Catholic Diocese of Broome

Broome identity, Sally Bin Demin, is an extremely gifted lady. Not only was she awarded NAIDOC Aboriginal Artist of the Year for her striking silk paintings glowing with the colours of the tropical earth and sea, sunrise and sunset, she has now written her story of the Broome where she grew up, in the 1940s and the 1950s.

Her story, Once in Broome, also glows, with memories of a childhood of love and freedom in a culturally mixed pearling town unique in Australia. Sally’s plan was to write her book for her family after Karen Atkinson, an English teacher at St Mary’s College who often heard her telling the students about her early life, encouraged and helped her, but it is a story for us all to enjoy and treasure. Yaja Hadrys’ brilliant photographs of the silk paintings add another dimension to this beautifully produced book.

Sally lived at Beagle Bay, then at Holy Child Orphanage with her sister, Pearl, while their mother was working, and in various houses in Broome. She tells how “we lived by the cycle of the moon, and the rhythm of the tides influenced much that happened in our lives.” Her stories are always positive and colourful; although money was short the girls and their friends went to school, fished, camped out at Reddell Beach, explored old Chinatown, celebrated the Feast Days with the St John of God Sisters, all under the care of their many aunties and uncles and other older women and men who were friends – “black, white, yellow and brown.” In Sally’s voice, it was a privileged and magical time.

Her book concludes when she was aged fourteen and went to work at Streeter and Male, where she stayed for 21 years and learned about fabrics and colours. Then she was a Teaching Assistant at Nulungu, which became St Mary’s College, for 25 years. While working in the Art Department she learned her art from Sr Helena OLM, by listening as Sister taught the students.

Now, after eight years in Adult Art Education at the Jarndu Yawuru Women’s Resource Centre, Sally is retiring to concentrate on her silk painting work at home.

Once in Broome is available from The Kimberley Bookshop in Broome at $29.95 per copy.