Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Yoo-long Erah-ba-diang (No. 4)

Yoo-long Erah-ba-diang (No. 4)

An account of the English colony in New South Wales with remarks on the dispositions, customs, manners, &c. of the native inhabitants of that country …, 1798
David Collins (author) and James Neagle (engraver) after unknown artist (possibly Thomas Watling)
Q79/60 v. 1, Appendix VI, pp 566–581, Engraving

A gathering of the Eora for the Yoo-long Erah-ba-diang or ‘ceremony or operation of drawing the tooth’, took place in early February 1795 at Wogganmagully (Farm Cove), now part of the Royal Botanic Gardens. In this rite of passage, boys were made men after ordeals that concluded when their upper right tooth was knocked out ...
Keith Vincent Smith, Eora: Mapping Aboriginal Sydney 1770–1850, 2006

One or two ceremonial circles?

By Keith Vincent Smith, Eora: Mapping Aboriginal Sydney 1770–1850, 2006

In his An account of the English colony in New South Wales, David Collins describes only one cleared oval area; but a close look at the engravings reveals that the artist has clearly illustrated a typical bora ring of two circles joined by a path.