Initial response Close study Significance Informed reaction

Introductory activities

What is history?

In his 1961 book What is History?, E. H. Carr asserts that history is the interpretation of facts that a historian gathers to present an argument. Carr’s ideas have been challenged in more recent times, but his central thesis – that history is interpretative rather than objective – is relevant to this study of Dark Emu.

Carr argues that historians are not objective or detached; rather, they choose and interpret facts according to their personal ideological beliefs. That is, they can only see the past through the lens of the present.

In Dark Emu, Bruce Pascoe (a Yuin, Bunurong and Tasmanian man) has written a popular history that draws upon the observations of early European explorers in Australia. He challenges the long-held colonial belief that Aboriginal peoples were ‘primitive hunter-gatherers’ with no concept of attachment to or stewardship of the land (students could listen to this 2017 Awaye! segment that shows that Aboriginal peoples did, in fact, have a very deep connection to their Country).

As they work through this unit, students should be asked to consider why it has taken 250 years for settler Australians to come to a fuller understanding of the past, and why some people are yet to reach that understanding. One contributing factor is the colonial (mis)representation of Aboriginal peoples in literature written by non-Aboriginal people; this 2024 IndigenousX article by Kamilaroi, Scottish and English writer/editor Darby Jones provides a good overview of the issue.

Whose history?

NOTE: All page references are drawn from Magabala Books’ 2018 edition of Dark Emu.

In Chapter 3: Population and Housing, Pascoe refers to ‘the national story’ (p. 104), meaning the dominant story that Australians tell about themselves and their country. He understands that, at the time of writing, this story does not include the achievements of pre-colonial First Nations peoples.

Discuss the idea that the dominant version of Australian identity is based on the twin myths of ‘the bush’ and ‘the Anzacs’. Here the word ‘myth’ does not mean an untrue story, but rather a story that people tell each other about their history, their present and their future. Representations of peoples, places, and events within these myths help to construct a version of national identity that suppresses other possible versions, and privileges certain groups in society at the expense of others. To demonstrate this contention, ask students if they have ever seen OR been asked to contribute to fundraisers for drought-stricken farmers. Alternatively, ask them to describe what happens at their school on Anzac Day.

To illustrate what a challenge to the dominant national story can look like, share with students the story of Eliza Fraser. Eliza was shipwrecked in 1836 when her husband’s vessel, The Stirling Castle, ran aground near K’gari (formerly Fraser Island). Eliza lived for some time with the local Butchulla people, but later claimed that they had kidnapped and severely mistreated her, leading to their eventual massacre and dispossession. Explain that, more recently, descendants of the Butchulla people have ‘written back’ against Eliza’s account. Show students the short animated interactive documentary K’gari (2017), which provides an Aboriginal perspective on the events of 1836. The documentary provided an alternative version of history in binary opposition to the dominant story; in other words, it represented a 180-degree turn from Eliza’s version of events.

For more on Eliza Fraser, see Reading Australia’s teaching resource for Finding Eliza by Larissa Behrendt.

Pascoe’s aim

Pascoe does not attempt to rewrite the national story from an entirely Aboriginal point of view. He says in his Introduction that it only takes an adjustment of ‘a few degrees’ to view the past through new eyes (p. 3).

Ask students to reflect on NAIDOC Week and what happens at their school/in their community during this national celebration.

  • How does NAIDOC Week offer a ‘window’ into First Nations histories and cultures?
  • How does NAIDOC Week provide a more complete picture of the history of Australia?

Whose interest was served by early histories?

As an example of an early history of colonial settlement, refer students to Early Days In North Queensland by Edward Palmer (1903). This is an account of the occupation of the state of Queensland by white settlers. It begins with a ‘Note’ from a politician and surveyor called George Phillips:

The author of this book, the late Edward Palmer, was himself one of that brave band of pioneer squatters who in the early [1860s] swept across North Queensland with their flocks and herds, settling, as if by magic, great tracts of hitherto unoccupied country, and thereby opening several new ports on the east coast and on the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria, to the commerce of the world. In writing of these stirring times in the history of Queensland, Mr. Palmer has dealt with a subject for which he was peculiarly qualified as an active participant therein.

Use a map to illustrate the country that Phillips is referring to: the hinterland of the present state of Queensland, from Rockhampton (Darumbal Country) to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Then have students locate the same area on the AIATSIS map of Indigenous Australia.

  • Ask students why Phillips would make the false statement that this part of the country was unoccupied.
  • Show students this GIF (located under ‘Pastoral expansion’), which offers a visual representation of the government-sanctioned occupation of large areas of Queensland. Explain how this supports the above extract from Palmer’s account of pastoral expansion.
  • To counter the statement that Northern Australia was unoccupied, refer students to sections of Dark Emu in which Pascoe quotes Charles Sturt’s observations about the achievements of Aboriginal peoples on land further south (e.g. the verdant grasslands of Parpir, p. 33; the domed huts along the Darling River, p. 106).
  • Ask students why they think colonial settlers and historians of the time ignored the evidence of settled Aboriginal communities recorded by Sturt and other explorers (e.g. Thomas Mitchell).

