Dark Emu Black Seeds: agriculture or accident - Bruce Pascoe

"If we look at the evidence presented to us by the explorers and explain to to our children that Aboriginal people did build houses, did build dams, did sow, irrigate and till the land, did alter the course of rivers, did sew their clothes, and did construct a system of pan-continental government that generated peace and prosperity, then it is likely we will admire and love our land all the more" - Bruce Pascoe

Pascoe puts forward a compelling argument for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer label for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australian. The evidence insists that Aboriginal people right across the continent were using domesticated plants, sowing, harvesting, irrigating and storing - Behaviours inconsistent with the hunter-gatherer tag.

Bruce Pascoe is a Bunurong, Tasmanian and Yuin man born in Melbourne who grew up on a remote island in Bass Strait and had a joey and a dog as pets.

He has worked as a teacher, farmer, a fisherman and an Aboriginal language researcher.  Bruce is a prolific writer and has written more than 20 books.

Dark Emu (2014) continues to go into reprint and won book of the year and Indigenous Writer’s Prize in the 2016 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.

176 pages