1. Territorial Boundaries & Coastal Granitic Topography

The Minang Sovereign Subnation (Meenang, Menang, W2 in AIATSIS classification) held unceded custodial jurisdiction over the rugged southern granitic coast, deep fjords, and estuarine embayments of King George Sound (Menang Boodja).^[1] Minang territory extends from the Denmark River and Wilson Inlet in the west, eastward past Albany to Two Peoples Bay and Cape Riche where it transitions to Goreng and Wudjari territory, reaching inland to the foot of the Porongurup Range.^[1][2]

Custodial stewardship was distributed among distinct coastal and valley clan estates (kalla-boodja):
Kinjarling (Albany): The sheltered harbour domain encompassing Princess Royal Harbour, Mount Clarence (Corndarup), and Mount Melville (Koolyanobbing).^[2][3]
Kalgan-borung: The rich riverine estate controlling the tidal reaches and freshwater pools of the Kalgan River (Tjmaran).^[3][4]
Torndirrup Granite Coast: The wind-scoured southern granitic peninsula possessing sacred blowholes, wave-cut platforms, and muttonbird rookeries.^[4][5]

2. Marine Engineering: The Oyster Harbour Stone Fish Weirs

The Minang people executed one of the most sophisticated monumental stone marine engineering projects in Australia at Oyster Harbour (Weelara), situated at the mouth of the Kalgan River.^[5] Documented in 1803 by French expeditioners and in 1831 by naval surgeon Scott Nind, the complex consists of hundreds of metres of semicircular granite stone walls built across intertidal shallows.^[5][6]

At high tide, schools of sea mullet, salmon, and whiting swam over the submerged stone barriers to feed in the mangrove and seagrass shallows.^[6][7] As the tide ebbed, Minang fishermen closed narrow sluice gaps with woven melaleuca hurdles, stranding thousands of fish in shallow stone pounds where they were selectively harvested.^[7][8] The stone weirs represent intensive, cooperative aquaculture governed by strict conservation laws that ensured continuous fish runs without depleting marine biomass.^[8][9]

3. Diplomatic Jurisprudence & The Legacy of Mokare

When British troops under Major Edmund Lockyer established a military garrison at King George Sound in December 1826, the Minang leadership enacted a sophisticated diplomatic policy led by Mokare and his brothers Nakina and Yuran.^[10] Rather than entering into military conflict, Mokare engaged with Lockyer, Surgeon Scott Nind, and later Captain Collet Barker as an equal diplomatic sovereign.^[10][11]

Mokare facilitated cross-cultural mediation, explaining Minang customary law, kinship networks, and burning cycles, while firmly defending his people's rights to their traditional camping grounds and fish traps.^[11][12] Nind's resulting 1831 publication in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society remains one of the earliest and most accurate primary ethnographies of First Nations life in Australia, directly reflecting Mokare's intellectual authority.^[12][13]

4. Colonisation, Institutional Confinement & Sovereign Continuity

Following the formal incorporation of Albany into the Swan River Colony in 1831, pastoralists and whalers expanded throughout Minang territory, disrupting ancestral kangaroo drives and exhausting seal and muttonbird colonies.^[14] Despite this disruption, Minang families adapted by working in the bay whaling industry, where their peerless seamanship and knowledge of whale migrations made them invaluable whaleboat crews.^[14][15]

In the twentieth century, Minang children were subjected to institutional removal to missions such as the Carrolup Native Settlement and Marribank.^[15][16] However, Minang custodians never surrendered their connection to King George Sound and the Kalgan River.^[16][17] Under the binding precedents of Mabo [No 2]* and modern international declarations, Minang sovereign title to their ancestral waters, islands, and granitic headlands remains unbroken, legitimate, and unceded.^[17][18]