It would be useful to explore how Phillips uses language to represent occupation as a heroic venture (‘brave band’, ‘as if by magic’). Do students agree with E. H. Carr’s assertion that historians (and other people writing about the past) are influenced by their own ideologies?

What’s at stake?

Since Dark Emu’s publication in 2014, there have been significant developments in the relationship between First Nations and non-Indigenous peoples. In 2017, more than 250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander delegates of the National Constitutional Convention signed the Uluru Statement from the Heart. The Uluru Statement is an invitation to non-Indigenous Australians to join First Nations peoples in bringing about genuine and substantive reform and recognition. This hinges on three key pillars: Voice, Treaty, Truth.

In 2023, Australians voted in a referendum on whether to change the Constitution to establish a body called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. Although the referendum did not pass, 40% of the nation – more than six million people – voted ‘Yes’. This is a clear indication that momentum for change is growing – albeit slowly, and with a long way to go.

NOTE: Discussing the referendum and its outcome may be harmful for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Skip this conversation if you do not think it is appropriate for your class context. See also the Australian Human Rights Commission resource on minimising harm in conversations about the referendum.

Another history

In 2018, Black Inc. published Deep Time Dreaming by historian Billy Griffiths. As the name suggests, this is not a history of post-colonial Australia but an exploration of ‘ancient Australia’ and the reassertion of Aboriginal identity. Griffiths based his work on the findings of archaeologists like John Mulvaney, Rhys Jones, Isabel McBryde, and others who have shown that the claims in Dark Emu are scientifically correct. Here are some interesting points from Deep Time Dreaming that you could discuss with students:

  • Aboriginal peoples constantly adapted to changing environments (periods of drought, extreme flooding and so on).
  • Aboriginal peoples had not just adapted but were also ecological agents, managing the Australian landscape.
  • The countryside observed by the English in 1788 was not a wilderness but rather a product of millennia of Aboriginal management.
  • Aboriginal clans occupied their land over very long periods of time, as revealed by archaeological evidence (archaeologists used an approach called stratigraphy, i.e. the drilling down through levels of land to show continuous occupation of Country over many generations).
  • Aboriginal occupation of the continent, rather than being ‘timeless’ (a colonial trope used to prove that Aboriginal peoples had done little with the land), involved great changes in culture and the environment over a vast period of time.

Griffiths asserts that there is no such thing as ‘non-Indigenous’ culture in Australia, as our present-day society sits on more than 65,000 years of First Nations peoples’ relationship to this place.

This idea is also evident in Tony Birch’s novel Ghost River. Set in the 1960s, it follows two Aboriginal boys growing up in working-class Collingwood (Melbourne, VIC) who form an attachment to both the Yarra River (Birrarung) and a marginalised group of Aboriginal men who live along it. The river holds spiritual and symbolic meaning for both the boys and the men, but is not the titular ‘ghost river’. This is instead another river, part of ‘deep time’, flowing underneath the Yarra since before the arrival of colonial settlers. You can read Environmental Justice Australia’s useful explanation, or Birch’s own description in his 2019 Meanjin essay, ‘Walking and Being’ (see para. 4 under ‘A wasteland’).

Traditional knowledge and science come together support Pascoe’s thesis.

Dark Emu

Share with students Pascoe’s 2016 interview with Jade Richardson for Verity La. Draw their attention to para. 10, which alludes to Pascoe wanting to ‘clear up’ some facts about Australia’s past.

  • Ask students what they think Richardson means by the phrase ‘gob-smacking’.
  • Do they agree that most Australians know very little, if anything, about First Nations histories, societies, and cultures?
  • Ask students if they are surprised by what Richardson has to say.

In the same interview, Pascoe explains the title of the book (see para. 23, which talks about the Milky Way). Ask students why naming it after an Aboriginal observation of the heavens is a powerful way of signalling Pascoe’s project to challenge a white view of Australian history.

Captain James Cook has long been credited with bringing science and law to this continent, as if First Nations peoples did not have their own explanations of the natural world or their own laws and customs. Consider, for example, First Nations astronomical traditions. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ knowledge of the stars goes beyond storytelling to provide guidance for everyday activities throughout the year. The stars are a way to navigate both space (like a compass) and time (like a clock or calendar).

Dark Emu asks us to seriously question what we think we know about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Pascoe argues that the hunter-gatherer label applied by colonial settlers is inaccurate and demeaning, and offers evidence that – in addition to hunting and gathering (which itself requires a sophisticated knowledge of the environment) – pre-colonial First Nations peoples cultivated the land. He posits that, by the time of colonial occupation, First Nations peoples in several places had reached the stage of early agricultural development, which in turn led to sedentism (i.e. staying in one place) and the construction of permanent housing and other associated infrastructure.

More broadly, Pascoe’s text is concerned with sustainability and living in harmony with a living planet, and he questions whether the dominant capitalist paradigms of commercialism, consumption, and exploitation of resources is best suited to these aims. In these way, Dark Emu deals with themes of power and discourse, societal change, and intercultural relationships and understanding.

