Two-way Science: Assembling Ichthyology, Nyungar Knowledge and History in Robert Neill’s Fish collection
The Team: A/Prof Tiffany Shellam
It’s an interdisciplinary project where we’ve got historians, fish scientists, curators and Menang Indigenous knowledge holders in Albany, WA.
We are unpacking together this historical fish collection that was caught by Nyungar men in the 1840s and they were preserved and stored in Edinburgh, where they are now in the National Museum of Scotland. With these specimens, manuscript notes and historical sketches of the fish, we tried to understand the Indigenous knowledge that is held within them and also the scientific knowledge that is captured from that time as well.
I think it’s really exciting to have this richness of different ways of exploring one particular historical collection.
One of the major challenges (and opportunities) is to think about how I explain myself beyond my discipline, so communicating in a much more lateral way. It’s been such a great opportunity to meet all these different people and other areas that I wouldn’t normally contact. We actually found we’ve got a lot in common; our interests are very similar though we are in different disciplines. It’s been really, really wonderful and I feel like it’s a very exciting new beginning, this moment in my career, to work in this way. It’s great.
The Team: A/Prof Tiffany Shellam (co-investigator, pictured)
A collaboration with Menang Nyungar Knowledge holders, Deakin School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Western Australian Museum, University of Western Australia, National Museum of Scotland.