Portrait of Oui-ré-kine, who sailed to Bass Strait on the LADY NELSON with James Grant

A portrait by Nicholas-Martin Petit, depicting Oiu-ré-kine (Wárrgan/Worogan), a young woman from Port Jackson who, together with her husband Yeranibe (Euranabie), had sailed with James Grant on the Lady Nelson. The portrait is taken from the first edition of Baudin’s voyage account; the table of contents of the second edition confirms that Ou-ré-kine is from “des environs du Port Jackson”.

Wárrgan – “crow” – was a relative of Bennelong and she was, moreover, one of the small circle of Sydney Aborigines to associate with William Dawes, notably in his attempt to compile a vocabulary.

An exhibition of the Eora held at the State Library of New South Wales noted that Wárrgan married Yeranibe, son of Maugoran and Goorooberra. Significantly, Grant’s narrative of the voyage of the Lady Nelson includes several descriptions of Wárrgan and her husband Yeranibe, both of whom were guests on board the vessel for the voyage to Jervis Bay and beyond; they were taken on board, as Grant noted, because they ‘spoke English tolerably well.’ Grant, for example, notes at one point, that when ‘Euranabie and his wife came on board the vessel, at Sydney, they both of them received clothing; but when the weather proved warm, the woman threw aside her gown and petticoat, and preferred appearing in the state of nature, or slightly covered with a blanket.’