The Sydney Aboriginal man named in the letter, Carraway456 (5th line of the handwriting below), is a young Cadigal man Caruey (White Cockatoo). The historian Keith Vincent Smith gives dramatic account, in his book Bennelong457 of Bennelong’s disputes with Caruey. Accounts of Bennelong’s simultaneous relations with two wives Kururbarabulu from the Gweagal clan in Botany Bay and Barrangaroo of the tribe of Cam-mer-ray’ centred at Kayeemy (Manly Cove)458 – Cammeragal. Bennelong was of the Wangal clan459 . Kurubarabulu (Two Firesticks) had taken up with Caruey whilst Bennelong was away in London,460 The ‘murray doings’ in the letter is reportedly about the violent process Caruey and Bennelong carried out to settle their dispute about Kurubarabulu.
Barangaroo’s name is added to the song to combine with Bennelong’s martial report, … ‘I Have Not my wife’ Barangaroo reportedly Bennelong’s second wife, had died in 1791, before the letter was scribed461 . Her name recently became well known to Sydney siders, as it is the name given to a new cultural and business district that stretches along the outer Darling Harbour waterway to the harbour edge, in the busy CDB of Sydney. This site geographically accompanies the well known Bennelong point, Tubowgulle462 the site of the Sydney Opera House, where Bennelong’s hut once stood.
In the letter Bennelong thanks Mrs Phillips for nursing him in England. Keith Vincent Smith accounts from the historic records that both Bennelong and Yemmerrawarnne had fallen ill in London, and were nursed by Governor Phillip’s wife, in Eltham, where Yemmerrawarnne eventually died in 1794.
Another facet of Bennelong’s family that is relevant to this research and many Darug people today, is that Bennelong and his last wife Boorong of the Richmond clan, had a son Dicky463 , who married a young Aboriginal girl, Maria Lock in 1822. Maria was the daughter of Yarramundi the chief of Richmond. Many Darug Sydney Aboriginal people today claim Maria Lock and Yaramundi464 as matriarchal and patriarchal figures of their lineage.
The historian Keith V. Smith, and the Darug musicians Richard Green and Christopher Sainsbury have provided me with invaluable support for this research. Their relaying of this family history has enabled me to transform it into a vibrancy of musical creativity, assisted by the unique qualities of the Stuart piano sound.
456 2 Smith Mari Nawi ,37.
457 Keith V. Smith, Bennelong (Sydney: Kangaroo Press, 2001). chpt 11.
458 2 Smith, Bennelong, chpt 11.
459 2Attenbrow. .Attenbrow’s bookSydney’s Aboriginal Pastclearly illustrates the clan names, ceremonial sites and language repositories of Sydney in the 1790s.
460 3Smith, Mawi Nawi,37.
461 4 Smith, Mawi Nawi,90.
462 3 Attenbrow, 9.source: 3 William Dawes Vocabulary of language N.S Wales,361.
463 Smith,K.V (2009) Bennelong among his people Aboriginal History 33 Australian National University ed. Peter Read.
464 Naomi Parry, ‘Lock, Maria (1805-1878)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Nationa Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lock-maria-1350/text23599 ,published first in hardcopy 2005, accessed online 23rd October, 2015.