Jimmy Chi: Hybridity and Healing
Jimmy Chi: Hybridity and Healing Introduction Jimmy Chi is the scion of a well-known and respected Broome family, a family whose fortunes fluctuated with the vicissitudes of Broome‟s history. Jimmy Chi‟s Chinese grandfather, John Chi, was a successful pearler who had arrived in Australia as a cabin boy around 1872; his Japanese grandmother, Yaie John Chi, was a businesswoman who operated a long soup shop and boarding house. His Scottish grandfather was a pastoralist, his Aboriginal grandmother a traditional Baad woman who witnessed the arrival of the Europeans in the Kimberley. His father, James Minero Chi, owned various businesses in Broome including a successful taxi service and the first postal service along the corrugated pindan road to Beagle Bay and Cape Leveque. His mother, Lily, was a member of the Stolen Generations who was raised in the Beagle Bay mission and in Broome by the St John of God nuns. As a young woman she worked as a domestic for the manager of the Bank of N.S.W. Being a devout Catholic she worked for the Catholic Church throughout her life, starting up the Bishop Raible Co-op, now the Op Shop, with her friend Rosie Lee, getting „the money together by making cakes, and cooking at the races and other things‟ (Chi, J. 2005, pers. comm., May 24). James Minero Chi Photo by Melissa McCord, in Chenery (n.d.) These intrepid individuals are among the founders of present day Broome. Their life stories personalise the facts of history. The extended Chi family exemplify the innovative attitude of people on the frontier who were prepared to take risks and embrace challenge.
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