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Bruce Pascoe
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Dark Emu: Black seeds agriculture or accident? Paperback – 3 March 2014

by Bruce Pascoe (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars 2,208
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Dark Emu puts forward an argument for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer tag for precolonial Aboriginal Australians. 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. Gerritsen and Gammage in their latest books support this premise but Pascoe takes this further and challenges the hunter-gatherer tag as a convenient lie. Almost all the evidence comes from the records and diaries of the Australian explorers, impeccable sources.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    176 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Magabala Books
  4. Publication date
    3 March 2014
  5. Dimensions
    15.24 x 1.78 x 23.5 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    1922142433
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1922142436
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Magabala Books (3 March 2014)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1922142433
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1922142436
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.24 x 1.78 x 23.5 cm
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars 2,208

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Bruce Pascoe

Bruce Pascoe

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
2,208 global ratings

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One of the most important indigenous histories in Australia ever.
5 Stars
One of the most important indigenous histories in Australia ever.
This is one of the most important histories of indigenous history in Australia ever. Forget what you think you know or have been taught this completely referenced and historically revelatory has rewritten history. All based on first person original accounts from early colonialist and explorer diaries, you will be stunned at the content.
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Top reviews from Australia

Jacqui King
5.0 out of 5 stars Balanced, eye-opening and mind-changing
Reviewed in Australia on 9 November 2019
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Searching for the right word. Stunning? Stupendous? Certainly the most important book I have read in several decades.

I am reminded of when I was doing a course at the National Gallery of Victoria. The then Director of the Gallery, Dr Eric Westbrook, said that many of the early artists who came to Australia struggled with the differences from European scenery. Specifically their minds and hands could not fully see and accept the shape of a eucalypt but painted gum trees as more like European trees. Although only once spelt out by Bruce Pascoe this dissonance seems behind much of the lack of understanding of what the explorers and early settlers recorded.
Pascoe has searched early European records of what was seen and makes a mind-blowing case for a rethink about Australian First People's ethos and culture. Through it all he writes compassionately about the European settlers/explorers and recognises the hiccups that occurred in understanding. A very measured perspective.
I'm glad I have read this book.
15 people found this helpful
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Maree Larter
5.0 out of 5 stars Mind blowing
Reviewed in Australia on 11 April 2024
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What a great book. I learned so much. Every school should have this book to study.
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Robyn Mcewin
4.0 out of 5 stars Dark Emu should be on school reading lists
Reviewed in Australia on 29 October 2019
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This book gave me a very different insight into pre-colonial Australia to what I was taught at school. To discover how the aboriginal people managed land and water and other natural resources was a revelation to me. It was hard to read about how the first people were dispossessed of their land, but Bruce Pascoe writes in a well-researched and easy to read style which left me feeling sad, but hopeful that this story will be widely told. I would highly recommend this book.
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Jim KABLE
5.0 out of 5 stars Refreshing the Dark Emu
Reviewed in Australia on 26 July 2018
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After being quite frankly thrilled by Bill Gammage's book The Biggest Estate on Earth - Bruce Pascoe's Dark Emu of some years back gave chapter and verse particulars of the civilisation of Indigenous or First Nations Australia. This revised/up-dated edition is timely - given the savage dismissal by our current PM Turnbull of the Uluru Statement from the Heart! It will hopefully become compulsory reading by every politician (no salary until finished reading) and every company/institute CEO/Board and academic - and set for study across the curriculum in our schools. I've been a fan since way back - when Bruce Pascoe edited the popular Australian Short Stories books from the early 1980s. But this book proves beyond doubt that a deliberate conqueror/coloniser wilful dismissal of all the best elements of First Nations democratic ways of living with one's part of the jigsaw of connectedness right across the continent took place - and the ugly trivialisation of the truth continues with the ignorance still being displayed by those who need to hold on to their of this land and its resources - looking at you Gina and Twiggy and the threats of Adani! Bravo Bruce! Thank-you.

