On the 14th November 2017, our guest speaker, Berni Aquilina, shared about her past profession as a pearl diver in the Northern Territory and WA. Berni elaborated some details about the processing of the pearls and the life around the pearling industry at the time. Eventually, Berni transitioned to teaching/mentoring about pearling. As it turned out, teaching became her passion and Berni has continued teaching to the present day.
Berni was born in New Zealand and has lived most of her life in Australia.
Perhaps a childhood photo was an early indication that Berni was destined for a vocation at sea. Subsequently, she started her pearling career in 1984 at Broome working as a cook, deckhand and diver collecting live shell for ranching on pearl farms.
Due to the physical demands of deck work, she set her mind to becoming a pearl technician. She spent some years studying marine sciences at Murdoch University before working on a joint Australian-Japanese pearl farm off Cossack in the Pilbara.
A close friend called in a favour that resulted in Berni being trained as a pearl technician, working alongside Japanese men in Australia then travelling to Pacific Islands to seed pearls. At the time there were only five Australian pearl technicians and Berni was the only female technician. It was during this time that Berni felt compelled to share her skills with the Island women and this became the forerunner to a her current position with TAFE Western College where she manages educational delivery and supporting Foundation Skills staff across four sites.
Des provided the vote of thanks to Berni for her inspirational presentation.