Bessie Malarvie Australian, Jaru, b. 1960

I was born in Kirrkimby in the NT and I grew up there and at Mistake Creek.  I started at Nicholson Station in the kitchen washing dishes and sweeping and doing the laundry. I also worked at Mistake Creek. In the 70's me and my husband came to Kununurra. We were camping at Lily Creek. Then a few years later in the 80's we shifted to Emu Creek. We started making artifacts there. My dad was teaching us and we were selling in the street in Kununurra and then through the first Waringarri. We would go out on weekends looking for boab nuts to carve and sell. My sister Kittey and I used to sell boabs so that we could buy tucker. It was a hard time but a good time.