She walked through the colony naked, dined at Government House and when a convict was flogged before her, she was so horrified, she threatened the man wielding the scourge.
Barangaroo stood her ground and lived on her own terms. The Aboriginal woman is centre stage in I Am Eora, a major theatre and music performance piece commissioned for the Sydney Festival.
Epic ... director Wesley Enoch on the set of I Am Eora.Credit: Tamara Dean
''Barangaroo offers a real image of a real resistance to the colony without rejecting it or roaring against it,'' director and co-writer Wesley Enoch says.
Barangaroo is one of three Aboriginal figures in the piece, together with Pemulwuy, who fought against the white arrivals, and Bennelong, who forged contacts with them. The two men are often seen as the two archetypes of indigenous experience, Enoch says.
''There's the warrior, who resists things and fights, and the person who participates and is part of it. They are the two political poles we often find ourselves in,'' he says.
Barangaroo offers another way, Enoch says. Her story is not as widely known as that of the two men. Indeed, for many non-indigenous people, her name has become synonymous with prized Sydney waterfront real estate.
''Barangaroo is less acknowledged by non-indigenous people and therefore her complexity can still be seen,'' Enoch says. ''Pemulwuy and Bennelong have been elevated almost to legendary status rather than real people in the public's mind.''
While Bennelong - Barangaroo's husband - has also lent his name to Sydney's waterfront, his story remains problematic for Kooris.
''Bennelong is a complicated figure for Aboriginal people,'' Enoch says. ''Is he the first sell-out of his own people or is he the great reconciler? Pemulwuy is quite easy: he's the warrior, he's the resistance fighter, the freedom fighter. He can be lionised without question really, although many people died as part of [this resistance].''
I Am Eora is an epic piece that aims to evoke their spirits. It is not an attempt to tell the trio's life stories - not least because what is known about them comes primarily from early white accounts, including First Fleet diarist Watkin Tench, with all the potential of cultural misunderstanding. Tench described Barangaroo as a ''scold and vixen'', a description male-dominated societies have long evoked to demean assertive women.
Certainly Barangaroo, a traditional fisher, was furious when white settlers not only took more fish than they could eat from Sydney waters but then negotiated with Aboriginal men over the catch. But there are many ways to interpret that fury.
''History is contested, it is not definitive,'' Enoch says. ''We're using our artistic positions to give a rendering of the spirit of these people in a piece that hopefully creates more of an emotional journey rather than a chronological journey.''
The three figures will be invoked by a range of actors rather than one. The epic work looks at how each of the historical figures died. Barangaroo is believed to have died soon after childbirth.
''Bennelong wanted her to give birth in Government House but Arthur Phillip said no, she should go to hospital,'' Enoch says.
Instead, she delivered the child herself but died a few weeks later and was cremated in the gardens of the original Government House, around Bridge Street, Circular Quay. There is nothing to mark her resting place.
''In my head, I have this image that her ashes are underneath the AMP building,'' Enoch says.
Bennelong's death is said to have been related to alcohol but, in one account, he is said to have died after a beating. And that has raised questions for Enoch and co-writer Anita Heiss.
''In our minds, there's something about payback in that,'' Enoch says. ''We're creating a fictional world where he went out into the colony picking fights to get payback on him. As he dies, he looks back on his life with a sense of regret. What did he give [up], what should he have kept sacred? We are playing with history and trying to put ourselves in the position of these people and understanding them better.''
Pemulwuy's death remains a source of controversy. He was shot, decapitated and his preserved head sent to Sir Joseph Banks in England. The head was later believed to have been given to the Royal College of Surgeons but its present location is unknown. Last year, Prince William accepted an appeal by Redfern elders to help locate and return Pemulwuy's remains.
I Am Eora will use live music, including that of the Stiff Gins, to unfold the story in which land, rather than time, is the connecting thread.
''In Western society, time is a constant … where I grew up, land is a constant and time is a layering on the land. If you stand somewhere and do a song in that place, you can connect to a tradition of doing a song in that place from 16 generations ago,'' Enoch says.
Its scale and ambition makes I Am Eora an ideal festival project. The Sydney Festival has a track record of producing innovative, epic theatre pieces, such as Cloudstreet or War of the Roses. Yet it has been several years since the festival has had such a strong indigenous focus. Under the umbrella of Black Capital are a series of works, including visual artist Brook Andrew's Travelling Colony, the Barefoot Diva's Walk a Mile in My Shoes, a program celebrating black theatre, as well as activist Gary Foley's one-man show. Enoch welcomes the renewed focus on indigenous culture.
''If the festival is not about reflecting on our culture, what is it about?'' he asks.
Having taken the reigns of Queensland Theatre Company - the first indigenous artistic director of a state theatre company - he has just programmed his first season for 2012. About a quarter of the artists will be indigenous.
''I'm trying to change the landscape,'' he says.
He hopes I Am Eora will help leave a mark on Sydney's theatrical landscape by re-imagining the past and envisioning a future. Invoking the spirit of Barangaroo could be a means to do that, he says.
''Perhaps Barangaroo is a much more interesting figure to take into the future,'' Enoch says. ''As we talk about reconciliation, it is not about capitulating or resisting, it is a sense of making your own choices and finding your own way through.''
I Am Eora opens at Carriageworks on January 8.