The text is essentially an extended essay arguing for a reassessment of pre-colonial First Nations societies as ‘mere’ hunter-gatherers, and advocating for knowledge of Country to be incorporated into modern Australian approaches and thinking (Pascoe uses the word ‘mere’ ironically, to undermine the notion that hunting and gathering is simple and requires little knowledge of the land). Unlike fictional works, there are no characters or plot, but Pascoe does mention historical figures with whom we can engage and identify as important to his argument.

Dark Emu will almost certainly be challenging for senior English students. It will ask them to question and reassess many of the ‘truths’ they have learned about their world. There is also a risk that students will feel uncomfortable engaging with discussions of race. This unit is designed to set the book in a contemporary context, help teachers feel comfortable discussing the book, and allow students to speak their minds on a range of issues pertaining to pre-colonial Aboriginal society and its role in helping to develop modern sustainability.

The following activities should be conducted while students are still reading the text.

Setting the circle

Have students arrange their chairs in a circle. Explain that Aboriginal people have used yarning circles for many thousands of years to conduct business and set up learning/teaching experiences (with similar practices taking place in many cultures around the world).

Tell students that some of the work in this unit is going to be conducted in the same way; they should be prepared to participate in group discussions on the book and its themes.

New ways of thinking

To paraphrase E. H. Carr, cultures and worldviews are never static; people view the past and rewrite history from the perspective of the present. A good example of how societal norms can change over time is the success of the 2017 Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey. It was clear from the results that most Australians’ attitudes towards marriage equality had changed significantly compared to previous generations.

The following discussion will help students see that what seemed sensible in the past might be reviewed using contemporary ideas. That is, existing systems may be improved upon and are constantly being (re)shaped from a position of new knowledge and moral understanding.

Ask the class to reflect on their years of schooling now that their time as students is drawing to a close. Facilitate a discussion on what they would change about the Australian education system if they had the chance. Some conversation starters might include:

  • school timetabling (including start and end times)
  • the necessity of uniforms
  • curriculum changes
  • more experiential learning

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Unpacking colonialism

Colonialism and imperialism are two sides of the same coin. Powerful metropolitan (and usually European) countries like Britain, France, Spain and the Netherlands took control of other countries and claimed sovereignty over them. This is what Cook, on behalf of King George III, did in 1770 when he claimed the east coast of Australia for Britain.

Declaring sovereignty was not necessarily the same thing as taking ownership of land. Imperial countries generally felt that they had to negotiate the exchange of land or sign a treaty with the local Indigenous peoples. This did not happen in Australia, where sovereignty and ownership were claimed at the same time (as Henry Reynolds points out in Forgotten War). This was contrary to international law at the time.

At the time of Federation in 1901, the Federal Government in Melbourne had limited control over large parts of the continent, but no control over remote areas where Aboriginal peoples continued to exercise sovereignty over their lands and lives. Even today, activists and lawyers point out that First Nations peoples have never ceded sovereignty. However, colonial settlers – supported by soldiers from their home country – generally felt a sense of entitlement in occupying other peoples’ lands. They often justified this by telling themselves myths, like the one students will examine now.

The myth of ‘progress’: how to take land from others

Show students John Gast’s 1872 painting, American Progress. The artwork depicts the personification of manifest destiny leading American colonisers west. Her figure dominates the image, as Gast has portrayed her as a sort of benevolent giantess. She holds a schoolbook in one hand and unspools a telegraph wire with the other. Before her, a herd of buffalo and a group of Indigenous people flee from the colonisers behind them.

Discuss this image with the class and facilitate its analysis:

  • What is this picture saying about progress?
  • What do you make of the representation of Indigenous people in this picture?
  • What do you think this picture says, on the one hand, about exploiting the land for money; and on the other hand, about responsibility to nature and the environment?

Conversation through structured yarning

Place students in groups of five or six. Remind them how yarning circles work and make sure that they observe the established process. You can find yarning circle lesson plans in Reading Australia’s teaching resource for The Boy From the Mish (PDF, 120KB; PDF, 105KB; PDF, 87KB); feel free to consult these and adapt to suit your needs.

Set up the focus question for small group discussion:

Using evidence from the text, demonstrate/argue for the existence of Aboriginal civilisation before invasion.

Remember: colonists claimed that Aboriginal peoples had not developed the land and did not have a complex civilisation. This became a powerful argument for dispossessing them of their lands.

