Dark Emu : Black Seeds

A great read that tears apart simplistic definitions of "hunter-gatherers" vs "agriculturalist".

There's some contention about accuracy - it does feel a little like Bruce might be overstretching himself trying to build a farming narrative - but separate to that it at leasts helps readers appreciate how Aboriginals treated the whole of Australia as their farm, cultivating it in simple-yet-complex ways on a scale larger and looser than we might imagine.

A fascinating reevaluation of our history, and one that provides a basis for further developing our own uniquely Australian identity.

Vital reading for Australians, and people everywhere.

I imagine Pascoe pinching the bridge of their nose, patiently explaining & showing their working. Leading the colonial horse to water. This is history that every Australian knows in their bones to be true, but having it brought to undeniable light hurts.

How colonists have so efficiently destroyed tens of thousands of years of cultural, architectural, trade, & agricultural life in such a short period of time enrages me. As does the erasure of that history, the voices who would tell it, & that the erasure continues.

This is really important history, & frankly it’s not long so you don’t have much of an excuse. Do read, do share, listen carefully & amplify the voices of our First Nations people.

Incredibly important for Australians to read. Bruce lost me right at the end when he appealed to Indigenous spirituality as being superior to its Western counterparts, which I don't think follows from the rest of the material at all.

But as a catalogue of Western myopia, self-superiority, and naivete in its engagements with the Australian continent and its First Nations, this is a compelling & vital read.