It’s hard not to be intrigued by the historical figure of Biraban, the Aboriginal man who is mostly remembered by white historians for his role in helping missionary Lancelot Threlkeld compile a written account of the language of the indigenous people displaced by colonists around the Newcastle and Sydney regions of New South Wales.
When I think of Biraban I think of the challenges he faced as a boy taken from his home and family and then later obliged to watch as his people and culture suffered so terribly from the impact of European settlement. He must have been a truly remarkable man.
Had Threlkeld not met Biraban he would surely still have produced some version of the language in written form. He had done as much during his seven year stint as a missionary in Tahiti and he began his work in New South Wales with a codification of the language foremost in mind. He recorded being pleased when he discovered some of the local aboriginal people were able to speak some English. One can only imagine his delight at meeting Biraban, whose exposure to white colonial society had made him fluent. Biraban’s obvious intellect and his willingness to persevere in helping Threlkeld understand the intricacies of the indigenous language resulted in a vastly superior record being saved for posterity.
Considering his evidently remarkable character, it’s a pity that Biraban’s life history was not more fully recorded by Threlkeld, or any other literate white. He does, however, have a Wikipedia page, which is a very good starting point. Assuming we can rely on Wikipedia and its references in this case, the story goes that he was born in the Lake Macquarie area, close to modern-day Belmont, in about 1800.
Abducted in his childhood
In the 1828 returns prepared by white colonists his name is given as We-pohng. He is said to have been abducted by the whites while a child (he must have been old enough to already be fluent in his own language and customs) and taken to the military barracks in Sydney to become an assigned servant to a Captain John M. Gill, of the 46th Regiment. He is said to have remained a servant to Gill from 1814 until 1817 – when Gill returned to England. The whites called him “Johnny M’Gill”, or simply “M’Gill”, in order to identify him with his “employer”.
According to scholar Niel Gunson, We-pohng, with two other young indigenous men, was assigned to Captain Francis Allman in 1821 to help establish a new penal colony at Port Macquarie. The three young men impressed Surgeon Cunningham, who described them as powerful and intelligent, as well as being superb marksmen with firearms.
Their names having been given to these three men by the whites, they, like all our blacks, are proud to be known thereby, – the first request they make of a white being to name them.
It is worth noting that Captain Allman was commandant at Newcastle when Threlkeld arrived there in 1825. It was he who made the government cottage available to Threlkeld and it seems probable he may have introduced Threlkeld to M’Gill. Threlkeld’s reminiscences suggest that Biraban/M’Gill assisted him from about 1825. It is speculated that the young man formerly known as We-pohng was given the name Biraban after some form of tribal ceremony, indicating his totemic relationship with the eaglehawk. Threlkeld included a tribute to Biraban in his book on the language. Although patronising, it is worth quoting.
An aboriginal of this part of the colony was my almost daily companion for many years and to his intelligence I am principally indebted for much of my knowledge respecting the structure of the language. Biraban was his native name, meaning “an eagle hawk” but the English called him M’Gill.
Both himself and Patty his wife were living evidences that there was no innate deficiency of intellect in either of them. He had been brought up from his childhood in the military barracks, Sydney, and he understood and spoke the English language well. He was much attached to us and faithful to a chivalrous extreme. We never were under apprehensions of hostile attacks when M’Gill and his tribe encamped nigh our dwelling.
In his half-yearly mission report in June 1826, Threlkeld described some of the activities of “the person who assisted me with the language”, whom he was already naming “Be-rah-bahn”. At one point during the year Biraban had gone “to the mountains with upwards of 60 spears to exchange for opposum cord made of the fur, and also to engage in some superstitious ceremony, the exact nature of which I could not ascertain”. Biraban apparently “slept with two other Blacks on the grave of a recently buried girl:
from sunsetting to sun rising for the purpose of obtaining “The Bone”, the mystic bone used in the mystic ring, and supposed to be in the abdomen of certain persons skilled in curing sickness and in knocking out the teeth with the bone without pain to the sufferer. – That in the night the spirit of the girl came to them and gave one of them The Bone. Asking if he saw the spirit, he said no, it was in a dream, no one could see it except the person who had the bone. After extraction of the tooth the Blacks must not eat wild fowl and several sorts of fish until a certain number of times have revolved when after another ceremony they are fully allowed to eat what they please.
