Ocean futures - Building resilience and skills in pacific maritime museumsOcean futures - Building resilience and skills in pacific maritime museums 

The narrative of the Pacific is shifting from one of historical observation to one of urgent, community-led action. Maritime museums and community heritage organisations with maritime interests from across Oceania are seeking new ways to communicate with their audience the challenges faced by our one world ocean, examining new ways to grow audiences, be more relevant to all their communities and be active partners in economic development.

To support these objectives, the Australian National Maritime Museum received a grant from the Lloyds Register Foundation to organise and run the inaugural Oceania Maritime Museums Administrators Course (OMMAC) in November 2025 at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva, Fiji.  OMMAC is organised in partnership with the Fiji Museum.

The goal of OMMAC is to bring together heritage practitioners to share their experience and expertise and work together on common opportunities facing maritime museums across Oceania, including:

• Share opportunities for developing exhibitions and public programs based on sustainable and ethical practice. 
• Identify and explore ways for museums to grow responsibly and support local economies. 
• Discuss key challenges around contemporary collecting & storytelling and underwater cultural heritage (UCH) management. 
• Ensuring museum buildings and management practices will ensure the long-term preservation of collections and cultural traditions.
• Exploring and documenting traditional practices that museums can utilise to both build social cohesion / community value and create new economic opportunities.

And, to inspire engagement in the 2026 ICMM Conference in Sydney! 

Australian National Maritime Museum	Richard Wesley, Matt Poll and Emily Jateff
Cook Islands Voyaging Society	Tetini Pekepo
Fiji Museum	Mereia Naivota Luvunakoro and Mereoni Camaikakeba
Hui te Ananui a Tangaroa/New Zealand Maritime Museum	Emily Nicholson
International Congress of Maritime Museums	Felicity Ferguson
Lagi-Maama Academy and Consultancy	Kolokesa Mahina Tuai and Toluma'anave Barbara Makuati-Afitu
Ministry of Culture and Internal Affairs, Kiribati	Teraaiti Tebateki
Musée Maritime de Nouvelle Caledonie	Valerie Vattier
National Museum and Art Gallery of Papua New Guinea	Hamaru Kivovia Turia
National University of Samoa	Vaiwilmalua Filia Maotua
Te Fare Iamanaha - Musee de Tahiti et des Iles	Tamara Maric
University of Guam	Bill Jeffrey
Western Australian Museum	Ian Macleod

Day 1 - Introduction to Delegates and Course Objectives

The course kicked off this morning with an overview of objectives for this week’s OMMAC in Suva, Fiji as a chance for Talanoa across the region. Personal introductions by the Australian team were followed by individual presentations by course participants, showcasing the diversity of collections and sites and vessels managed, from universities to museums to traditional watercraft. 

Mereia and Mereoni shared a presentation om the displays and collections of the Fiji Museum, with emphasis on a major collections digitisation project currently underway.

Course attendees then participated in a guided tour of the Fiji Museum, followed by a formal reception at the museum. 

Day 2 - Ocean Futures and Contemporary Storytelling

This morning’s session focused on opportunities to within the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and provided an overview of the Australian National Maritime Museum’s current program.

After morning tea, delegates in teams developed creative briefs for projects related to contemporary ocean stories.  

Matt Poll from the Australian National Maritime Museum delivered an overview of presenting and sharing stories with and for Traditional Owners in Australia, which generated a useful and lively discussion about storytelling and engagement within wider Oceania.

The team were invited back to the Fiji Museum this evening!

Day 3 - Underwater Cultural Heritage, Maritime Archaeology and Conservation

Bill Jeffrey presented on his decades of experience as a maritime archaeologist working across Oceania, highlighting key past projects and opportunities for future research.

Ian Macleod covered preventative conservation in marine environments and showcased that practical conservation does not require significant investment. 

Late this afternoon, the team were invited to afternoon tea at the Australian High Commission in Fiji, at the High Commissioner’s residence overlooking Suva. Gifts were exchanged and the team made sure to mention next year’s International Congress of Maritime Museums Conference in Sydney next September. 

Day 4 - Levuka UNESCO World Heritage Site Case Study

Today’s case study at the UNESCO World Heritage Levuka Historical Port Town was an exceptional opportunity provided by the Fiji Museum.

Levuka was the first colonial capital of Fiji, ceded to the British in 1874. It developed from the 1820s as a centre of commercial activity. Levuka is a living history site that contains multiple built structures. It was a great honour for the team to be presented to the High Chief for permission to tour and access the village. We then received a guided walking tour, conducted by Lydia, National Trust Senior Ranger.

Lunch was provided in the Morris Hedstrom bond store. This is the site for the redeveloped museum, which the National Trust is on track to reopen in 2026.  

Travel to and from the site was approximately 4.5 hours by bus and ferry each way, which gave the team a lot of time to discuss current and future projects together and eat snacks!

Day 5 - Sharing and Caring for Our Heritage

The team began the morning with a debrief on our visit to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Levuka, followed by a discussion of participants collections, valuation and documentation systems. We then engaged in a roundtable discussion around past, present and future projects that engender ‘hope’. 

The session on digital resources included presentations on digital resources presented by Vai, Mereoni and Valerie. Shared useful resources/groups  were discussed, such as ICMM Membership and Australian Maritime Museums Council Resources

Felicity and Richard led a session that explored opportunities for continued connections and shared purpose, with a focus on the International Congress of Maritime Museums and grant opportunities through organisations such as the Llyod's Register Foundation. 

The museums’s course in Suva represents a new approach in the long term relationship between Australian museums and their counterparts in the South Pacific. This partnership moves beyond the "big brother" mentorship model toward a peer-to-peer exchange of critical skills. By focusing on governance, digital sovereignty, and Indigenous storytelling, the museum is helping to build a museum sector in the Pacific that is resilient and autonomous.