily concern the London Missionary Society on Niue.

The reports are of the following deputations and secretarial visits:<BR>1. Revs A.J. Viner, G.J. Williams and Frank Lenwood, June 1915 - June 1916<BR>2. Rev. V.A. Barradale, April - September 1919<BR>3. Rev. V.A. Barradale, August 1926 - June 1927<BR>4. Rev. Norman Goodall, March 1939 - April 1940<BR>5. Rev. C. Stuart Craig, May 1952 - March 1953<BR>6. Rev. C. Stuart Craig, 13 July - 8 September 1960<BR>7. Rev. C. Stuart Craig, 16 April - 17 May 1961<BR>8. Rev. C. Stuart Craig, 11 February - 15 May 1963<BR>9. Rev. E.J. Edwards, 23 May - 24 June 1966

Frank Hurley was a well-known Australian photographer and pioneer film producer. His film 'Pearls and Savages' (1924), based in Papua, was a product of his visit to the Western District referred to in these papers.

The papers are believed to have been 'souvenired' by an Australian serviceman in Port Moresby in World War II.<BR>For an obituary of Hurley by Keast Burke, see Australian Popular Photography, 12: 30-35, 48 (March 1962).

Donaldson was one of about 40 British employees of the British-owned Pacific Phosphate Company on Nauru when World War I broke out. Nauru was then a German colony. On 6 September 1914, the Germans deported the British employees to Ocean Island, part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Protectorate. On 3 November 1914, an Australian force under Colonel W. Holmes, arrived at Ocean Island in the company's ship Messina, reembarked the British employees and returned them to Nauru, which was placed under Australian military control.

The diary gives an account of these events and those preceding and following them.

Early issues of the <i>New Hebrides Magazine</i> were edited by Dr William Gunn of Aneityium and promoted by Rev. Dr Robertson of Erromanga under the auspices of the Foreign Missions Committee of the Presbyterian Church in Victoria. Dr Gunn also printed some of the early issues. The Synod then decided that the journal should be printed in Australia. A few issues were printed in Sydney, but after 1905 it was printed by Arbuckle, Waddell & Fawckner in Melbourne. In 1905 Rev. T Wattlegatt of Malekula became Editor for about three years, but he moved to Victoria in 1906 and as he felt out of touch with the New Hebrides resigned as Editor. Rev. F H L Paton, Foreign Missions Secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria then took over as Editor. The <i>New Hebrides Magazine</i> was succeeded by <i>Our Missionaries at work : a journal of missionary information</i> (Vol.1, no.1-Vol.6, no.4, Dec 1911-Oct 1917) issued by the Presbyterian Church in Victoria.

Nos.1-41, Oct 1900-Oct 1911. See Finding aids for details.

H.E. Woodman (1895- ) joined the Public Works Department in the mid-1920s. After a brief period as a gold miner he took part in the Nakanai punitive expedition of 1926-27 and was then invited to join the New Guinea Administration as acting District Officer, Sepik district, stationed at Ambunti. Over the next twelve years he was at Manus, Madang, Kavieng, Namatanai, Gasmata, and Aitape. He returned to take charge of the Madang district after the war and retired to live in New South Wales in 1947.

Reel 1:<BR>1. Patrol diaries, 1927-39<BR>2. Notebooks of evidence given in Jomba Land Inquiry (Madang), 1932<BR>3. Station diaries, 1932, 1946-47<BR>Reel 2:<BR>4. Patrol reports, 1927-47<BR>5. Papers re labour matters in Madang district, 1946

Lavachery was a Belgian ethnologist who published extensively on Easter Island following his visit there in 1934-35.

Field notes on the ethnology of Easter Island