International AV archives conference showcases UH, Hawaiʻi expertise
IASA-SEAPAVAA conference organizers reconsidered coming to Hawaiʻi, but forged ahead with successful event at UH Mānoa
For the first time, the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa hosted this year’s joint conference of the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA) and Southeast Asia-Pacific Audio Visual Archive Association (SEAPAVAA) Sept. 8-11 at the East-West Center. IASA’s 56th annual and SEAPAVAA’s 29th annual conference showcased the important work of many UH and Hawaiʻi archivists.
UH Mānoa’s Library and Information Sciences (LIS) program and William S. Richardson School of Law (WSRSL) were among the event’s financial sponsors; Hamilton Library and UH West Oʻahu faculty were instrumental in conference planning; and there were presenters and volunteers from across the UH System and Hawaiʻi.
Conference participants from around the world met online and in-person. They represented organizations such as UNESCO, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, StoryCorps, Warner Bros. Discovery and WGBH, as well as national archives in China, Japan, Malawi, Malaysia, Norway, Singapore and Switzerland, national libraries in Germany and New Zealand, and the National Museum of Australia.
But conference organizers had second thoughts about coming to Honolulu.
U.S. political climate causes obstacles, unease
In spring of 2025, the IASA executive board grew concerned about holding the event in Hawaiʻi due to the U.S. president’s executive order restricting DEI programs at universities. There were also worries about travel restrictions and obtaining visas for participants from other countries (which did impact attendance).
A survey went out to members, who expressed concerns but were mostly still in favor of coming here. Based on their input, the number of people planning to attend, the large number of proposals submitted, and all the work the local planning committees had already done, the board decided to move ahead with the conference at UH Mānoa—with a notable exception.
In a May 2025 blog post, IASA President Patrick Midtlyng stated: “Honolulu is a vibrant and culturally diverse city where the Board believes all conference participants will feel welcome and safe. However, due to the Executive Order, IASA’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee will be unable to hold its annual business meeting on the University of Hawaiʻi campus.” He explained that this was because UH Mānoa had to comply with the executive order to maintain its federal funding and grants.
So the board decided that because the DEI Committee could not meet, there would be no section or committee meetings at this conference, but announced that the conference in Honolulu was a go. Fortunately, it all worked out.
“Despite some substantial obstacles, including global travel hesitancy and concerns around the political climate in the U.S., the conference was an overwhelming success,” said Rosie Rowe, IASA vice president of conferences.
“We welcomed 185 participants from 35 countries, with 116 attending in person and another 62 joining online. This strong international engagement underscored the importance of maintaining a hybrid format, which clearly met the needs of our global community, thanks to the work of the Imin Conference Center staff.”
“I was very appreciative of IASA’s response when they said yes. They recognized that UH Mānoa is a Research 1 university and has a lot to offer,” said David Rowntree, a digital preservation librarian at Hamilton Library who chaired the overall conference planning committee, as well as the local organizing committee. He worked closely with Rowe on the planning.
“I thought it was a great opportunity to bring people here to showcase the library and our collections, and also focus on Hawaiʻi and the Pacific,” he said. “We wanted to highlight Hawaiʻi themes and speak to local populations.” And they did just that.
A great place for “A Loss of Place”
The theme of this year’s IASA-SEAPAVAA conference was “A Loss of Place,” focusing on how climate change transforms landscapes and challenges cultural identities. Participants were invited to present on topics that addressed preserving climate-impacted media and explored the intersections of climate, culture and marginalized identities.
The conference kicked off on Sept. 8 with a community archiving workshop at the Henry Kuʻualoha Giugni ʻUluʻulu Moving Image Archive of Hawaiʻi at UH West Oʻahu, followed by sessions at the East-West Center Imin International Conference Center, where most of the conference took place.
After a welcome ʻoli by Piʻilani Smith, UH System President Wendy Hensel and Hamilton Library Associate University Librarian Vicky Lebbin welcomed the group in the opening ceremony on Sept. 9. Hensel acknowledged the challenges visitors had faced in coming here and expressed her deep gratitude on behalf of the university that they had made the journey. She said:
“In Hawaiʻi and across the Pacific, we know that there are significant challenges with climate change, the fight for cultural identity, and amplifying voices that, too often, go unheard. The work that you do in preserving those voices, protecting and sharing these stories, ensures that memory endures and that wisdom is not lost.”
In the following keynote address, DeSoto Brown, historian and curator for the Bishop Museum Archives, explored the history of Hawaiʻi archival AV media and preservation. There were additional sessions at the Imin Center and an opening reception that evening at the UH Mānoa Campus Center.
UH faculty and staff demonstrated an impressive array of subject matter expertise throughout the conference. Rowntree made a presentation about his prior experience doing preservation work on the courtroom recordings of the United Nations Yugoslavia (1993-2017) and Rwanda (1994-2015) International Criminal Tribunals in the Hague, Netherlands. He explained some of the challenges his team faced, including protecting victims’ identities in making publicly accessible copies.
LIS graduate student Elvira Jiā Xī Mancini did a poster presentation about their ongoing thesis work using oral history archives to understand and support the voices of transnational, interracial Adoptees reclaiming culture and building community. She received valuable feedback on her work from conference participants.
“I had such a wonderful experience at the conference, and I was able to learn so much from all of the professionals who took part,” said Mancini. “Everyone who spoke to me at my poster presentation was very encouraging of my work and first steps into the field while asking questions and giving suggestions that I had never considered. The whole event opened my eyes to the wide variety of work being done and has pushed me to grow even more in the future.”
