Two versions of a caricature portrait of "Magill" by convict artist Richard Browne, c1819
Biraban, aka M’Gill: witness to tragic times
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…