To help students respond to the focus question in a meaningful way, you might guide them through the following activities:

  • Show the class this short video, which identifies various aspects of ‘civilisation’. Highlight the obvious fact that the video represents a European point of view.
  • Create a simple retrieval chart with two columns: ‘European view of civilisation’ and ‘Aboriginal societies and cultures’ (as described in Dark Emu).
    • In the first column, have students list the aspects of ‘civilisation’ that are outlined in the video.
    • In the second column, have them list examples from Dark Emu that show how Aboriginal societies also met the criteria for ‘civilisation’ (e.g. the video mentions having a system of law; students will find correlating examples in Chapter 6: The Heavens, Language and the Law).
  • Complete the chart with input from students. You could allocate different chapters to different groups and have them share their findings with the class.
  • Ask students whether they think early colonial settlers recognised elements of ‘civilisation’ in Aboriginal societies. If they had, might they have behaved differently and decided against greedily and violently overrunning Aboriginal lands?
    • In 1835, historian James Boyce writes about an illegal squatter camp along the Yarra River in the Port Phillip colony, marking the beginning of the illegal conquest of much of eastern Australia. Boyce criticises both Richard Bourke (Governor of NSW, 1831–1837) and James Stephen (British Undersecretary of State for the Colonies, 1836–1847) for failing to prevent the violent conquest of Aboriginal lands by squatters, through the simple measure of denying formal land ownership to those who took over land illegally.

Debrief with the whole class at the end of the session. Useful prompts may include:

  • Something I’ve learned today is …
  • Some things I have thought about or realised are …
  • My biggest takeaway is …

As a matter of interest, point out that the concept of terra nullius (which Bourke implemented in 1835) was overturned by the High Court of Australia’s Mabo decision in 1992.

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Personal response on reading the text

Once students have finished reading Dark Emu, facilitate a class discussion around the following questions:

  1. How did you feel while reading this text?
  2. What did you expect from the text, based on the activities that we conducted while you were reading?
  3. What was challenging for you? Is there anything you are still finding hard to accept?
  4. How do you think this text would be received by First Nations communities?
  5. How do you think this text would be received by non-Indigenous Australians?

A question that should always be asked about any text is: ‘Whose interest is served?’ Pascoe often reflects on why earlier historians did not reach the same conclusions he did from the observations of explorers like Sturt and Mitchell. Ask students:

  1. Why hasn’t the recent work of historians (e.g. Reynolds), archaeologists (e.g. Griffiths), and journalists (e.g. Paul Daley) been acknowledged or led to changes in the national story?
  2. Whose interest is served by the suppression and omission of their observations about Australian history? Why do you think this is the case?

The answer probably lies in the continuing power of the white colonial story AND colonial voices in Australian politics, especially among conservative politicians and their constituents. In 2019, the Hon Sussan Ley MP articulated a prevalent point of view regarding Australian history and European settlement (she was discussing the terrible bushfires that ravaged the country from 2019–2020). While Ley apologised for misspeaking, she nevertheless gave a voice to the continuing power of the white colonial story.

Pascoe does acknowledge the work of historian Bill Gammage, who argued in The Biggest Estate on Earth that Aboriginal peoples shaped the landscape of the entire continent using techniques like firestick farming. Gammage’s thesis was supported by botanist W. D. Jackson and the aforementioned Rhys Jones, whose views also give support to Pascoe’s argument in Dark Emu. Even so, Gammage’s ideas have not escaped criticism; students should be alerted to some subtle points in response to his thesis. For example, the word ‘estate’ tends to give the impression that the whole continent was managed in a homogeneous way, when it was in fact a mosaic of different ecologies, all of which required different management strategies.

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Power and authority

Ask students to re-read Chapter 8: Accepting History and Creating the Future, particularly the pages concerning explorer and pastoralist Angus McMillan (pp. 221–223). Point out that McMillan was able to treat two Aboriginal men, Johnnie Cabonne and Jemmy Gibber, as slaves because of the institutional power that he held over them (i.e. his power came from the colonial government, which was the situation in all colonised countries).

Unfortunately, persistent colonial attitudes towards Aboriginal peoples have led to further abuses of power in modern Australia. In 2016, the ABC’s Four Corners program exposed the treatment of children in juvenile detention in the NT. This led to a Royal Commission into the failings of the child protection and youth detention systems.

NOTE: For your students’ safety (especially that of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students), DO NOT show footage or describe the above incident in detail.

Emphasise that all Australians should be protected by the rule of law, rather than indiscriminately punished by gaolers. Also explain that the power of the state can be used to support one version of history over another.

Synthesising task

Contemporary Australia is now grappling with the legacy of official policies and decisions made by both the British and colonial governments in the early nineteenth century. First Nations peoples have suffered oppression, the attempted erasure of their cultures, and the invasion of their Country. Additionally, the imposition of colonial farming and agricultural practices that are unsuitable for (or worse, harmful to) Country have led to environmental degradation. This has, of course, been exacerbated by extraordinary climate change.

Ask students to list some of the contemporary environmental problems that Australia faces today (e.g. flooding, drought, bushfire, threats to water quality, habitat loss). Then have them consult Dark Emu for possible solutions, identifying the First Nations practices that could have prevented or mitigated these problems (e.g. cool burning as a method of bushfire management).

Students can record their findings in a retrieval chart or similar, noting page references and key textual evidence. Finish with a whole class discussion so that students can share what they have learned; they might like to add to their notes based on what they hear. This exercise will reaffirm the value, efficacy, and validity of First Nations knowledges and practices.

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The following activities are best undertaken after reading the book, when students are ready to participate in a close analysis.

