Liz Conor and Judith McGuinness have been named the recipients of the Abbot Placid Memorial Scholarship.
The scholarship was initiated in 2009 in memory of New Norcia’s former Abbot, Fr Placid Spearritt OSB, with the hope that it would bring a scholar to New Norcia each year to work in their Archives.
These include not only an extensive collection of material that tells the story of New Norcia but also, importantly, the early days of WA.
“The New Norcia archives collection features diaries, chronicles, photographs, maps, letters and reports which are truly unique,” explains New Norcia’s archivist, Peter Hocking.
Nevertheless, the riches of the New Norcia Archives remain largely unexplored.
“Many of the records are in foreign languages, predominantly Spanish, and it is the purpose of the scholarship to assist in translating these unique documents,” Mr Hocking said.
Dr Conor holds a PhD from LaTrobe University and is a lecturer in print history at Monash University.
Her interest lies in the monastery’s Works on Paper Collection, with a particular focus on the engravings published in the original edition of Dom Salvado’s Memorie Storiche dell’Australia (Salvado’s Memoirs) in 1854.
Her project will examine how these engravings brought Indigenous Australians into the print workshops of Europe and their significance in the printing developments and technologies of the time.
Ms McGuinness is a linguist with expertise in French and Spanish.
Her project will see the completion of the archives’ collection of letters from Théophile Bérengier, the Abbot of Marseilles and good friend of Bishop Salvado.
Having already assisted in the transcription and translation of correspondence from Bérengier to Salvado, she is uniquely qualified to translate Salvado’s letters back to Bérengier.