South Australian Natives.

Portraits of two South Australian aborigines.

1. Portrait of an aboriginal man, identified as Tenberry (or Tenbury), and described as ‘Chief of the Murray Bend tribes‘, taken from a  Daguerreotype photograph made before 1855. This engraving is taken from the earliest extant photograph of an Indigenous person produced in South Australia.
2. The aboriginal woman, possibly of the South Australian Murray Bend tribes taken from a  Daguerreotype photograph made before 1855.

After the explorer Edward Eyre was appointed Protector of Aborigines  between 1841-44 at Moorundie, South Australia, Tenberry became the native constable, and was credited with ending the conflict between black and white across the region. When Eyre returned to Britain in 1844 he took Tenberry’s son Warrulan with him.

References:
Ferguson, J. A. Bibliography of Australia Volumes 1-8, Canberra 1976 : 5785.

Collections:
State Library Victoria: SF 910.8 AI6
State Library New South Wales: Call Numbers: DSM/Q910/A
State Library South Australia: 910.4 b
National Library Australia: Bib ID: 174669