The writer’s craft

Text structure

Dark Emu is not a traditional narrative. It is a piece of multi-genre writing, incorporating elements of analytical and hortatory exposition with historical recounts from white explorers. Overall the book is an analytical exposition (a piece of argumentative writing) that presents a strong case for Pascoe’s thesis that First Nations peoples created a civilisation on this continent long before colonial settlers arrived. The individual chapters further advance the argument that there was a sophisticated, complex, and sustainable society in Australia prior to European contact. Pascoe uses extracts from the explorers’ journals as evidence for his thesis.

Analysing the structure of the book

Ask students to identify Pascoe’s thesis (i.e. the main idea that he is presenting). Facilitate a class discussion, possibly via yarning circle, about the main arguments of the text. Ask students to record the main points from this conversation in their own notes.

Now have students form eight groups and assign each one a chapter from Dark Emu. Working within their groups, students will produce a summary of the chapter, outlining its main points and how it supports Pascoe’s overall thesis. Explain that the main arguments from each chapter, supported by evidence or data, promote the overall thesis. This may be an ideal time to educate students on the features of analytical, expository and argumentative (persuasive) essays.

Using hortatory exposition, Pascoe also sets out to persuade readers to do something: to work towards a sustainable future for Australia using traditional farming practices, AND to ensure that Aboriginal peoples benefit from the exploitation of their intellectual property (Henrietta Marrie AM, a Gimuy Walubara Yidinji academic, has written on this topic).

Direct students to the important issue of Indigenous cultural and intellectual property. Ask them to consider how ironic it is that white commercial businesses have made a lot of money from the exploitation of First Nations knowledges (e.g. of certain plants). This is commonly known as cultural appropriation, but in many instances is quite simply cultural theft.

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Characterisation

Although ‘characters’ are usually associated with fiction, it is possible for a non-fiction writer to create sympathetic (or unsympathetic) characters to engage readers. There are several historical figures in Dark Emu; students should explore how Pascoe has used language to represent these figures, as well as to position readers to adopt certain attitudes towards them.

Vivid descriptions and evocative language bring the reader closer to the time being described, and create an atmosphere where they feel like part of the narrative. Ask students to read the descriptions and words of Major Thomas Mitchell (pp. 14–15), George Grey (pp. 16–18), Charles Sturt (pp. 98–100), and Angus McMillan (pp. 221–223) to see how Pascoe has used descriptive language to bring these historical figures to life.

Setting

As Dark Emu is concerned with environmental stability on the Australian continent, students should reflect on how the landscape, flora, and fauna have changed over time. Ask them to conduct their own research on ONE of the following sites:

  • Bunya Mountains
  • Brewarrina Fish Traps
  • Kooyoora National Park
  • Sutton Forest

Students should produce a short report on their chosen site, answering the following questions:

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Voice

Throughout the book Pascoe strikes a balance between an authoritative and non-academic tone. One way he accomplishes this is by using the first person to give detailed accounts of his personal experiences of living a more sustainable lifestyle. This video, in which Pascoe talks about Aboriginal domesticates, is a good example; you could watch some or all of it in class if time allows.

Language and style

Pascoe employs literary devices that are closely related to persuasive/argumentative texts. You might like to conduct some general activities around these as students move into a closer reading of Dark Emu. The following resources may be useful:

This is also a good opportunity to explore the concept of register with students. Ask them to read the following extracts from Dark Emu and answer the subsequent questions:

p. 30, para. 3 (on the 25,000-year-old grindstone at Kakadu)
  • How does the use of a rhetorical question reach out to readers and create an inclusive ‘our’, presumably referring to all Australians?
p. 66, para. 2 (on the marketability of Aboriginal grains)
  • How does Pascoe use language to lower the formal tone in this passage?
  • What does Pascoe mean when he talks about setting aside paddocks and having fun?
  • What is the effect of the idiom at the end of the paragraph? Answer with reference to the broader argument of the text. NOTE: Pascoe has used a variation of a more well-known idiom, ‘I’ll eat my hat’.
pp. 92–93 (on cooking abalone and harvesting being seen as poaching)
  • Why do you think Pascoe has shared this personal story with the reader? How does it engage the reader?
  • Why does ‘mutton fish’ appear in quotation marks here?

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Synthesising task/activity

Deficit discourse and the single narrative

Explain to students the meaning of the term ‘deficit discourse’. This is a pattern of thinking and speaking about people in terms of their deficiencies and failures. It is strongly related to the belief among some non-Indigenous people that nothing happened on the continent of Australia – and that pre-colonial First Nations peoples did little with the land – until the British arrived in 1788. This is the idea that Pascoe rejects so forcefully in Dark Emu (as does Billy Griffiths in Deep Time Dreaming).

A related concept is the ‘single story/narrative’. In terms of this unit of work, it refers to the dominant national (white colonial) story that non-Indigenous Australians have told – and continue to tell – about Australia. Show students ‘The danger of a single story’, a TED talk by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and discuss the limitations of the single narrative.

