Tiny Treasures 2
Worth
June is the month of the pearl. They were used before cut and faceted stones and recorded as early as 2300 BC as gift bestowed to Chinese royalty. Romans restricted pearls from lower classes as they were considered so valuable, similar to how diamonds are restricted today. Film and the culture that surround it have imbued pearls with a sense of class and elegant glamour and symbolically they have been linked to attributes such as loyalty, generosity, integrity and purity.
When we say someone is a ‘pearl’ we mean to say they are rare and of great worth. Now that they are widely cultured the rarity can be questioned, their worth is dependent on where they are from and how perfect their surface nacre is.
The worth of one person being weighed more over another seems like an old, unfair and out-dated historical fact.
George Floyd was murdered nearly a month ago and the world has rightly imploded since then. With Trump being elected in America it has been clear that racist ideals did not die with the end of slavery. Over the past month the Black Lives Matter Movement and the amplification of minority voices has helped us see just how systematic and ingrained racism is. Not just in America but also in Australia. This shouldn’t have had to be pointed out to me or other white people.
I grew up in South Africa, a country torn apart by apartheid. An intended consequence as the name suggests. The negotiation to end apartheid started in 1990 and ended in 1994. I was born in 1993 and yet my childhood was still worlds apart from black children my age. Because the entire nation was changing, laws had to be rewritten, new presidents and leaders were given opportunities, I suppose we were all aware of race and the discrepancies between black and white. Australia isn’t like that. Race and cultural difference isn’t really discussed but tucked away. In WA Indigenous people are imprisoned 9 times more than black people were during apartheid.
People aren’t pearls and one is not worth more than another because of where they come from or what they look like.
A percentage of any sale made from the Tiny Treasures collection will go to Sisters Insides Inc, a charity that helps women who are or have been incarcerated. It is based in Queensland but has recently helped turn over laws in WA that send people with no criminal convictions directly to jail for unpaid fines. Single Aboriginal mothers make up the majority of these incarcerated individuals as they have no capacity to pay the fines. They are imprisoned for minor fines because they cannot afford to pay them.
Image credit: Fresco from the Palace of Constantine in Trier. Fourth century A.D. Episcopal Museum, Trier