Tisha Aragaki, ʻUluʻulu assistant archivist at UH West Oʻahu, discussed the role of home movie preservation in disaster recovery. Digital media specialist Robbie Omura shared his experience with migrating ʻUluʻulu’s digitized Hawaiʻi archival film and video content to a new content management system with a website to expand its accessibility.
On Sept. 10, some participants toured the KTUH-FM radio station with Kimo Nichols, the station librarian and former Hamilton Library staff member, before sessions began. Hamilton librarians Jodie Mattos and Margaret Joyce discussed the challenges of collecting and archiving off-air Hawaiʻi television programs, and shared their process of obtaining copyright permissions. Janel Quirante, head archivist at ʻUluʻulu, was on a panel that discussed access and preservation in Polynesian public TV collections.
Hamilton Library archivist Helen Wong Smith moderated the keynote addresses that day. WSRSL law professor Kapua‘ala Sproat and Beadie Dawson scholar Kaulu Luʻuwai spoke about how the history of settler colonialism, plantation-era water diversions and climate change laid the groundwork for the 2023 wildfire disaster in West Maui. They said that broadcast and social media helped elevate local and marginalized voices to counter powerful, moneyed interests in the dialog about how to rebuild.
UH Hilo biology professor and department chair Patrick Hart then shared his work from the Listening Observatory for Hawaiian Ecosystems Bioacoustics Lab on charting the decline and extinction of native birds on Hawaiʻi Island. Using acoustic monitoring and AI, he and his students are documenting the birds’ declining populations as global temperatures rise and mosquito populations increase. Hart played birdsong recordings for the audience.
A group of participants toured Hamilton Library that afternoon. Their first stop was the Asia Collection, where librarians Elena Clariza, Monica Ghosh, Karen Kadohiro Lauer, Ellie Kim, Mitsu Nakamura and Lynette Teruya showcased photographs, lantern slides, maps, and archival documents from across the region—including China, Japan, Korea, Okinawa, Russia in Asia, the Philippines and South Asia. The group then visited librarian Malia Van Heukelem in the Jean Charlot Collection and Archive of Hawai‘i Artists & Architects, where they viewed works by artist Jean Charlot, architect Vladimir Ossipoff and photographer Francis Haar.
Next, they went to the Hawaiian and Pacific Collection reading room, where librarians Jodie Mattos and Stu Dawrs showed letters written and books signed by Queen Liliʻuokalani, Edison disks with recordings from Hawaiʻi, photographs from Hawaiʻi’s plantation days, and other valuable artifacts from the collections. The group then visited media specialist Jim Hearon, who showed them how he digitizes audio archives from various obsolete media equipment.
Their last stop was University Archives and Manuscripts. Librarians Dawn Sueoka, Helen Wong Smith and Morgan Schmidt, along with student assistant Terri-Lee Bixby, showed them images of a 1985 art gallery exhibition from the University Records collection, as well as records from the Hawaiʻi Congressional Papers Collection and a related video that they had collaborated with the ʻUluʻulu Archive to preserve. They shared recordings of Sandford Zalburg’s interviews for his book on ILWU leader Jack Hall, who spearheaded union organizing for Hawaiʻi plantation workers in the 1930s.
On Thursday, UH Mānoa LIS professor Andrew Wertheimer spoke about archival education in the LIS program, followed by talks by ʻUluʻulu collections specialist/producer Heather Giugni on the Moving Image History of Hawaiʻi and assistant archivist Koa Luke on the Indigenous voices in the ʻUluʻulu Archive. Hamilton librarian Stanislava Gardasevic moderated the discussion. In addition to many other sessions, participants were invited to tour the Jaku’an Japanese Tea House in the Seien Japanese Garden behind the Imin Center. The conference concluded with a dinner at the Waikīkī Aquarium.
Local laulima makes for ‘memorable and meaningful’ event
“I am always delighted when Hamilton librarians bring conferences to Hawai‘i,” said University Librarian Clem Guthro. “We are a major research university and we’re doing work that isn’t being done elsewhere in the world. Having conference attendees experience UH Mānoa and Hawaiʻi allows our work to be known and our reputation enhanced.”
Hamilton librarians David Rowntree, Helen Wong Smith, Jodie Mattos, Stanislava Gardasevic, Morgan Schmidt and Kapena Shim were organizing committee members, along with Nathaneal Smith from Bishop Museum and ʻUluʻulu’s Robbie Omura, and Janel Quirante co-chaired the programming committee. There were several LIS student volunteers and one who presented. Other local organizations who helped with the event were the Association of Hawaiʻi Archivists, Hawaiʻi State Archives and Bishop Museum.
“IASA was honored to partner with SEAPAVAA and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. We’re especially grateful to the local organizing committee for their amazing efforts in bringing the conference to life,” said Rowe. “I’d like to extend special thanks to David, Helen, Robbie and Janel. Their hospitality, leadership, and deep commitment to archival work in Hawaiʻi made the event both memorable and meaningful.”
“It was wonderful to work with the local planning committee and volunteers, who were amazing,” said Rowntree. “They really were the ones that made it such a success.”
Mattos, Hawaiian Collection librarian and chair of the Hawaiian and Pacific Collections department, said, “I enjoyed volunteering at the IASA-SEAPAVAA conference, as I was able to meet so many amazing people from around the world who manage music, media and film. And, Hawaiʻi was able to showcase the amazing work it is doing to preserve music and media.”
Rowntree said he was grateful for the experience. “It was very exciting to see this conference come together,” he said. “To see how people embraced it and came together to share their knowledge and experience. They took away things you can’t plan for.”
