The Burden and the Blessing

Edith Wright grew up listening to stories about her great-grandfathers, Harry Hunter and Jules Adrien D’Antoine, two white men from Europe came to rule the pearling industry at its peak in northwest Australia. Between then, they changed the social and cultural fabric of the Kimberley region for generations to come, fathering many mixed-race children and gaining reputations for violent and exploitative behaviour towards Bardi Jawi people. These two men and their Aboriginal children lived complicated, difficult lives during an era of intense surveillance and social control of Aboriginal people in Western Australia. The Blessing and the Burden gives a rare insight into the cosmopolitan hub of Broome during the heyday of the pearling and boat-building industries. Using eyewitness accounts and archival records, it describes the bombing of Broome in World War II, the impact of leprosy and the Bungarun leprosarium in Derby, and the rapid development of the infrastructure of the north from the perspective of a descendant of a complex legacy. Edith confronts the painful and challenging histories of her family and of two white men who changed the face of the Kimberley forever.