Students will then complete ONE of the following tasks:

  1. Write a persuasive/argumentative essay that considers and responds to the following question: ‘How does Pascoe challenge a deficit view of Aboriginality in Dark Emu?’
  2. Find examples where Pascoe uses persuasive language to convince readers that First Nations peoples should benefit from their knowledge and understanding of the land.

Finish by asking students to write a short hortatory exposition (persuasive essay) to convince all Australians that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples should share in the wealth derived from their traditional knowledges.

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Ways of reading the text

History is an interpretation of the past based on available evidence. These interpretations can vary widely depending on the historian’s ideology (i.e. their values, attitudes and beliefs).

As an example of how a single event can be interpreted differently, students could look at responses to Australia’s 1996 gun law reforms. The first step would be to peruse the following sources:

  • a letter of encouragement from a member of the public to former Prime Minister John Howard (1996)
  • an article about the lingering resentment among gun owners, 10 years later (2006)
  • a reflection from John Howard in his own words, 20 years later (2016)
  • a tribute to former Nationals leader Tim Fischer for his role in the reforms (2019) – also details some of the backlash at the time

Discuss these interpretations with students. Ask them to consider how there can be such divergent accounts of the same event. Remind them of E. H. Carr’s theory that history is interpretive rather than objective, and that historians will select the facts that support their worldview at a given moment in time.

Dark Emu is Pascoe’s reinterpretation of Australian history. Its ideas might be considered controversial; it certainly challenges more conventional histories of Australia, asking us to reimagine the past and question the ways that it has been written about. Significantly, the book asks us to consider the purpose that people have in writing history, and implores us not to ignore evidence so that we can cling to an ideology that may never have been based on facts.

As such, there are two main ways of reading Dark Emu:

  1. as someone (the implied reader) who is prepared to consider Pascoe’s reinterpretation of Australian history; OR
  2. as a sceptic unwilling to accept Pascoe’s thesis, thus adopting an alternative reading of the text.

Students should be able to read a text like Dark Emu with a sceptical point of view, but in a way that allows them to acknowledge historical evidence, even when it challenges what they believe to be true. Note that Pascoe himself encourages curiosity and doubt in children.

Explain to students that the reading approach referred to above is called reception theory. The idea is that the meaning of a text depends on the individual reader, who will bring their previous experiences and understandings to the text.

Of course, this theory recognises that readers’ worldviews are socially and culturally constructed, so another way of looking at how readers respond to Dark Emu is to explore the attitudes, values and beliefs of the discourses to which they belong. For example, how will a conservative commentator react to Dark Emu? Or an Aboriginal rights activist?

For some years now, Pascoe has been attacked by conservative social and political commentators. They have criticised the ideas in Dark Emu and challenged Pascoe’s status as an Aboriginal man. The question then arises: what is their reading position? Such an audience would adopt an alternative reading of Dark Emu, presumably based on their conservative worldview. They may even go a step further and make a resistant reading based on the attitudes, values, and beliefs of an old, white, colonialist ideology. Some of Pascoe’s detractors could also be operating within a capitalist economic model that privileges the powerful and wealthy – or perhaps a combination of this and the former position(s).

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Comparison with other texts

Dark Emu has struck such a chord with Australian readers that a dance work was produced in 2018; a young readers’ edition* was published in 2019; and a documentary was released in 2023. Pascoe has appeared in several videos and at multiple events to promote his book and the ideas therein. Show students his 2018 TEDxSydney talk, ‘A real history of Aboriginal Australians, the first agriculturalists’, and ask them to consider these questions:

  • Where does this particular story sit in the broader context of Pascoe’s argument?
  • Who do you think Pascoe’s audience is in this instance?
  • Do you think it was a good idea to share this story with this audience?

* Reading Australia resource available

Now ask students to imagine that they are giving a 15-minute presentation to convince an audience of their peers of the merits of First Nations sustainability practices. What stories from Dark Emu would they choose to tell? Ask them to justify their choices. This can be done individually, in small groups, or even as a whole class discussion.

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There are many texts by new and established First Nations storytellers that challenge the dominant national story in Australia.

Novels
Non-fiction
Films

* Reading Australia resource available

This list is by no means exhaustive! There are many other texts by contemporary First Nations novelists, filmmakers, poets, and so on that students might like to read/view and share with their classmates.

Evaluation of the text as representative of Australian culture

In Jock Serong’s historical thriller Preservation, the characters walk along a beach in eastern Victoria before turning north and walking up the coast towards Sydney. The observations they make along the way are reminiscent of the journal entries in Dark Emu (pp. 110, 159). In fact, Serong has acknowledged the importance of Pascoe’s work to his own writing. It is clear that Dark Emu has changed the worldview of many Australians, including other writers. Students may enjoy reading Preservation as an example of historical fiction, as well as for its new perspective on First Nations peoples in colonial Australia.

