Stay updated with breaking news from Kaylene Poon. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
On an evening in June 1877, on Fremantle's High Street, the life of Western Australia's first documented Chinese person came to a tragic end.
Indigenous and Asian slaves were the lifeblood of Western Australia’s early pearl industry Men carry baskets of mother-of-pearl onto a beach in Broome, Western Australia. Photo: Getty Images "Aalingoon came into the bay and lives beneath the sea," wrote late Indigenous pearl shell carver Aubrey Tigan Galiwa, quoted in Lustre, a 2018 book about the Australian pearling industry. "He comes out every full moon, when it's a big tide. As he floats on his back, as he drifts, the scales fall off his back, and turn into goowarn (pearl shells) as they drift down to the seabed below. The tides come i...