How Malta is building its COVID-19 time capsule

Some of us remember their grandparents reminiscing about the Second World War.

Yet thousands of first-hand accounts of the war perished with the passing of the generation which experienced it. Now, National Archivist Charles Farrugia has a cunning plan to save COVID-19 memories from the sands of time.

His answer is a COVID-19 time capsule to which all of us can contribute by sending our own personal journals documenting life in lockdown.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a unique historical moment, collectively experienced by all us simultaneously. But while medical records will withstand the test of time, personal memories may perish if not recorded. This is why Malta’s National Archives have embarked on a public memory project aimed at preserving memories of an epochal event.

National Archivist Charles J. Farrugia

“We do have public records of past pandemics but these were always recorded from an official point of view. We do not want the statistics only or the official decision-making only. We want also to capture the views, emotions, hurts, fears and feelings of the population,” Farrugia told MaltaToday.

The current National Archives Act vests the National Archives with the mission of ‘preserving the collective memory of the Maltese nation.’

But Farrugia says such a mission cannot be fulfilled through public records alone. “The experiences, emotions, feelings and daily lives of common people need also to fit into the picture.”

This led to the creation of a national memory project which started in 2004. Lately, the focus has shifted from national to public memory, in a way where the daily experience of common people is given the focus it deserves.

“When the COVID-19 pandemic started, we realised that the changes to the lives of people incurred through this pandemic will be unprecedented. So it was only natural to include such topic amongst the areas of research,” Farrugia said.

To keep these memories alive the National Archives is inviting people to send their type-written submissions of diaries documenting individual experiences of the pandemic. On Facebook, the National Archives is reminding the public “to join our efforts to make sure that persons born in 50 years from now may know our life during this pandemic”, by keeping a diary so that “when all is over” the journals would be deposited with the project MEMORJA.

“The material will be catalogued and inserted in the archival collections in line with the normal processes of archiving. We do hope also to organise a number of events to discuss the material and also keep active a theme-community around this topic,” Farrugia said.

Farrugia was rather surprised by the feedback from all kinds of people in response to the nationwide appeal. “We have received feedback from a diversity of persons such as teachers, nurses, pensioners, public officers and even some Maltese abroad who have contacted us.”

According to Farrugia, the lockdown itself and the rapid shift toward the use of virtual platforms has also facilitated the dissemination of this project, encouraging a high participation.

The initative has also drawn the attention of the International Council on Archives, which has lauded the Maltese project as an exemplary endeavour.

All those who have expressed an interest in participating in the project have been sent an FAQ sheet and consent forms by the National Archives