They argue that this is not a critique from the right of politics – one of the problems they have with Professor Pascoe’s work is his apparent dismissal of hunter-gatherers, as opposed to those practising agriculture, because it downplays the true richness and sophistication of pre-colonial Indigenous life. These questions about a lack of intellectual rigour have now been given prominence in a new book, Farmers or Hunter-Gatherers? The Dark Emu Debate, in which respected anthropologist Peter Sutton and archaeologist Keryn Walshe claim Professor Pascoe’s work is “littered with unsourced material”, uses selective quotations and exaggerates “weak evidence”. Some in the academic world queried his use of sources, accusing him of exaggerating and embellishing his work. The book managed to antagonise the right, which questioned his claims.

In it, Professor Pascoe put the case for reassessing pre-colonial Indigenous life, arguing that these societies employed sophisticated agriculture and enjoyed a pastoral, village life. While it initially attracted little publicity, he gained widespread attention when the book won some of the nation’s richest and most prestigious literary awards. Then, in 2014, Bruce Pascoe published Dark Emu. In his policy manifesto Future Directions, he stated: “People’s confidence in their nation’s past came under attack as the professional purveyors of guilt attacked Australia’s heritage and people were told they should apologise for pride in their culture, traditions, institutions and history.” Their perspective was best articulated by former prime minister John Howard, who rejected what he described as a “black armband” view of history. Along with the Bringing them Home report into the stolen generations in 1997, the High Court’s decisions were watershed moments in re-evaluating Australia’s history and confronting the past.īut these moments also triggered a fierce backlash from some right-wing commentators and politicians that helped kick off the culture wars that continue to this day.

It was this growing acceptance of their sophisticated and millenniums-long ties to the land that eventually led, in the 1990s, to the Mabo and Wik High Court decisions, which banished the colonial notion of terra nullius and recognised the pre-existing legal rights that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people enjoyed. Bruce Pascoe on his property, Yumburra, near Mallacoota in late 2020.

Dark emu by bruce pascoe