i am often asked for Aboriginal (Indigenous Australian) book recommendations, particularly for people looking to learn about Australia’s traditional custodians and the country’s pre/post-colonial history. So i recommend Dark Emu by Aboriginal historian, Bruce Pascoe. It’s a relatively short read (only 10 hours long as an audiobook!).
It is a vital read for both Aboriginal Australians, non-Aboriginal Australians and anyone looking to unlearn colonial assumptions of pre-colonial Aboriginal people’s technology, agriculture, and law. This book even altered many of my own preconceived assumptions about my own people and I have been filled with a rage and pride learning of the extent of the loss of knowledge.
Dark Emu uses the eye-witness accounts of early colonisers/settlers/explorers as documented evidence for the complex pre-colonial Aboriginal economy and society, then uses knowledge passed down through mob to verify. Even as someone who grew up on morsels of passed-down memories, knowing we weren’t just hunter-gatherers despite the pervasive colonial myth that we were, reading just how complex blak Australia’s economy and society was has been eye-opening.
Please, read Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe if you’re interested in Indigenous Australians, even a little. Learn about what Aboriginal people lost, what we still have, support Indigenous historians and knowledge and learn the history that has been deliberately denied of us.
