• Dark Emu

  • Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident?
  • By: Bruce Pascoe
  • Narrated by: Bruce Pascoe
  • Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (89 ratings)

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Dark Emu  By  cover art

Dark Emu

By: Bruce Pascoe
Narrated by: Bruce Pascoe
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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.

Publisher's summary

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.

©2014 Bruce Pascoe (P)2017 Bolinda audio
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

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An immensely valuable contribution to the conversation

Thank you for reinforcing my respect for indigenous Australians and for expanding my knowledge on how our landscape has come to be.

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Enlightening

This books reveals what has been invisible and asks us to consider who ‘the story’ serves. I hope I live to see this kind of thinking integrated into the Australian consciousness. I am humbled by my own ignorance.

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The truth hurts.

Essential listening for every Australian teenage upwards. If we can change we should . A timely reminder that it is not too late.

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Vital Australian Aboriginal History.

A tectonic shift in anthropology. Reveals knowedge of human history and development that should be known by all peoples of the world.

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Amazing eye opener

Another example of our commonly known history being false. This wonderful book goes someway in correcting that criminal fact.

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So interesting

Fascinating full story of aboriginals and Australia and about time our history can be rewritten to include this most aligned culture into Australian culture and giving voice to the aboriginals.
A book you can get a lot from its second time I am still listening and will listen again I am sure.

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Global must read

Provides an expanded of human history and future. The past is not what is taught in schools.

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Incredible read

Absolutely beautiful read. Real I opener and game changer. Highly recommend, I learned so much.

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A History I never Learned

I’ve grown up loving history, recent events inspired me to learn about our own, Australian Indigenous History.

Information in this book is exciting, captivating and something I will be sharing with people in my life

Highly Recommend this book!

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Brilliant, accessible, essential

This is a eye-opening and mind-expanding history of Australia. It's exhilarating to learn vital new insights into Aboriginal society and technology, heart-breaking to realise how much has been lost and inspiring to consider what a future Australia could look like once we embrace and honour this history and wisdom. Essential reading or listening for every Australian. It's great to have the author reading it too, which is not always the case with audiobooks.

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