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Mark McKenna is one of Australia’s leading historians. The following extract from his Quarterly Essay (‘Moment of Truth: History and Australia’s Future’) demonstrates his support for Pascoe’s thesis and challenges the traditional history of settlement in Australia:

Equally, when we tell our new citizens that ‘Aboriginal people did not grow crops or set up homes to stay in one place as the British did’, we are peddling falsehoods. British settlers arrived to a carefully managed landscape. It was not natural. There was no wilderness or ‘empty places’. Aboriginal people built villages, cultivated and harvested crops, dried and stored food, constructed elaborate stone walls, quarries, fish traps, terraced gardens, paths and fences. Australian ‘civilisation’ was already established. The challenge of incorporating Indigenous ecological knowledge – firestick farming is perhaps the most obvious – into the way we care for country today is one that we have only recently taken up.

The following texts are also mentioned in Dark Emu to support Pascoe’s arguments:

Students could do some research on the main themes of these texts. Once they have gathered some information (including details about content, style, genre, and argument), they could speculate on how each book might address the identified themes. This can be done individually or in small groups, with each student/group choosing ONE text as the focus of their research. They will then come back together and compare their findings to identify the common themes and any other similarities.

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Hopefully Dark Emu will change the way that non-Indigenous readers think about themselves as Australians, as well as about Australian national identity. Noongar author Kim Scott has reflected on the possibility of this becoming more ‘nuanced’ as individuals and communities (re)connect to First Nations heritage (see the final two paragraphs in his Australian Book Review piece, ‘Australian Dreaming’). He has also pointed to the healing and empowering effects of such reconnection for First Nations peoples. Former Australian Rules footballer and Adnyamathanha/Narungga man Adam Goodes is a prime example of this – you can read more about his story OR watch The Australian Dream (2019), with accompanying ABC Education resources.

Significance to literature and the world of texts

Introduce students to James C. Scott’s Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States. Scott says that the usual story of human development (from hunter-gathering to herding to farming in settled communities) is too neat. He argues instead that humans followed this path only to pull back when the dangers of their new settled way of life became obvious. These dangers included crop failure, illness (because so many people were crowded together), and the introduction of slavery to provide a workforce. In keeping with Scott’s thesis, Pascoe points out that many Aboriginal groups combined hunter-gathering with aspects of a more settled life (e.g. crop cultivation and the building of semi-permanent houses, fish traps, and granaries).

Ask students to consider the possibility that Aboriginal peoples combined hunter-gathering with agriculture and herding, but decided against establishing a full-blown hierarchy of state power exercised by a non-productive elite and funded by a tax on grain (as was typical elsewhere in the world, e.g. the Fertile Crescent), because they understood some of the dangers of doing so.

The idea that hunter-gathering is ‘simple’ is based on a paradigm of evolutionary progress, with human societies gradually moving from hunter-gathering to farming. Consider discussing some of the ideas that flow from this paradigm with students:

  • Is the human species really ‘moving forward’ in a steady path towards progress? Some people might argue that we are instead moving collectively towards extinction (e.g. the challenge of global warming).
  • Was hunter-gathering really ‘simple’? Wouldn’t it have involved a very deep knowledge of the land and its wildlife?
  • Is agriculture always ‘good’ or a positive development? Consider the detrimental impact of tobacco farming in Virginia as an example.

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Synthesising tasks

Task 1

Part A

Ask students to read the 2017 Guardian opinion piece by journalist Paul Daley, who reframes some key colonial leaders (e.g. Governor Lachlan Macquarie) as murderers. Contemporary Aboriginal writers who have also challenged the dominant narrative of Australian settlement include novelist Tony Birch, Arrernte union and community organiser Celeste Liddle, and activist and Professor of Law Irene Watson.

Next, have students respond in writing to the following questions:

  1. Why do you think we continue to celebrate murderers? Is such admiration ever justified?
  2. Daley says that people are quick to believe things that suit them. What things do you believe that suit you? Have you ever challenged these beliefs?
  3. If it were up to you to rename an Australian town, suburb or city, how would you make your decision? Tony Birch has written about renaming the Grampians to Gariwerd in Blacklines: Contemporary Critical Writing By Indigenous Australians (ed. Michele Grossman). Birch notes the difficulty of resurrecting First Nations place names because of resistance from colonial settler groups, as well as from Aboriginal people who see this as a way of exploiting their culture for commercial purposes.

Students could discuss their individual responses with a partner. If appropriate, you could then invite the pairs to share their thoughts with the rest of the class.

Part B

Ask students to research FIVE TO TEN Australian place names that interest them. Emphasise the importance of consulting reputable sources, preferably those created by First Nations organisations. You might like to point them towards the following websites:

Where did the names come from? Do the stories behind the names surprise them? Ask students to write a 30-word personal response to each of the place names they have investigated.

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Task 2

The debate around native title underpins some of the issues that First Nations peoples continue to have with the Australian government. Present students with some videos and other resources on the following topics:

Once you have explored some of these resources, hold a yarning circle so that students can discuss the aforementioned issues in detail. Ask them to consider why many First Nations people feel frustrated by native title processes. Wiradjuri man and scholar Mark McMillan has pointed out that, despite First Nations peoples having never ceded their sovereignty, the Australian Constitution does not acknowledge this as an aspect of federalism. Native title – a concept developed by the ‘white’ Federal Government of Australia – has been constructed as the highest legal right First Nations peoples can ask for. Irene Watson has also argued that the starting point for constitutional recognition is acknowledgement of pre-colonial legal arrangements, which would need to be incorporated into the document.

