An agreement has been signed between the National Archives of Malta and The People of Malta – a Facebook page developed by teachers Stephen Buhagiar and Roderick Vella.

All the content is generated by Buhagiar and Vella, who are putting together their photographic skills and love for all that is typically Maltese to document it and pass it on in a rather innovative way. It will be stored at the archives.

On their own site Buhagiar and Vella describe the page as “an artistic project to share emotions, stories, personalities, moods and contrasts depicted in pictures and in citations by Maltese people.”

Roderick Vella (left) and Stephen Buhagiar.

The page has attracted a lot of following. Up to February it received more than 25,800 likes.

The agreement is part of an ongoing national memory project curated by the archives management who are shifting away from restricting its remit solely to government records and try to store as much as possible, including popular memories.

New initiatives of an academic and popular nature to promote and further support the project will be taken.

Speaking at the signing event, national archivist Charles Farrugia said: “This collaboration project is a new way of identifying and creating a permanent record of what makes us Maltese.”