I first became aware of this remarkable book when two of my favourite bloggers posted reviews of it on the same day: they are both historians, and they were both impressed.
Yvonne at Stumbling Through the Past piqued my interest with her comment that Pascoe used the journals of Australia’s explorers to make his case:
Pascoe draws on the work of Bill Gammage, R Gerritsen and others as well as his own research make a strong argument for the reconsideration of our understanding of the way Aboriginal people lived in colonial times. He draws extensively from the journals of explorers to present a remarkable array of evidence about the agricultural and technological sophistication of Aborigines before contact.
And Janine at The Resident Judge of Port Phillip linked the book to some recent unfortunate remarks made by our blundering Prime Minister.
Bruce Pascoe’s book Dark Emu argues directly against the idea that Australia was ‘scarcely settled’. It was, he argues, very much settled in a way that forces us to reconsider the ‘hunter-gatherer’ label that is often used to describe pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians.
Like many teachers, I’ve used the term hunter-gatherer in exactly that way, and so I felt impelled to read the book. I’ve had Bill Gammadge’s award-winning The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia on the TBR for ages, and I will get round to reading it one day, but it was an indigenous voice I wanted to hear. Now that I’ve read it for myself, I think that this is an indigenous voice Australians should hear…
In 156 pages, Pascoe has inverted almost everything I thought I knew about pre-colonial Australia. Importantly, he’s not relying on oral history, which runs the risk of being too easily debunked, his sources are the journals of notable explorers and surveyors, of pastoralists and protectors. He quotes them verbatim, describing all the signs of a complex civilisation but viewed through the blinkered lens of appropriation and White superiority. These diaries describe systematic agriculture and aquaculture; permanent dwellings; storage and preservation methods and the use of fire to manage the difficult Australian environment. The reader can sense Pascoe’s pride in asserting that all these complex systems were managed through stable government that was fundamentally democratic in nature. (Elders, after all, earned their role through initiation and learning the law: they did not inherit their power or grasp it through conquest.)
There is much more to this exciting book than I have outlined here so I urge you to follow the links above to Yvonne’s and Janine’s reviews. They interrogate the book as historians do, with the expertise of their profession. Also check out Adventures in Biography and the book’s own blog. Thanks to MST for the link:)
As a teacher, however, I recommend it as essential reading for any educator.
Dark Emu has been shortlisted for Victorian Premier’s Award for Indigenous Writing.
Author: Bruce Pascoe
Title: Dark Emu Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident
Publisher: Magabala Books. 2014
ISBN: 9781922142436
Source: Casey-Cardinia Library
Availability
Fishpond: Dark Emu: Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident?
Or direct from Magabala Books
Cross-posted at LisaHillSchoolStuff
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
I saw Bruce Pascoe talk about Dark Emu at this year’s SWF. He is a very passionate man – and has a lot to say. I’m looking forward to reading this soon.
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By: musingsofaliterarydilettante on October 21, 2014
at 10:35 pm
Hi John
Did you write about it in one of your wonderful SWF reports?
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By: Lisa Hill on October 21, 2014
at 10:44 pm
I should have! I started something, a combo piece, on both that session, which also featured Henry Reynolds talking about The Forgotten War, and then a later session with Alexis Wright talking about The Swan Book… but it got waylaid in amongst other posts and work and so on. Sigh. Henry Reynolds spoke very well, too.
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By: musingsofaliterarydilettante on October 21, 2014
at 10:50 pm
Next year, John, I’m coming up for the Sydney Writers’ Festival (I’ve never been!) and while I’m shouting you a drink, *chuckle* I’ll also ‘gently’ remind you so that you don’t forget!
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By: Lisa Hill on October 22, 2014
at 6:14 pm
Fabulous – Sydney will be all the better for your presence! :)
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By: musingsofaliterarydilettante on October 22, 2014
at 6:44 pm
A marvellous book that fills in many of the gaps that Gammage’s book leaves. Both are compelling reading for people who like me are interested in pre-colonial history and how this country was shaped by the peoples and societies who have been here for tens of thousands of years.
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By: Jude on October 22, 2014
at 7:10 am
So you’ve read the Gammadge book? LOL It seems so chunky for a book that has gaps… but IMO that’s so often the difference between a well-intentioned non-indigenous voice and an Aboriginal one. I like the passion that lies behind Pascoe’s work… I’ve only read his children’s novel but it was in that too.
