Southern Western Australian artefacts return from overseas museums for new exhibition
Cultural items from the Menang region of southern Western Australia have been repatriated and are now displayed in the Kalyagul exhibition at the Museum of the Great Southern.
After centuries abroad, a range of Menang cultural artefacts have been returned to southern Western Australia and placed on view in the Kalyagul: Connections to Menang Country exhibition at the Museum of the Great Southern. The collection features watercolour fish drawings by 1840s commissariat officer Robert Neill, fish skins labelled with Menang names, and plant samples originally gathered by women Lucy Webb and Lucy Eades.
Researchers from Deakin University and museum curators worked with Menang community members, including Shona Coyne and Larry Blight, to decode indigenous terminology and restore missing information. The project also involved recreating traditional emu-feather ornaments and fishing spears, and adding a new plant sample to the National Herbarium of Victoria. The effort is part of the broader Entangled Knowledges initiative, which blends Menang elders’ kaartdijin with scientific and historical perspectives.
Why it matters
The repatriation restores cultural heritage to its original community and promotes collaborative knowledge sharing.
In this story
