Nouvelle-Hollande. Gnoung-A-Gnoung-A, Mour-Re-Mour-Ga. (des Collins)

Rare engraving portrait by Nicholas-Martin Petit’s commanding depiction of Gnoung-A Gnoung-A is a fitting depiction of the man. Gnoung-A Gnoung-A, like Bennelong, was one of the notable Port Jackson Aborigines who embraced the European settlers. In 1792 he sailed on the Daedelus across the Pacific and became the first Aboriginal Australian to travel to North America and one of the most widely travelled of his compatriots. Gnoung-A Gnoung-A was known to the Sydney settlers as ‘Collins’, name acknowledged in the plate title.

Gna.na.gna.na, Gnung-a Gnung-a Murremurgan, or Anganángan was called ‘Collins’ by the English colonists, after he exchanged names with Judge Advocate David Collins. He married Bennelong’s pretty sister, Warreeweer. While Bennelong was in England during 1793-94, Gnung-a Gnung-a sailed across the Pacific on the store ship HMS Daedalus to Norfolk Island, Nootka Sound (Vancouver) and Hawaii, where King Kamehameha unsuccessfully offered to buy him. In December 1795 Gnung-a Gnung-a was crippled by a spear in the back, thrown by Pemulwuy. He survived, but was found dead behind the Dry Store (the present Sirius Park, near Bridge Street) in January 1809.
Francois Peron’s ‘Voyage de Decouvertes aux Terre d’Australes’.