Dark emu : black seeds : agriculture or accident?

177 Pages·2014·24.16 MB·English

by  Bruce Pascoe.

“If we look at the evidence presented to us by the
explorers and explain 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 B
R
U
pan-continental government that generated peace and
C
E
prosperity, then it is likely we will admire and love our
P
A
S
land all the more.” – Bruce Pascoe
C
O
E

D
Pascoe puts forward a compelling argument for a
a
reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer label for
r
pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians. The evidence insists
k
that Aboriginal people right across the continent were

E
using domesticated plants, sowing, harvesting, irrigating
m
and storing – behaviours inconsistent with the
B R U C E P A S C O E
u
hunter-gatherer tag.
Dark Emu
B L A C K S E E D S :

ISBN 978-1- 922142-43-6
agriculture or accident?

9 781922 142436
GENERAL NON FICTION/SOCIAL HISTORY
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Rock Engraving of Emu Dreaming Ku-ring-gai
Chase National Park, New South Wales
PHOTOGRAPH BARNABY NORRIS
Baiame, the creator Spirit Emu, left the
earth after its creation to reside as a
dark shape in the Milky Way. The emu
is inextricably linked with the wide
grasslands of Australia, the landscape
managed by Aboriginals. The fate of
the emu, people and grain are locked in
step because, for Aboriginal people, the
economy and the spirit are inseparable.
Europeans stare at the stars but
Aboriginal people also see the spaces in
between where the Spirit Emu resides.
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Other books by Bruce Pascoe
Novels: Fox (Australian Bicentennial Novel; runner-up, 1988)
Ruby-eyed Coucal
Shark (FAW novel of the year, 1999)
Earth
Ocean
Ribcage (pseudonym Leopold Glass)
Bloke
Chainsaw File (young adult)
Fog, a Dox (young adult, Winner of 2013 Prime Minister’s
Award)
Story collections:
Night Animals
Nightjar
History:
Cape Otway: Coast of Secrets
Wathaurong: the people who said no
Convincing Ground
Children:
Foxies in a Firehose
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BRUCE PASCOE
Dark Emu
B L A C K S E E D S :

agriculture or accident?
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First published 2014 by Magabala Books Aboriginal
Corporation, Broome, Western Australia
Website: www.magabala.com Email: [email protected]
Magabala Books receives financial assistance from the
Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council,
its arts advisory body. The State of Western Australia has
made an investment in this project through the Department
of Culture and the Arts in association with Lotterywest.
Copyright © Bruce Pascoe 2014
Copyright © Images remain with individual owners
All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the
purposes of private study, research, criticism or review,
as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this
publication may be reproduced by any process whatsoever
without the written permission of the publisher.
Designed by Tracey Gibbs
Printed in China at 1010 Printing International Ltd
Front cover photograph by Lyn Harwood
Illustration of yam and tuber by John Conran
Cataloguing-in-Publication Entry:
Author: Pascoe, Bruce, 1947- author.

Title: Dark emu : black seeds agriculture or accident? /
Bruce Pascoe.

ISBN: 9781922142436 (paperback)

Subjects: Aboriginal Australians--Antiquities.
Aboriginal Australians--Social life and customs.
Aboriginal Australians--Agriculture.
Land use, Rural--Australia.
Hunting and gathering societies--Australia

Dewey Number: 338.7630994
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to the Australians
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Contents
Acknowledgements 9
Introduction 11
Chapter 1 • Agriculture 19
Chapter 2 • Aquaculture 53
Chapter 3 • Population and Housing 73
Chapter 4 • Storage and Preservation 105
Chapter 5 • Fire 115
Chapter 6 • The Heavens, Language and the Law 125
Chapter 7 • Australian Agricultural Revolution 145
Chapter 8 • Accepting History and Creating the Future 149
Picture Credits 158
Bibliography 160
Index 172
The Author 176
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Acknowledgements
I am deeply indebted to Rupert Gerritsen for his book, Australia and the
Origins of Agriculture. I found my way to that book by a Google search for
Australian Aboriginal Grain Crops. It was listed number 35 in the search results
and all previous listings referred to contemporary wheat crops, an indication of
the poverty of analysis devoted to this topic.
Later in my search I came across an essay by Bill Gammage where he
talked about Aboriginal gardening and farming. Gammage’s most recent
book, The Biggest Estate, investigates, in exhaustive detail, the reports of early
explorers and settlers, many of whom talked about the ‘gentleman’s estate’ they
had chanced upon. Not a wilderness, not a land peopled by wanderers, but
a managed landscape created by the enormous labour of a people intent on
creating the best possible conditions for food production.
I’m grateful to the ancestors for their ingenious protection of the land.
Where else on earth was there a civilisation that lasted more than 60,000 years
and depended on both agriculture … and peace?
Many other people provided information and advice including: Gordon
Briscoe, John Clarke, Neville Oddie, Lyn Harwood, Susan Pascoe, Jack Pascoe,
Koorie Heritage Trust, Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages,
Brewarrina Cultural Centre, Brad Steadman, Sue Wesson, Lynnette Solomon-
Dent, Vicki Couzens, Herb Patten, Michael Perry, Reg Couzens, Ted Donelan,
Christina Eira, Stephen Morey, Ian Chivers, Charlotte Finch, Veronica Frail,
Harry Allen, Paula Martin, The Artefact, Sue Norman, Betty Cruse, Liddy
Stewart, Maria Brandl, Annette Peisley, Peter Gardiner, Ray Norris, John
Morieson, Michael Walsh, St Kilda Indigenous Nursery Co-operative (SKINC) ,
Russell Mullet, Beth Gott, Barrie Pittock, Kevin Lowe, Elaine van Kempen, Eric
Rolls and many others.
Bruce Pascoe
9
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