Regenerative Histories: 2026 Tom Stannage Memorial Lecture

Explore truth-telling, collaboration and community-led research at this unmissable event. The State Library is proud to present in partnership with UWA this annual event commemorating the exceptional contribution made by Professor Tom Stannage (1944-2012), a passionate historian, teacher, and advocate for WA history and heritage. 2026 marks the bicentenary of the colonisation of Noongar Country in Kinjarling/Albany. This significant moment offers an opportunity to reflect on how we undertake this commemoration. Join Shona Coyne and Tiffany Shellam, historians and curators of Kalyagul: Connections to Menang Country exhibition for this year’s Tom Stannage Memorial Lecture. Kalyagul: Connections to Menang Country is an exhibition, at the Museum of the Great Southern , celebrating Menang people's profound connections to the land, sea and skies of the great southern and their crucial role in shaping how the region’s natural world is understood. The exhibition is a culmination of Entangled Knowledges: Kaartdijin, Science and History in the Robert Neill Collection, a collaborative research project that returned colonially disconnected knowledge to the community it came from. Reparative work is never straightforward. Returning knowledge, objects or stories is often emotional, sometimes uncomfortable, and rarely concludes with the act of return itself. However, this cross-sector, collaborative and Indigenous-governed project produced the Kaartdijin model, a framework for research as a relational, reciprocal and community-led process. Learn more about this model and their incredible work, as Shona and Tiffany ask what it means to challenge dominant narratives, for Menang people to be heard as the authority on their stories and what it looks like to create opportunities for reparative and regenerative practices. The 2026 Tom Stannage Memorial Lecture is presented by UWA in partnership with the State Library of Western Australia, as part of the State Library's Dialogues 2029 program.