The State Library of Western Australia was alive with guests from across the state on May 21 — including cultural leaders, dignitaries, exhibition contributors, and artists — gathered for the opening of Kinjarling Djinnang Ngalak: Country Sees Us.

Sparked by Albany’s 200-year bicentenary, the powerful new exhibition shares Menang Noongar perspectives, stories and lived experience, deeply connected to place, culture and community. The exhibition asks visitors to encounter Kinjarling not as a backdrop to history, but as a living landscape with its own voice and memory.

The opening evening brought a sense of celebration alongside meaningful reflection, as guests connected, learned, and honoured First Nations voices and the enduring cultural knowledge of Country.

The exhibition features stories that have been recorded to add important new layers of meaning to the largely colonial maps, photographs and illustrations in the State Library’s collection.

Visitors to the free exhibition will step into a quiet 6-metre-wide dome inspired by a kornt (a traditional shelter) to hear the Elders’ stories. These include reflections by Carol Pettersen, Lester Coyne, Mark Colbung, Vernice Gillies, Doreen Hancox, Sharralyn Maddren and a young Menang ranger, Cleve Humphries.