Following on from this discussion, ask students to consider how the Aboriginal peoples we encounter in Dark Emu may feel about the concept of land rights. Should people have to fight for ownership of land that they have never given away?

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The Dark Emu (also called the Celestial Emu or Emu in the Sky) is a constellation formed from the dark clouds of the Milky Way. Many First Nations communities use the Emu’s position in the sky to track the behaviour of emus on the ground and determine the timing of annual ceremonies. Pascoe’s reference to this constellation may seem obscure to non-Indigenous readers, but it is incredibly significant for decoding the overall meaning of the text.

Ask students to research what the Dark Emu actually is. They should seek authentic and accurate descriptions from reputable sources; Wiradjuri astrophysicist Kirsten Banks and Gamilaraay astrophysicist Karlie Noon have both written about the Celestial Emu/Emu in the Sky. This would also be a good opportunity to invite a local Elder or cultural educator to address your class.

The following links can help students get started:

Once they know more about the constellation, ask them why Pascoe may have thought it would make an appropriate title for his book. They should compose a personal response of no fewer than 300 words. This will lead them into the first Rich Assessment Task.

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Rich assessment task 1

Book review

Newly-published books are often reviewed to provide an informed critique of the author’s work, as well as to let audiences know whether it is worth reading or not. If a non-fiction book like Dark Emu challenges readers’ conventional beliefs, then it may be picked up by progressive or conservative websites/publications that will publish favourable or negative commentary about the main ideas.

Dark Emu has been the subject of considerable controversy ever since it was published in 2014. It will continue to be seen as controversial as it contributes to ongoing national discussions about recognition of and reconciliation with First Nations peoples.

Ask students to write a book review for a publication like Australian Book Review, Sydney Review of Books, The Guardian or similar. They should consult a review writing guide to help them plan their work – a comprehensive resource is available from Literacy Ideas, with additional tips from BookTrust and Grammarly. Remind students to address some of the following points from Dark Emu:

  • Aboriginal peoples were hunter-gatherers, but they also interacted with their environment to ensure their food supply:
    • They used fire to manage their food sources (e.g. annual burning around waterholes to encourage the growth of sweet new grass to attract animals)
    • This approach to managing the land was an early form of pasture control or husbandry
  • Aboriginal peoples also built semi-permanent villages:
    • Communities in southern Western Australia and south-west Victoria built substantial houses, often using stone
    • They also built weirs and eel/fish traps, and dug wells to guarantee water supply.

Of course, these are only a starting point. There are many other ideas that students might like to explore based on their own reading of Dark Emu.

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Rich assessment task 2

Persuasive speech

Dark Emu argues for a historical reassessment of First Nations ways of living, and suggests that they may contain lessons for contemporary farmers, conservationists, and politicians. But what about educators? Reflecting on the education system itself may be a particularly powerful retrospective task for students on the cusp of finishing high school.

For this task, students will write and deliver a speech arguing for the more meaningful inclusion of First Nations processes in modern Australian classrooms. They should synthesise what they have learned about pre-colonial First Nations ways of living, and give specific examples of the learning that they believe would be useful for Australian school students in contemporary society.

In planning their response, students may wish to consider the following:

  • What is the point of being educated?
  • What are some of the challenges that we face as a nation today?
  • What are the global issues that humanity faces today?
  • What are the skills and capabilities that students will need to meet these challenges?

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Rich assessment task 3

Short story

Students are to write an engaging short story based on a significant incident or event from Dark Emu. For example, they could choose an event from the journal of one of the European explorers. Students should NOT write from the perspective of First Nations peoples if they themselves do not belong to a First Nations community.

First, students will write an author’s note (approx. 250 words) in which they explain how they plan to use their chosen event as the basis for a short story. Give them the following guidelines:

  • Give a brief recount of the event OR the circumstances surrounding the event
  • Describe TWO OR THREE characters who will feature in the short story
  • Explain how you will amplify the event to make it entertaining for readers
  • Explain how you will try to embed in the story ONE of the themes explored in Dark Emu:
    • sustainability
    • justice
    • hope
    • resilience
    • social responsibility
  • Explain how you will try to position your readers to adopt a particular perspective (e.g. will you use a focalising character?)
  • Try to explain how any unequal power relations between characters will be dealt with

Once they have completed their author’s note, students will write a full-length short story. Give them the following guidelines:

  • Choose an appropriate genre (realism or action may be suitable for this task)
  • Decide on point of view (e.g. first person, third person)
  • Choose a tense for the story (past tense is fairly conventional)
  • Create a setting that suits the general mood of the story
  • Mould the recount into the typical shape of a short story (orientation leading to complication then climax and resolution); you could also use the strategy of in media res (i.e. starting the story in the middle before moving backwards and forwards)
  • Make sure to show as well as tell
  • Give the characters appropriate dialogue
  • Use literary techniques as appropriate (e.g. simile, metaphor)

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