In the early-mid-1980s I undertook graduate studies in education about "Aboriginal" Australia - it opened my eyes to the landscape in which I was living, through which I was travelling. Not quite three years ago I spent time in the rural town where I grew up - rode my bicycle, swam in the local streams and climbed all over its regional hills and ranges. Like the back of my hand I knew it - this I knew. I joined the local regional art gallery cultural tour one week-end to learn about it from local significant Gomeroi elder Len Waters. And quickly realised I knew nothing - mere surface landscape - as he explained the land, places of significance, revealed brilliant rock art and scar trees and pointed out all manner of locational features. Bruce Pascoe's book does this for us all - and for folk beyond our shores who want to know the truth!
29 people found this helpful
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Awc49
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent important book
Reviewed in Australia on 19 July 2023
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What we need to know about our country, and our heritage
One person found this helpful
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Aussie Phil
5.0 out of 5 stars Important Information about Indigenous Australians' Cultures
Reviewed in Australia on 1 September 2020
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As an Australian who has grown up with the "traditional" Australian viewpoint that the Indigenous Australians were nomadic hunter gatherers prior to the arrival of the First British Fleet in 1988 and British settlement, it's important to realise that this narrative is not as accurate as we have been led to believe.
The author unveils documents dating back to the early days of British colonisation of Australia which reveal a significantly different set of societies from those I had always believed.
The information provided is, in my opinion, supported by evidence seen in the museum in The Grampians National Park, where local indigenous people wore possum skin coats to cope with the cold of winters in that area.
An excellent read if you are prepared to have your prejudices challenged.
4 people found this helpful
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John Leake
3.0 out of 5 stars Much speculation to inspire further research into the pre-invasion economy of aboriginals
Reviewed in Australia on 5 December 2019
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This book is a valuable addition to speculations about the economy of Aboriginals prior to European invasion.
There is much to inspire the reader to search further as colonial histories are likely to have been partial in many areas, notably about conflict, and about resource husbandry. The book may suffer from straying into the Gavin Menzies school of historical speculation, but without further investigation the boundary between fact and speculation remains unclear to this reader. Fish traps, 'firestick farming' are well established practices, the case for Yams also seems sound, but 'houses' may not be more than the windbreaks recorded by contemporary observers.
It is also valuable to compare this work with pre-invasion accounts of north and south American indians as there are common factors, fire management, the extremes dislocation caused by introduced disease
One person found this helpful
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Jo Watson
4.0 out of 5 stars challenging mental models
Reviewed in Australia on 11 October 2023
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I know this book has been controversial, but I think that’s the point: to challenge what we think we know about First Nations people so that we ask questions and seek more information for ourselves
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Top reviews from other countries

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Denise in Orkney
5.0 out of 5 stars Intruding read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 July 2023
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Enjoyed book
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Ricardo
5.0 out of 5 stars A história sobre os aborígenes e a colonização na Austrália
Reviewed in Brazil on 19 November 2019
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Livro didático e com bom embasamento.
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Allen Hoppes
5.0 out of 5 stars Well-written & very informative
Reviewed in Spain on 27 June 2020
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This book packs a lot of information into a small space. It is interesting & filled with facts that make me want to learn more about the subject.
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K...
3.0 out of 5 stars A book of many informations that needs more focus
Reviewed in France on 8 June 2019
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I bought this book thinking I will learn about indigenous grains, past utilization and possible adaptation and introduction into today australian agriculture.
This book enumerates historical informations and materials to think Australian history anew. Unfortunately it lacks focus on its title topic. After the first chapter, we are not sure anymore about the topic of the book (pre-colonial plausible agricultural practices). Facts are overwelmed by temptation of advocacy against prejudices that Australian Aborigines suffered and for Aboriginal recognition. If legitimate, I question the interest in this book and think it does not serve this book and its topic.
Less deviation and a focus on precolonial agriculture and deeper interdisciplinary research (ecology, history, anthropology, economy, agronomy, archeology...) about past, present and future use of indigenous grains would have surely been a better contribution to the rehabilitation of pre-colonial history into the future of the country.
One person found this helpful
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Nambu
5.0 out of 5 stars You will never think of Aborigines in the same way again
Reviewed in Japan on 18 August 2018
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This superb reconsideration and careful documentation of Aboriginal culture uses archaeology and folklore to show that Australia was not "empty" when the English began to colonize it. There was a well-developed culture that was capable of enduring a highly challenging environment. What the colonizers overlooked or preferred to ignore is given solid treatment in this volume. One cannot help but appreciate the author's efforts to wake us up.
One person found this helpful
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