Kodj, King George’s Sound, Albany, 1831-1833, British Museum Oc.4768

This hatchet or kodj, was part of a small collection of Menang artefacts made by the Government Resident, Dr Alexander Collie, at King George’s Sound between 1831 and 1833, reflecting a continuation of encounters between local Menang people and various groups of non-Aboriginal visitors.

The kodj is a remarkable and unique tool from the south-west of Western Australia. Formed with a short wooden (Agonis flexuosa - Peppermint) handle, balga (Xanthorrhoea sp.) resin, and two stone flakes, this particular example (see figure 1) is also unique as one of the earliest known examples of a kodj from Western Australia’s south coast, and one connected to a significant inter-cultural exchange between two remarkable individuals.

The special nature of this object is embedded in four decades of earlier Aboriginal-European encounters. In 1791, George Vancouver spent two weeks mapping and recording the country around the bay that he named King George the Third’s Sound, without engaging with any local people. On leaving he left a range of ‘trinkets’ as compensation for the timber taken from country.

Over the next decade, members of English (Flinders) and French (Baudin) scientific expeditions recorded varying interactions with local people, involving the presentation of European goods. While these encounters did not result in significant material exchanges, they created a shared memory of peaceful encounter that infused subsequent dealings between local people and newcomers.

In December 1821, during Phillip Parker King’s second visit, local Menang Aboriginal people engaged enthusiastically with King and his crew in the trade of artefacts for food, clothes and other items.  King illustrated examples of a kodj, spearthrower, taap (knife) and spears (figure 2) in the published account of his expedition, in which he noted that the Menang people were reluctant to part with their everyday objects. Instead, new objects were manufactured quickly and to a lesser quality in what could be considered as Western Australia’s first instance of a trade in tourist items. Based on similar examples in the Western Australian Museum’s collection these ‘tourist’ pieces would have lacked the finesse and balance of those produced for their intended functions. Interestingly, King’s drawing of a kodj shares some of the features to kodj in the Museum’s collection, being hastily prepared, with a thin handle, oversized stone flakes and a relatively small amount of balga resin holding the pieces together.

While the maker of the kodj collected by Collie is not known, it bears a striking resemblance to the kodj (or kaoit) illustrated in King’s expedition account. It is possible that it, too, was made for trade and acquired in exchange of goods or food. Of course, the other possibility is that it was sourced through Collie’s friendship with a local Menang man, Mokare.

Mokare played a crucial role in the life of the colonial outpost that was established in King George's Sound in 1826. His open personality and willingness to learn more about the newcomers resulted in close relationships with a number of key individuals such as Major Edmund Lockyer, surgeon Isaac Scott Nind, commandant Collet Barker,  and Alexander Collie. As an intermediary between the Menang and English colonisers Mokare was a valuable source of information about the complexity of local practices, language and beliefs. He also played an important role in the friendly relations that characterised the early years of the English presence in King George's Sound.

Mokare’s friendship with Collie was close and heart felt. He regularly stayed with Collie in his hut, as he had with the former commandant of the garrison, Collet Barker, and accompanied Collie on short trips into the country surrounding King George's Sound, and assisted in the collection of botanical specimens.

When Mokare became ill in August 1831 Collie tended to him in his hut without success. Mokare passed away later the same month and was buried in a plot in what is now the site of the Albany Town Hall and according to Menang tradition. Such was Collie’s esteem for Mokare that when he fell ill on his return voyage to Britain and passed away in Albany in November 1835, his body was buried in the same plot of land as Mokare (but later relocated to a newly opened graveyard on Middleton Road, Albany).

In his will, Collie left instructions for the disbursement of his possessions, including a tin box that he bequeathed to Sir William Burnett at Haslar Hospital in Portsmouth. Burnett was an influential figure in the British Admiralty and a supporter of Collie, appointing him as the first collector for the Haslar Hospital Museum. The Museum had been established by Burnett as part of the Hospital’s education and training function giving prospective naval surgeons an opportunity to learn something of the far-flung places that they would encounter. Collie had already contributed botanical and ethnographic materials from an earlier voyage between 1825 and 1828 to the Pacific and Bering Strait. His contribution of Menang objects would have been important in representing the material culture of the south-west of Western Australia, and to the early understandings of Aboriginal peoples from Menang country.

The kodj is one of the six objects attributed to Collie. It is a small collection in comparison to the other specimens he collected, which suggests that they are likely to be the product of the close relationships Collie formed with Mokare or with other Menang contacts. We do not know the exact source of their acquisition, though it is easy to imagine that Mokare would have played some part in their collection. Either way, its place amongst Collie’s effects represents an emblem of cross-cultural connection that captures something of the special role played by Mokare and the wider Menang community in the lives of men like Collie, Issac Nind and Collet Barker at a pivotal moment in Western Australia’s history.

Figures:
1. Axe (kodj) made of stone, resin and wood, British Museum Oc.4768, Courtesy The Trustees of the British Museum.
2. Phillip Parker King, drawing of Indigenous artefacts, c.1818, pen and ink and wash on light card, 7.8 x 11.5cm (sheet), State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia.

References:
Chessell, G. 2008 Alexander Collie: Colonial Surgeon, Naturalist & Explorer. UWA Press, Crawley.
Coates, I. and A. Wishart 2016 ‘Ursurping the ancient lands: Mokare, Alexander Collie, and botanical collecting on Menang country' in Sculthorpe, Gaye & Maria Nugent eds, Yurlmun. Mokare Mia Boodja (Returning to Mokare’s Home Country), Western Australian Museum, Perth.
Mulvaney, J. and N. Green 1992 Commandant of Solitude: the journals of Captain Collet Barker, 1828-1831. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.
Shellam, T. 2009 Shaking Hands on the Fringe: Negotiating the Aboriginal World at King George’s Sound. UWA Press, Crawley.
Shellam, T. 2016 ‘Thro’ the medium of biscuits’: Phillip Parker King and the Menang, 1821 in Gaye & Maria Nugent eds, Yurlmun. Mokare Mia Boodja (Returning to Mokare’s Home Country), Sculthorpe, Western Australian Museum, Perth.
Simpson, D. 2016 'For science, friendship or personal gain? Alexander Collie and the origins of naval ethnography at Haslar Hospital Museum' in Gaye & Maria Nugent eds, Yurlmun. Mokare Mia Boodja (Returning to Mokare’s Home Country), Western Australian Museum, Perth.