When the National Trust of Western Australia invited Community Arts Network to be their producing partner for a Menang-led cultural mapping project, it felt like a perfect match. 

Titled Mapping Menang, this seminal new project will see the two organisations work together to amplify the Menang culture, stories and traditions that are embedded in Country at Albany’s historic Strawberry Hill at Barmup site. 

It’s the kind of work we love doing here at CAN, and that we've been doing for decades now – using cultural mapping processes to create community-led artworks that physically and metaphorically map the layers of language, knowledge, stories and culture that exist in the landscape.

What we didn’t realise at the outset of the Mapping Menang project was how beautifully the values and motivations of the National Trust and CAN would complement one another.

'We're both storytellers. That is fundamental to the approach that we need to take with this project.'

Julian Donaldson, CEO National Trust of WA

“We're both storytellers,” observes Julian Donaldson, the National Trust of WA’s CEO. “That is fundamental to the approach that we need to take with this project. We’re also both organisations that are very experienced in the practice of collaboration and community engagement.”

That might come as a surprise to those who aren’t familiar with the scope of the National Trust’s remit. Working at the intersection between landscape and people, the organisation’s core purpose is to shape Western Australia’s identity by awakening the community to the value of heritage. 

And for the National Trust that word “heritage” is about more than history; it’s about our sense of identity and belonging, revealing where we’ve come from so that we can better understand our place in the world. And it’s about the sense of well-being that comes from having a sense of belonging.

The relationship between having a sense of belonging and our sense of well-being also underpins CAN’s projects; another point of connection between our two organisations. 

Many of CAN’s projects – in particular Place Names, Noongar Lullabies and Unfinished Business – are grounded in the importance of preserving Noongar culture and language, so that it can be handed on to future generations.

Similarly, the National Trust frames heritage as being as much about the present and the future as the past. “That's why our education program is so important,” says Julian. “It not only helps people learn about where we've come from, but it helps us respect the significance around the places that previous generations have left for us. It's our role to care for those so that they're passed on to the next generation.”

In spite of all these points of intersection, Mapping Menang marks the first time that CAN and the National Trust have partnered.

The seeds of that partnership were sown back in 2018, when CAN worked with the Menang community to produce Place Names Albany, a project researching and celebrating the meanings of the original Noongar names of places in the Albany area.

It was just a few years later that the National Trust began conversations with the Menang community about how they wished to mark the 2026 bicentenary of the arrival of European colonisers on Menang land. One of their suggestions was to create a map depicting Menang Country pre-colonisation.

“I carried that request for a long time,” recalls Julian. “Back then the whole idea of cultural mapping was quite undeveloped in the heritage area and we weren't able to land on a partner we thought would be a good organisation to work with.”

Then 18 months ago, Menang woman Denien Toomath was seconded from the State Library of WA to the National Trust. When she heard that the Menang Elders had asked to create a map, she immediately suggested CAN as a partner. 

Julian wasted no time in contacting CAN and setting up a meeting with the team. 

“We hit upon this idea that we could both do this project together and subsequently we developed a joint proposal to Lotterywest, which was successful,” he says.

“And here we are, about to engage the Menang community in a really profound project which we think will be transformative for that community.”

Pictured Top: Menang Elder Uncle Lester Coyne, photographed during the Place Names Albany project // credit Rafael Baro