Entangled Knowledges project returns traditional Menang practices and artefacts home

First published by Deakin University

A landmark research project has reunited important cultural knowledge and materials from Menang Country in southern Western Australia, bringing together collections dispersed across Australia and the world for the first time and returning them to community.

The Australian Research Council-funded project, Entangled Knowledges: Kaartdijin, Science and History in the Robert Neill Collection, used a new model of collaborative research between the Menang community, scientists and academics led by Deakin University historian Professor Tiffany Shellam.

Together, they developed a Kaartdijin (knowledge)-sharing research model that reunited historical artefacts, cultural practices, language and traditional knowledge from Menang Country while placing Menang voices and expertise at the centre of the research.

How Deakin research is returning Indigenous knowledge to Country

The collection is the result six years of interdisciplinary collaboration between Menang knowledge holders, historians, fish curators and anthropology curators. 

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The project brings together fish, mammals, plants, portraits, paintings and cultural objects that Menang ancestors helped collect alongside early visitors and researchers in the mid-19th century, including nineteenth-century colonist Robert Neill.

The research has culminated in the Kalyagul: Connections to Menang Country exhibition, now on display at the Museum of the Great Southern, where the reunited collections are being shared with the broader public.

Alongside significant objects from the WA Museum collection and contemporary cultural material created by the Menang community, the exhibition reunites cultural objects and Menang artefacts from national and international collections for the first time since they left Country.

Professor Shellam said the exhibition was the culmination of six years of interdisciplinary collaboration between Menang knowledge holders, historians, fish curators and anthropology curators.

'This dispersed collection is rich with Menang kaartdijin (knowledge). Through the kaartdijin model of participatory cross-cultural and cross-sector collaboration, we've returned language, stories, taxonomic knowledge and fishing practices to the Menang community,' Professor Shellam said.

This is more than a scientific or historical collection. Through collaborative knowledge sharing and cultural exchange, traditional knowledge is not simply preserved – it is practised, shared and adapted across generations, ensuring cultural continuity into the future.

Professor Tiffany Shellam

Deakin University historian

Co-curator and Menang woman Shona Coyne, Manager of First Nations Public Engagement at the National Museum of Australia, said the project helped redress the historical extraction of Menang knowledge and cultural materials.

'There are gaps in our shared history – important chapters have been overlooked or left untold. I see this project as an opportunity to help fill some of those gaps, through truth telling, while also celebrating the resilience, strength and endurance of Menang peoples,’ she said.

Ms Coyne said the project would have lasting benefits for the local community and future generations.

'This is not just an Aboriginal story. It is the history of this place – a shared history that belongs to all of us, ’she said.

When people understand the full history of this place, it creates opportunities for greater respect, deeper understanding and stronger relationships between the First Nations people of this place and the wider community.

Shona Coyne

Manager, First Nations Public Engagement at the National Museum of Australia

The research has also supported the revitalisation of important cultural practices within the Menang community. Community members are drawing on knowledge reconnected through the Robert Neill collection to revive toolmaking, kangaroo skin cloak making and emu feather ornament making, with workshops supporting the transfer of these knowledges to younger generations.

Professor Shellam said the project addressed the long-standing dominance of Western scientific perspectives in natural history collections from Menang Country.

'The exhibition contributes to growing knowledge about biocultural collections in natural history museums and supports new museum practices that advocate for cultural diversity and community collaboration.

'At a time when we are reckoning with Australia's relationship with First Nations communities, this history of reciprocal relationships and their legacy is especially important.

'The timing of the exhibition is also significant, with 2026 marking 200 years since British colonisation.'

Chief Executive Officer, Alec Coles from the Western Australian Museum said the exhibition celebrates how Menang people have shaped understanding of the region and its environment.

'In the 1840s, Menang people shared their kaartdijin (knowledge) with early visitors and researchers, guiding the study of local waters by helping to catch, preserve and name fish,’ Mr Coles said.

'The exhibition honours the important role of Menang community members in identifying, naming and understanding the plants and animals of the Great Southern region.'

‘Kalygul, a Menang word, means always, ever, continuing and crystalises our belief that whilst Menang knowledge has evolved over millennia, it continues to inform us today, and will continue to do so in the future.'

Kalyagul: Connections to Menang Country is on display at the Museum of the Great Southern in Albany until February 2027. Developed in collaboration with members of the Menang Noongar community and the Western Australian Museum, the exhibition is supported by Lotterywest, the City of Albany, the Foundation for the WA Museum, and Metal Manufactures Electrical Merchandising.

Professor Shellam's research was funded through the Australian Research Council's Linkage Projects scheme and the City of Albany.

Deakin University recently launched a new Indigenous Research Strategy, demonstrating its ongoing commitment to elevating Indigenous knowledge systems as a cornerstone of research excellence at Deakin.