Certainly an interesting and important read, albeit a little taxing at times.

Pascoe is obviously passionate about this subject, one which deserves attention. He doesn't phrase his arguments as absolute truth, but vehemently requests deeper research into multiple aspects of per-colonial Aboriginal life and practice in an attempt to remove the (probably) fallacious historical account written by the 'victors', that is pervasive in today's collective understanding. This is to his credit.

On the other hand, his passion overflows a little too often and begins to proselytize. How wondrous such things must have been and how humble and magnificent other things were. Many cases in this book stem from second hand accounts, others are truly too simple (as in a passing phrase) of an account to warrant such diversions from the factual arguments Pascoe is making. It put me off in many places even though I'm sympathetic to his arguments. I expect that for an adversarial reader, the brunt of this dialog would be enough for them to stop reading - precisely the opposite behavior Pascoe is attempting to manifest.

All in all, Pascoe has persuaded me that colonial prejudice engaged in systematic removal of complexity from the post-colonial societies, that there were sedentary lifestyles with land management strategies in play before contact. At what scale and complexity? That merits more investigation.