Dark Emu

Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident?

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Dark Emu

By: Bruce Pascoe

Narrated by: Bruce Pascoe

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About this listen

A completely accessible, compelling and riveting account of pre-invasion Aboriginal agricultural systems.

Dark Emu argues for a reconsideration of the 'hunter-gatherer' tag for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians and attempts to rebut the colonial myths that have worked to justify dispossession. Accomplished author Bruce Pascoe provides compelling evidence from the diaries of early explorers that suggests that systems of food production and land management have been blatantly understated in modern retellings of early Aboriginal history, and that a new look at Australia's past is required.

Australia, New Zealand & Oceania

Oceania

Physics

Science

Editorial reviews

What you thought you knew about pre-colonial Aboriginal Australia is wrong. Learn the true history of Australia’s first people in Dark Emu. Author Bruce Pascoe lays out the compelling case that Aboriginal culture was far more rich and advanced than we’ve been led to believe, crafting a work that has won two NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, Book of the Year and the Indigenous Writers’ Prize.

Drawing from accounts from some of the first settlers to arrive in Australia, including Charles Sturt and Thomas Mitchell, Pascoe shares evidence of advanced agriculture, engineering and architecture that challenges the fraught concept of Terra Nullius. One of Australia’s most esteemed writers and an advocate for Australia’s Aboriginal people, Pascoe narrates his own work with heart, honesty and expertise.

Most relevant

A very interesting book. It's safe to say that many aboriginal groups cannot accurately be described as solely hunter gatherers. However, the author stretches the evidence further than is warranted in many places. For instance, he cites the lack of archaeological evidence of large scale warfare as showing that aboriginal people never engaged in group-on-group conflict. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. This sort of Rousseauian fantasizing persists throughout the book. The final chapter begins with an anti-European screed - wondering aloud whether China would have been a better colonial power (the actions of modern China to its neighbours puts the lie to this) and implies at multiple points that Aboriginal people should have more rights than other Australians to 'make up for dispossession'. The chapter somewhat redeems itself with its environmental message at the end. We have a lot to learn from the first Australians about managing the land, but this book often uncritically places them on a pedestal, and seems to think they are exempted from the sorts of psychological flaws that characterise the rest of our species; territoriality, aggression, dominance hierarchies and leader worship. A more balanced and nuanced view would have been appreciated.