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By: Lisa Hill on October 22, 2014
at 6:29 pm
[…] Today, well-respected blogger Lisa Hill reviews Dark Emu from an educator’s point view on her ANZ Lit Lovers blog https://anzlitlovers.com/2014/10/21/dark-emu-black-seeds-agriculture-or-accident-by-bruce-pascoe/ […]
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By: Dark Emu essential reading for teachers, says blogger and educator Lisa Hill | Dark Emu on October 22, 2014
at 12:48 pm
Dark Emu is a genuinely important book. It challenges everything we thought we ‘knew’ about Aboriginal land management before white settlement. The book has a blog of its own at http://darkemu.wordpress.com/
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By: MST on October 22, 2014
at 2:06 pm
Thanks for this recommendation Lisa.I’m starting to think that – as I did the Aust Women’s Writers challenge this year – I should spend next year reading indigenous authors and books about indigenous issues. I don’t know nearly enough.
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By: Jane Bryony Rawson on October 22, 2014
at 3:16 pm
I’ve found, over the last few years, that some of my most rewarding reading has been by indigenous authors. There’s always something more to learn!
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By: Lisa Hill on October 22, 2014
at 6:05 pm
The convictions and self-confidence of the colonists meant that the indigenous people’s hadn’t a chance of continuing their culture and way of life. It happened across the globe and now we only see the ghosts of the pre-colonial times through books like this. No doubt it will happen to us one day too, or we will do it to ourselves more likely. A very interesting review as always
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By: acommonreaderuk on October 24, 2014
at 8:14 pm
Thanks, Tom.
I think I might agree that we might be ‘doing it to ourselves’. One of the things I notice in Britain is that you haven’t succumbed to Americanisation the way we have. Not yet anyway!
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By: Lisa Hill on October 24, 2014
at 10:57 pm
[…] Pascoe Dark Emu: Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident? (2014 ) Ellen van Neerven Heat and Light (2014) Jeanine Leane Purple Threads […]
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By: Preview 2015 National Book Festival – Australian First Nations | Literary Birthdays Blog on August 29, 2015
at 9:53 pm
[…] Pascoe Dark Emu: Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident? (2014 ) Ellen van Neerven Heat and Light (2014) Jeanine Leane Purple Threads […]
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By: Preview 2015 National Book Festival – Culinary Arts | Literary Birthdays Blog on August 30, 2015
at 8:57 pm
[…] Pascoe Dark Emu: Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident? (2014 ) Ellen van Neerven Heat and Light (2014) Jeanine Leane Purple Threads […]
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By: Preview 2015 National Book Festival – Mystery and SciFi | Literary Birthdays Blog on August 31, 2015
at 10:16 pm
[…] Pascoe Dark Emu: Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident? (2014 ) Ellen van Neerven Heat and Light (2014) Jeanine Leane Purple Threads […]
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By: Preview 2015 National Book Festival – Fiction | Literary Birthdays Blog on September 2, 2015
at 3:04 am
[…] at 6 pm Purple Threads (2011) Bruce Pascoe – Speaking at 3:30 – 4:15 pm Signing at 6 pm Dark Emu: Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident? (2014 ) Ellen van Neerven – Speaking at 4:25 – 5:10 pm Signing at 6 pm Heat and Light […]
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By: Complete Preview National Book Festival – Washington DC – September 5, 2015 | Literary Birthdays Blog on September 4, 2015
at 2:04 am
[…] Fog a Dox won the YA category in the 2013 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards and last year I reviewed Pascoe’s remarkable story of indigenous agricultural practice, Dark Emu which IMO is destined to become an essential reference book for anyone wanting to know about how […]
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By: Earth, by Bruce Pascoe | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on September 4, 2015
at 2:33 am
[…] Dark Emu, Black Seeds, agriculture or accident? by Bruce Pascoe, Magabala Books, 2015 (see my review) […]
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By: 2016 NSW Premier’s Literary Award winners | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on May 17, 2016
at 11:14 am
[…] Indigenous Writer’s (biennial) Prize: Bruce Pascoe’s Dark emu (which is on my radar but has also been read by that voracious reader, Lisa!) […]
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By: My literary week, in a sense | Whispering Gums on May 22, 2016
at 5:02 pm
[…] Pascoe’s Dark Emu (Magabala Books, 2014) (Lisa’s ANZLitLovers review): analyses pre-colonial indigenous Australian culture suggesting that it was more […]