A few weeks back Be-rah-bahn returned from a ceremony performed in the mountains, which has initiated him into all the rights of an Aborigine. It appears that they burn a large part of the country, then hunt for kangaroos, feast upon the shank bones only, after which they pipe clay themselves all over and then everyone must rush at once into the water and wash themselves clean. They then return to the women, who are not admitted to see the ceremony, but who are kept at some distance in the charge of an old man.
In 1829, in a letter to a colleague, Threlkeld described his progress in his linguistic work, part of which “I hope to complete this year, if M’gill the Black would but remain more constantly with me”. In later years Threlkeld was to refer to McGill as “my Tutor”.
James Agate, a member of the American Exploring Expedition, drew Biraban’s portrait in 1839. Agate wrote of Biraban that:
His physiognomy was more agreeable than that of the other blacks, being less strongly marked with the peculiarities of his race. He was about the middle size, of a dark chocolate colour with fine glossy black hair and whiskers, a good forehead, eyes not deeply set, a nose that might be described as aquiline – although depressed and broad at the base. It was very evident that McGill was accustomed to teach his native language for when he was asked the name of anything he pronounced the word very distinctly, syllable by syllable, so that it was impossible to mistake it. Though he is acquainted with the doctrines of Christianity and all the comforts and advantages of civilization it was impossible for him to overcome his attachment to the customs of his people and he is always a leader in the corroborees and other assemblies.
According to Wikipedia, Biraban had married Ti-pah-mah-ah, with whom he had one son, Ye-row-wa. Presumably Ti-pah-mah-ah is the woman Threlkeld calls “Patty”.
I have seen M’Gill and Patty his wife in all the playfulness of pure affection . . . and Patty . . . too be . . . much displeased when another hand-maiden usurped her legitimate place in the affections of her lord.
Biraban was also artistically gifted:
M’Gill, a noble specimen of his race, my companion and teacher in the language for many years . . . could take a very good drawing of vessels especially. When the first steamboat arrived in the colony, the “Sophia Jane”, I requested him to give me a description of it. This he did verbally, and when I required of him a representation, he drew with a pencil on a sheet of paper an excellent sketch of the vessel.
Biraban travelled widely as an emissary:
Several of the blacks belonging to this district, headed by M’gill, are travelling to Windsor, Parramatta, and Sydney in order to teach other tribes a new song and dance which have been lately brought down from the regions beyond Liverpool Plains.
Missionaries James Backhouse and G. W. Walter visited Threlkeld at Ebenezer in April 1836 and described their encounter with McGill, who acted as their guide.
McGill was dressed in a red striped cottonshirt not very clean; a pair of ragged trowsers and an old hat: he had a brass plate, half-moon shaped, suspended around his neck with a brass chain and engraven with his english and native name and a declaration of his kingly dignity. He readily offered to carry our parcels for us, in addition to a young puppy of his own which he bore on his shoulder until we were a mile out of town; and as we passed one of their huts he pulled off his shirt which he left that he might be less encumbered on his journey of 26 miles.
The brass plate described above was presented to Biraban in 1830. The Sydney Gazette reported the presentation of the plaque, which took place at the annual conference with the natives at the marketplace at Parramatta, remarking that poor weather on the day meant the number of attendees was fewer than usual. About noon on January 6 the Governor met “269 Aboriginal natives, including women and children” who “were assembled to partake of the usual treat of roast beef and pudding, &c, with which they were plentifully supplied, together with a reasonable quantum of grog. The ground was roped in for the occasion, and decorated with a profusion of shrubs”.
