National Monument to Migration
Pearl diving was a dangerous and sometimes deadly occupation that relied heavily on indentured Aboriginal and Asian labour
A pearling pioneer Remembering the Manilamen
While this year marks the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Australia and the Philippines, our migrant connections date back to the second half of the 19th century, when Filipino divers (known as ‘Manilamen’) were recruited for the booming pearling industry in northern Australia. By Kim Tao.
A FREE-SPIRITED ADVENTURER, Filipino-born Telesforo Ybasco (1879–1972) loved the water. By the age of 17, he had already left his hometown of Daet, capital of the province of Camarines Norte, to travel the world on a sea freighter. In 1896 Telesforo landed in Broome, the Western Australian coastal town that by the turn of the century would become the pearling capital of the world. Telesforo was lured by the prospects of deep-sea diving for the prized Pinctada maxima, the world’s largest pearl oyster. Today the species is cultivated to produce lustrous South Sea pearls, but in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the pearling industry was centred on harvesting pearl shell for the manufacture of mother-of-pearl buttons, buckles and fine cutlery. Pearl diving was a dangerous, and sometimes deadly, occupation and the industry relied heavily on indentured Aboriginal and Asian labour. The recruitment of Japanese, Chinese, Malay and Filipino divers from the 1880s saw Broome develop into a vibrant multicultural port town. By 1910, more than 400 pearling luggers operated out of Broome, carrying crews of hard-hat divers into deeper waters, and the town supplied about 70 per cent of the world’s pearl shell. 70
Signals 135 Winter 2021
It was around this time that Telesforo Ybasco met Theresa Marques (1899–1979), who was born in Broome to a Japanese mother and a Spanish father. Despite their 20-year age difference, Telesforo courted Theresa and the couple married in 1917. Theresa’s mother Omito (Omisca) Serotame had come from Japan as a teenager. Omisca married Basilio Marques in 1896 and sadly died soon after giving birth to their daughter in Broome’s infirmary. While Basilio wanted to raise baby Theresa on his own, Catholic mores of the day prescribed that a single parent – particularly a father – was not a suitable caregiver. The broader political climate was also one of growing intolerance towards ‘coloured’ people, reflected in the passing of the Immigration Restriction Act in 1901 and expressed in the ethos of the White Australia policy. Basilio was forced to give Theresa up and she was placed in a Catholic mission at Beagle Bay, north of Broome. The mission was involved in the removal of children from Aboriginal or mixed-raced families before the Stolen Generations (1910–1970). Theresa finally left the Beagle Bay mission at the age of 17 and married Telesforo Ybasco.