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By: Monday musings on Australian literature: Recent books by Indigenous Australians | Whispering Gums on June 27, 2016
at 11:33 pm
[…] Judge of Port Phillip) and Yvonne (Stumbling Through the Past), as well as teacher-librarian Lisa (ANZLitLovers) and biographer Michelle (Adventures in […]
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By: Bruce Pascoe, Dark emu, black seeds: Agriculture or accident? (Review) | Whispering Gums on October 28, 2016
at 12:00 pm
[…] Australian fiction along with must-read NF. Mentions include Jane Rawson’s From the Wreck, Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe, Behrouz Boochani’s No Friend but the Mountains, Maria Tumarkin’s Axiomatic […]
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By: 2018 ANZLitLovers Australian and New Zealand Best Books of the Year | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on December 17, 2018
at 5:01 pm
[…] are only now becoming more widely known thanks to Bruce Pascoe’s ground-breaking publication Dark Emu, Black seeds – agriculture or accident? There’s a whole double page spread with illustrations about the south-west Mara […]
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By: Welcome to Country, a Travel Guide to Indigenous Australia, by Marcia Langton (and other useful guide books) | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on July 7, 2019
at 9:00 am
[…] Bruce Pascoe, Dark Emu, Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident (2014) Lisa/ANZLL’s review here) also: Lucy Frost ed., Journal of Annie Baxter Dawbin (1998). Annie Baxter (1816-1905) was the wife […]
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By: The Lake Condah Aboriginal Mission, Keith Cole | theaustralianlegend on November 27, 2019
at 1:57 pm
[…] And that leads me to the story of Australia’s most famous and successful female farmer, who ran the family farm in her husband John’s protracted absences and finally got the biography she deserves in Michelle Scott Tucker’s Elizabeth Macarthur, a life at the edge of the world, see my enthusiastic review here. If you’ve got the second edition of this unputdownable book, you will see that the publisher has quoted me as one of its blurbers, which pleased me immensely. (As far as I know the only other publisher to pay me that compliment is Magabala Books was when Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu went into a second edition, see my review here). […]
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By: Six Degrees of Separation: Daisy Jones and The Six, to … | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on January 4, 2020
at 3:59 pm
[…] Dark Emu: A truer history (Bruce Pascoe, Magabala). Update: I’ve read the adult version of this and am pleased to see a junior edition of […]
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By: 2020 Indie Book Awards shortlists | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on January 15, 2020
at 11:06 am
[…] Dark Emu: Black seeds: Agriculture or accident? by Bruce Pascoe, Magabala Books, 2014, see my review […]
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By: Book Industry for Climate Action Group (BICAG) | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on March 3, 2020
at 1:07 pm
[…] Dark Emu, Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident? by Bruce Pascoe […]
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By: Autumn Book Binge 2020 | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on March 14, 2020
at 6:33 pm
[…] Dark Emu: A truer history (Bruce Pascoe, Magabala). Update: I’ve read the adult version of this and am pleased to see a junior edition of […]
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By: 2020 Indie Book Awards winners | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on March 23, 2020
at 6:50 pm
[…] and at 434 pages requires considerable commitment to read it. I think that most readers will find Dark Emu, Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident? by Bunerong man Bruce Pascoe, a more accessible way to learn about this topic from an Indigenous […]
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By: Sensational Snippets: The Biggest Estate on Earth, by Bill Gammage | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on March 11, 2021
at 9:01 am
[…] to reviewing Farmers or Hunter-Gatherers by Peter Sutton and Keryn Walshe. When back in 2014 (as you can see in my review), I read Dark Emu, Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident? I was convinced by author Bruce […]
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By: Combined Reviews: Farmers or Hunter-Gatherers by Peter Sutton and Keryn Walshe | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on July 26, 2021
at 8:56 pm
[…] recent times, Bruce is recognised primary as the author of Dark Emu, Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident but he’s also a novelist. I was impressed by Earth, which was published in 2001, and I […]
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By: 2021 ASA Medal winner, Bruce Pascoe | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on November 15, 2021
at 9:41 am