The chiefs of the tribes were noticed in the kindest manner by His Excellency, who placed a badge of distinction on the neck of one of them, and personally took care that their wants were supplied with every thing which had been provided for the feast. At the conclusion of the repast, blankets, hats, handkerchiefs, jackets, trowsers, and tobacco were plentifully distributed; and after The Governor and his immediate attendants had retired, Lieut. Darling prevailed on the blacks to indulge the spectators with a dance, or corrobora, which ended the day’s amusements.
A native Chief, of the name of Barabahn, has resided for a considerable time with the Rev. Mr. Threlkeld at Lake Macquarie, and by his intelligence and steady application has been of great service to Mr. T. in his endeavours to reduce the Aboriginal language to a grammatical form. Of the honourable proficiency which that gentleman has made in his arduous undertaking, he attributes no small share to the assistance afforded him by Barabahn; and having reported this to the Governor, His Excellency was pleaded to confer upon the Chief, in the presence of his numerous countrymen, a badge of distinction, consisting of a brass plate bearing this inscription — “Barabahn, or Mac Gil, Chief of the Tribe at Bartabah, on Lake Macquarie ; a Reward for his assistance in reducing his Native Tongue to a written Language.” In suspending this badge upon the breast of the Chief, His Excellency commended his laudable conduct, and expressed the pleasure he felt in thus rewarding it.
On the subject of the brass plaques, Agate wrote in 1839 that:
The natives had no distinction of rank among themselves, but when a native had performed any great service for one of the settlers, he was rewarded by giving him a large oval brass plate, with his royal title inscribed thereon. At first the natives were greatly pleased and proud of this mark of distinction, but as is the case everywhere, when the novelty was over, and these honorary medals became common, they began to hold them in disrepute and now prefer the hard silver.
Also with the group was another Aboriginal man named Boatman, aged about 18. The two guides told the whites that their wives were dead. The men were described as having “few marks on their bodies from ornamental cutting, but had a few from wounds received in fighting.” McGill had his nose and part of his cheeks painted, or rather besmeared, with ruddle. He is a very intelligent man, and has been useful to L.E. Threlkeld in assisting him in the attainment of the aboriginal tongue.
McGill and Boatman showed the white men how to find native honey and told them how the stem of the giant lily was prepared for eating. He also told the whites that the indigenous people were badly affected by venereal disease.
McGill says he thinks his people had it before they became acquainted with the white men, and this view is somewhat supported by the fact, according to the same informant, of their having a native remedy, which they apply externally, in a hot and fluid state; it consists of the red-gum that exudes from the Blood-tree, a species of Eucalyptus that abounds in the forests we passed through today. Both McGill and Boatman are great smokers, and having but one pipe between them, they did not give it much rest by the way. I am sorry to say that McGill has also learned to like strong drink and is too apt to become inebriated when he has the opportunity of indulging this baneful propensity.
By 1836 Threlkeld was teaching two boys, named Little M’Gill and Billy Blue.
The elder M’Gill, from whom the lad has, according to custom, received his name, seldom visits me. He displays his knowledge at Newcastle Town, where drink has attractions far more strong that my study possesses at the Lake.
By 1838 M’gill and his tribe were employed at “a job of burning off, for which 6 of them receive daily rations of tea, sugar, tobacco, flour and beef, with the promise of clothes when the work is completed”.
In 1842 the explorer Ludwig Leichhardt saw Biraban, in company with another Aboriginal man named Gorman, and described Biraban borrowing some embers and a kettle to cook some “doughboys”, before stretching out to sleep under a tree.
Biraban died on April 14, 1846, at Newcastle. His brief obituary in the Family Notices section of The Sydney Morning Herald read:
DIED: At Newcastle, on the 14th April, M’Gill, the aboriginal native well known a few years back at the Supreme Court as assistant interpreter in several cases in which the aborigines were tried for capital offences. He was a living witness against the assertion of the French Phrenologists, “that the blacks of this colony were physically incapable of instruction, from organic malformation”.
Much of the information in this blog post comes from the two volume Australian Reminiscences & Papers of Lancelot Threlkeld, edited by Niel Gunson (Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1974).
