Menang Noongar and the Sea

Join Adam Wolfe and Harley Coyne to explore the Menang Noongar people’s relationship with the sea and the region's estuaries and rivers. Beginning with accounts of past sea level rise following the end of the last ice age and the formation of the current Albany coastline, the talk will discuss the understanding and use of the region's rich maritime resources in the context of the wider Menang economy, society, and culture. This will range from drift whaling to fishing technology, from trade to the movement of peoples. Previous accounts of this important history have been fragmented. This talk aims to provide a more connected and broader view that acknowledges that past attitudes and understanding of what constitutes a maritime culture have greatly limited understanding of the Noongar Menang's practical and spiritual experience of the sea and the waters that flow into it.