Albany 2026: Albany authors lend their voices to historical A Gift Of Truth Telling journal

Dozens of Albany writers have lent their voices to an academic journal exploring Albany’s Indigenous history and the future of reconciliation, with the volume launched this week for the city’s bicentenary.

A Gift Of Truth Telling: Notes On The Bicentenary Of Albany was launched for the general public at the Albany Public Library on Monday, following an exclusive launch for its contributors last month.

Jointly edited by Albany historian Malcolm Traill with Harry Freemantle, the journal is the 38th edition in the University of WA’s Studies in Western Australian History series and features more than 40 authors in 18 articles.

Mr Traill welcomed a small crowd to the journal’s public launch at the library on Monday, and said it was the product of about two years of work.

“The theme for Albany 2026, as you’re probably aware, is Menang First, and we thought, ‘Well, here’s a great opportunity to actually publish a scholarly journal along academic lines that focuses on Menang first, and we’ll involve as many Menang contributors as we can’,” he said.

“It’s a great feeling when you actually get something like this in your hand, and it’s a great thing for the authors as well to actually have that as a legacy for Albany 2026 because this something that will be useful for an awfully long time.

“The histories in this volume open up abundant potential for expanding and reorienting our understanding of this incredible region and how we can live in it better together.

“I’m certainly excited.”

Authors Jill Sheed and Dr Sarah Drummond both spoke at the launch on Monday, digging into the stories behind their articles in the journal.

Sheed wrote about the myth of Albany as a “friendly frontier” for settlers, as the city was labelled by historian and author Neville Green in 1983, and how history had warped the probable truth of the relationship between colonisers and Menang Noongar people.

Dr Drummond contributed a piece on the European hunting dogs introduced and then left to run wild on Breaksea Island by early sealers in Albany.

Both authors discussed their research processes for their articles, and what drew them to writing about the topic.

Albany artist Shandell Cummings created the artwork used on the journal’s front and back covers — a bright blue and green representation of the marks and reflections left by the ocean’s ebb and flow, inspired by a walk along a Bremer Bay beach.

UWA history Professor Andrea Gaynor launched the journal for its contributors and partners, and Mr Traill repeated a section of her speech to the public audience on Monday.

“Reading through this volume over the past couple of weeks has given me ample opportunity to dwell on these questions: ‘Who is the giver, and who is the recipient?’,” Professor Gaynor said.

“Gifts are complicated things, as many of us realise every year, in about mid-December.

“Gifts can be weaponised within a particular power dynamic, or they can be genuinely selfless, a pure expression of generosity and goodwill.

“They can strengthen existing ties and help build new relationships.

“In this volume, I don’t see any weaponised gifts, no Trojan horses or demands of reciprocity, but generosity and truth in great abundance. Indeed, I was really struck by the generosity of the Noongar contributors in particular.

“After all the many forms of violence and harm inflicted upon them by settlers, to offer their stories and reflections in this way is an act of humbling grace, especially so as this gift of truth-telling doesn’t demand anything in return beyond the respect of accepting the gift through listening and through reading.”