{"id":763000,"date":"2026-06-27T04:32:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T04:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/763000\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T04:32:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T04:32:25","slug":"portrait-exhibition-showcases-stories-of-southern-was-menang-elders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/763000\/","title":{"rendered":"Portrait exhibition showcases stories of southern WA’s Menang elders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aunty Vernice Gillies describes the attachment she feels when visiting a site of ancient local fish traps as like “an umbilical cord”.<\/p>\n

A Menang elder from Albany, on Western Australia’s south coast, she relishes the peacefulness of the landscape.<\/p>\n

“Because she, our Boodja [land], has been healed by all the right people,” she said.<\/p>\n

“You can feel it when you just sit and breathe deeply.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Vernice Gillies feels a close attachment to the fish traps. (Supplied: Nic Duncan)<\/p>\n

This profound connection to country is what photographer Nic Duncan was aiming to capture for the Menang-led portrait exhibition Binalup, Menang | First Light, First People, part of ongoing celebrations for Albany’s bicentenary.<\/p>\n

The exhibition features the portraits of 29 elders and younger Menang people, photographed in places significant to them.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Olivia Roberts was photographed at special place on Mount Melville. (Supplied: Nic Duncan)<\/p>\n

It also showcases the stories of elders whose lives, experiences and contributions have largely been absent from the historical record.<\/p>\n

“They weren’t high-profile people, but they helped build this region and this state,” Menang elder Carol Petterson said.<\/p>\n

“Their names and their stories matter.”<\/p>\n

The framed portraits will be accompanied by captions from each participant’s own words, drawn from their recorded interviews.<\/p>\n

Campfire conversations<\/p>\n

The project began as a conversation around a campfire, and grew into a two-year collaboration between Duncan, an award-winning photographer, and Aunty Carol.<\/p>\n

“I’d just finished reading Aunty Carol’s book that week \u2026 and suddenly there I was camping on country with her in the places that she’d written about,” Duncan said.<\/p>\n

“She was pointing bent, gnarled fence posts out to me, that her father likely hammered into the ground, and showed me bush food and her totem plants.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Nic Duncan and Carol Petterson\u00a0have been collaborating on this project for the past two years. (ABC Great Southern: Astrid Volzke)<\/p>\n

The conversation turned to the bicentenary.<\/p>\n

“After the last referendum on the Voice, it was an overwhelming no,” Aunty Carol said.<\/p>\n

“So when the bicentenary was announced, a lot of local people didn’t want a part of it and they were angry.<\/p>\n

“The City [of Albany] thankfully set up a reference group and it gave a platform for people to air their discomfort or their dissatisfaction with the city, but slowly we got around to it.”<\/p>\n

Personal accounts<\/p>\n

With each participant selecting their own personally significant location, Duncan said the challenge was to honour both the individual and their connection to place.<\/p>\n

This included a powerful childhood story from Aunty Treasy Woods.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Nic Duncan photographs Vali Wood on the banks of the Kalgan River, with five generations of family in one portrait. (Supplied: Nic Duncan)<\/p>\n

“She talks of her grandfather taking her to a particular place on Marine Drive [in Albany] and the story of what happened there,” Duncan said.<\/p>\n

“When we went back to that spot, I asked if she could remember how she felt as a seven-year-old girl. She just looked away, and she was just right back in that place, and I think I caught that.<\/p>\n

“It was a special moment.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Treasy Woods looks out from a special place on Marine Drive. (Supplied: Nic Duncan)<\/p>\n

Another portrait features Aunty Lynette Knapp at Mount Melville.<\/p>\n

“My portrait is taken where our tin hut was, and being back here now, it feels like home,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I lived here on the Mount Melville reserve for many years from the age of 12.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Lynette Knapp at the exact location on Mount Melville where her family’s hut once stood on the reserve. (Supplied: Nic Duncan)<\/p>\n

For Aunty Carol, it was Barmah, or Strawberry Hill Farm, where her family would have camped before the settlers came.<\/p>\n

Lasting legacy<\/p>\n

Elders will take a digital version of the exhibition into local schools, sharing their stories directly with young people.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s up to us elders to go into schools and talk about our pride in being Aboriginal,” Aunty Vernice said.<\/p>\n

“We know most of the kids’ family backgrounds, and when we start telling them who they’re connected to, they start making the connections too.”<\/p>\n

Aunty Carol hopes the collection will become an enduring local community resource.<\/p>\n

“Whether we put it in a museum or whether we put it somewhere, we’ve got to find a home for it so that people can readily access it for research,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Previously, people had to go to the state library or somewhere else because they simply couldn’t find this information. Now we’ll have it here.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Anthony Turner was born and raised on Menang Country and has special memories of Binalup where he chose to be photographed. (Supplied: Nic Duncan)<\/p>\n

Anthony Turner was born and raised on Menang Country and has special memories of Binalup, where he chose to be photographed.<\/p>\n

He works as an Indigenous employment adviser for Kmart and Target in Queensland, and is among the younger people featured in the exhibition.<\/p>\n

He wants young Indigenous people to dream big.<\/p>\n

“I hope my career journey inspires others,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You can have a sense of belonging with your people as well as having a meaningful and fulfilling career.”<\/p>\n

The exhibition Binalup, Menang | First Light, First People, will be on display at the Albany Town Hall from June 26 until July 26.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aunty Vernice Gillies describes the attachment she feels when visiting a site of ancient local fish traps as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":763001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[40358,29947,11480,64,63,292264,134,29946,363973,363976,363974,363975,76076,24677,45],"class_list":["post-763000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-albany","tag-albany-news","tag-art","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-elders","tag-entertainment","tag-great-southern-news","tag-menang","tag-menang-aunties","tag-menang-noongar","tag-nic-duncan-photography","tag-portraits","tag-stories","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=763000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/763001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}