From the volcanoes of Rabaul

I don’t normally live in Melbourne, I usually live in Papua New Guinea. I’m working on public health awareness for a Ph.D. at ANU, looking at how men in Papua New Guinea hear, translate and apply messages about preventing HIV and violence against women.

The dome is a good place for me to come in and work as atmosphere here is really conducive to getting work done. In other rooms of the library I feel myself gravitating to other people’s conversations but here it’s really quiet, and I find people really respectful of the quiet.

When I’m stuck trying to get a thought or a sentence out, I like to look up and see the inscriptions on the wall. I especially like the Helen Garner one talking about reading being ‘a sensation as delicious as dropping into the water off the concrete edge of the Fitzroy baths’. Because I’m away from home so often, I find that really grounding.

Where I live used to be the colonial jewel for Germans and Australians; it had a really amazing library but now there aren’t any libraries in Rabaul. There was one but it was destroyed in a volcano in 1994. There are a couple of second hand bookshops but in terms of finding places to sit and write there’s just outside spaces, that’s it. Over there is a ‘getting information’ place and here is more of a ‘processing information’ place.

Having spaces that are centres of learning or knowledge, where that’s celebrated, is a really important thing. They manifest in different ways in different places, but I’m realising more and more that having a physical space is really important. Where I am even getting a resource centre together is a massive task. Having a place where you can learn and share together is important, and for that to be welcoming and communal is important. The dome is like that; there’s the glow of participation but you can do your own thing at the same time.

I like the light, the light is the thing that makes being here really beautiful. And the acoustics - the clicks and the footsteps and the way that they echo - make me feel like I’m in a proper library. It’s a bit of a ‘movie library’ kind of space. And there’s always something interesting for me to look at while I’m daydreaming.