Remembering Broome’s Indigenous pearl shell divers

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned that the following article contains the names and images of people who are now deceased.

In the second half of the 19th century, Europeans quickly realised the value of Broome's natural resources, and by the turn of the 20th century around 80 per cent of the world’s finest pearls were coming from Broome. Today, millions of dollars worth of pearls are still harvested there each year.

The existence of Broome’s Indigenous pearl divers is little-known on the eastern side of the country, so we asked Pigram, Yu and Shioji to start with a brief overview of this history.

Aboriginal people from the Saltwater Country of the west Kimberley have been collecting