Pearling has been an Aboriginal practice for thousands of years in North West Aboriginal Land. The shells are commonly called Riji, a word that originates from the Bardi & Yawuru language from Rubibi1 Broome in Western Australia.
Riji are pearl shells carved with cultural designs and decorated with ochre and are worn as cultural objects. They traded along songlines across the Continent as far south as the Ikara2 Flinders Ranges in South Australia which is 2,500km away from the North Coast of Western Australia.
Riji shells were also traded with Makassan fishermen from Sulawesi in Indonesia for hundreds of years until the introduction of the White Australia Policy in the 1900's.
REFERENCES
http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p72701/pdf/article125.pdf
Our illustration references the work of Sebastian Arrow
Rubibi is the Indigenous name for Broome in the Yawuru language.
Ikara is the name for the Flinders Ranges in the Adnyamathanha language.