A young unnamed Indigenous man stands on the deck of a boat, a pearl lugger setting out into the warm tropical waters off Australia’s Kimberley coast. He is scared and worried. Will he survive? Will he see his family or his country ever again? He is there to free dive, alone, deep into the ocean in search of the highly valued but elusive pearls, with only the air in his lungs to support him.
He is a slave, an unpaid labourer taken from his country and forced by the lugger owners to dive for pearls. He is given no protective equipment and faces many dangers such as the ‘bends’, shark attacks, or being swept away by the huge tides that exist in the area.
The pearling industry in Western Australia’s Kimberley region is long established and successful but its history has a very dark underside, the practice of ‘blackbirding’ or slavery. Although long outlawed in the British Empire by this time, slavery or ‘blackbirding’ as it is known in Australia was the mainstay of the flourishing pearl shell industry.
‘Free Diving’ is based upon the song of the same name also written by Lorrae Coffin. She wanted to remember the Indigenous men and women who worked as free divers in the pearling industry from the mid-1800s. The book’s poetic text and song’s lyrics are identical and are included at the back of the book along with the music chords.
The words are spare, emotive, raw and very moving. They are complemented by Bronwyn Houston’s evocative illustrations which capture the darkness, the lonely sadness and the dangers that permeate the story. The book and the song present in a simple and poignant way a painful yet often forgotten part of Australia’s history.
Lorrae Coffin is a descendant of the Nyiyaparli and Yindijibarndi people of the Pilbara region. Illustrator Bronwyn Houston is descended from the Wunna Nyiyaparli people of the Pilbara.
Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander Resource
