This item includes images, audio/visual recordings and/or names of deceased people that may cause sadness or distress to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The original portrait of Biraban was drawn by artist Mr Alfred T. Agate on the The U.S. Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842. It was drawn around December 1839 when members were in the Hunter Region and paid a visit to Reverend Lancelot Threlkeld who was living at Lake Macquarie. See Ref: Wilkes, Charles. Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition.Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1845. Background: www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/usexex/learn/Philbrick.htm The report appears in Volume 2 pp.245-256 which documents a visit to Newcastle and Lake Macquarie, meeting with Dr Brooks, Threlkeld and Biraban (M'Gill) See also Threlkeld, L.E. Australian Reminiscences & Papers of L.E.Threlkeld, Missionary to the Aborigines, 1824-1859. 2 vols, ed. Niel Gunson. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1974. Mr Hale and Mr Agate, who visited Threlkeld's mission in December 1839 said 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 M'Gill was accustomed to teach his native language, for when he was asked the name of any thing, he pronounced the word very distinctly, syllable by syllable, so that it was impossible to mistake it. Though 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 prominent leader in the corrobories and other assemblies" - Gunson (p.6) Agate, Alfred T. (1812-1846), portrait and botanical artist on the United States Exploring Expedition under Capt. Charles Wilkes, was the son of English parents in New York state, and trained as a miniaturist. In 1832 he became an associate of the National Academy· of Design. His studies of the Aboriginals at Lake Macquarie included a portrait of M'Gill. He died at Washington, D.C., in January 1846. - Gunson (p.317) The original art portrait drawn by Agate has not been located except for the copy that appears in Wilkes' book. Another version of it appears in the frontispiece of the Rev Lancelot Threlkeld's A Key to the Structure of the Aboriginal Language Sydney [1850] published eight years after Biraban's death on the 14th April 1846. This version is scanned from the original copy of the work in our collections. Image courtesy of University of Newcastle's Special Collections Auchmuty Library. This image can be used for study and personal research purposes. If you wish to reproduce this image for any other purpose you must obtain permission by contacting the University of Newcastle's Special Collections.