Shona Coyne & Tiffany Shellam – Fish Encounters & Entangled Knowledges on Menang Country

Global Encounters 2021 Symposium, 6-8 December 2021 Wednesday 8 December 2021 – Indian Ocean Encounters Session 7. ‘Fish Encounters and Entangled Knowledges on Menang Country’ by Ms Shona Coyne, National Museum of Australia, and Associate Professor Tiffany Shellam, Deakin University This presentation discusses a new interdisciplinary and collaborative project governed by the Albany Heritage Reference Group Aboriginal Corporation, which aims to unsettle the dominant ‘western science’ framework in a historical fish collection from Menang Nyungar Country, in Albany, Western Australia. This collection was made by Robert Neill, a Scottish-born commissariat officer, in 1841. Neill worked, fished and talked with Menang fisher-people, and together they co-produced a unique collection of fish specimens, marsupials, material culture and a portfolio of sketches. This collection, now held across National Museums Scotland and the Natural History Museum in London, holds rich Menang knowledge, stories and fishing practices. Here we discuss the approach and methodology of our project, and the opportunities that come from working in a collaborative cross-cultural and interdisciplinary team.