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Bruce Pascoe

Forfatter af Dark Emu

84+ Works 1,244 Members 29 Reviews

Om forfatteren

Bruce Pascoe was born in 1947 in Melbourne, Australia. He is an Indigenous writer. His latest books include Fog a Dox (winner of the Prime Minister's Literary Awards in 2013), Convincing Ground, Dark Emu, and Mrs Whitlam. He received the 2016 NSW Premier's Literary Awards Indigenous Writers Prize, vis mere Joint Winner. In 2018, he won the Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature. It acknowledges prominent literary writers over 60 who have made outstanding and lifelong contribution to Australian literature. (Bowker Author Biography) vis mindre

Serier

Værker af Bruce Pascoe

Dark Emu (2014) 770 eksemplarer
Young Dark Emu: A Truer History (2019) 88 eksemplarer
Salt (2019) 30 eksemplarer
The Babe is Wise: Contemporary Stories by Australian Women (1987) — Redaktør — 25 eksemplarer
Fog a Dox (2012) 23 eksemplarer
Found (2020) 14 eksemplarer
Mrs Whitlam (2016) 11 eksemplarer
Bloke (2009) 10 eksemplarer
Loving Country (2020) 8 eksemplarer
Shark (1999) 8 eksemplarer
Seahorse (2015) 8 eksemplarer
Ruby-Eyed Coucal (1996) 7 eksemplarer
Australian Short Stories No. 30 (1990) 6 eksemplarer
Earth (2001) 5 eksemplarer
Australian Short Stories (1983) — Redaktør — 5 eksemplarer
Australian Short Stories No 24 (1988) 4 eksemplarer
Ocean (2002) 4 eksemplarer
Cape Otway : coast of secrets (2006) 3 eksemplarer
Australian Short Stories No 29 (1985) 3 eksemplarer
Fox (1988) 3 eksemplarer
Night animals (1986) 3 eksemplarer
Nightjar (2000) 3 eksemplarer
Australian Short Stories No. 17 (1987) 3 eksemplarer
Australian short stories No. 26 (1986) 2 eksemplarer
Australian Short Stories No 44 (2015) 2 eksemplarer
Australian Short Stories No 32 (1988) 1 eksemplar
Wathawoorroong dictionary (2007) 1 eksemplar
Wathaurong: The people said No (2004) 1 eksemplar

Associated Works

Macquarie Pen Anthology of Aboriginal Literature (2008) — Bidragyder — 57 eksemplarer
Skins: Contemporary Indigenous Writing (2000) — Bidragyder — 19 eksemplarer
Guwayu, for all times (2020) — Bidragyder — 19 eksemplarer
The Best Australian Stories 2013 (2013) — Bidragyder — 12 eksemplarer

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Excellent. Well researched and convincing. Every Australian should read this book and understand the observations made by explorers and early settlers. Observations in the public record of Aboriginal housing, engineering, agriculture and storage: putting the lie to the image of them as mere primitive hunter-gatherers.
 
Markeret
davidrgrigg | 21 andre anmeldelser | Mar 23, 2024 |
6.5/10, the writing style and story was a bit flat, though I might not be the right person for this book, maybe a younger audience can enjoy this one.
 
Markeret
Law_Books600 | Nov 3, 2023 |
A rather important, worthwhile read for all Australians. "Dark Emu" is one of several recent books (another being the comprehensive "The Greatest Estate on Earth" - a superior and more objective read, if I'm honest) seeking to shatter the many misconceptions about the way Aboriginal Australians lived before their land was taken over by the white man.

"Arguing over whether the Aboriginal economy was a hunter-gatherer system or one of burgeoning agriculture is not the central issue. The crucial point is that we have never discussed it as a nation. The belief that Aboriginal people were 'mere' hunter gatherers has been used as a political tool to justify disposession."

Pascoe outlines the anthropological, geographical, and anecdotal evidence for Aboriginal farming, trapping, house-building, clothing, fire-burning, and other interesting practices. This book is not academic, in that it primarily lists a variety of examples and claims without citing many sources, but, as Pascoe notes, this is an area where there remains great prejudice and ignorance today. The information I was taught as factual when I was a child portrays a fairly simplistic view of the Aboriginal tribes, and it's truly fascinating to gain an insight into the rich culture that existed in the country long before the white man. Pascoe sees the best possible answers, of course, and his ideology can be frustrating when it replaces more even-keeled thought. But perhaps this is better seen as a work of passionate non-fiction rather than academia. Australia has a long way to go before equality is achieved, and recognition of this sort can only help.
… (mere)
 
Markeret
therebelprince | 21 andre anmeldelser | Oct 24, 2023 |
As I read Dark Emu, I felt that it was an important book, but also in many ways a frustrating one. It's important because it overthrows much of the disinformation about pre-invasion Aboriginal Australian society that is given to Australians all the way from primary school to adulthood. We were told that Indigenous people were hunter-gatherers, but in fact in many places they farmed; we were told that they were nomads, but in fact in many places they were sedentary, or moved only rarely; we were told that they lived in primitive humpies, but in fact they built large, secure shelters that required skill to build and were part of their social fabric. All of this is tremendously important because it changes how we think of the invasion of Australia and Australian Indigenous cultures as they exist today. It's also important because, as Pascoe eloquently points out, if we allow it to, Aboriginal knowledge can help us learn how to live in in Australia today without degrading our environment. But that won't happen if we try to only access the technical knowledge. We need to understand the way Aboriginal societies made decisions, co-existed and thought in order to understand the kind of sustainability they achieved.

The frustration comes from two sources, one of which is no fault of the author's. Although Pascoe has found many interesting accounts of early contact, there is just so much that we don't and can't know. As part of the attempted genocide of Australia's first peoples there was a policy of diminishing and erasing Aboriginal achievements and culture. Much of what was erased can never be recovered, both the technical knowledge and the cultural and spiritual. This loss haunts the book, so that much of Pascoe's commentary is necessarily partial or speculative.

The latter frustration just comes from the fact that this book is not all it could be. Ideally, this should be a tour de force, a magnum opus. Consider the coherence and scope of a book like Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. Regardless of what you think about it's premises or its conclusions, it hangs together and puts together a forceful argument that is entertaining to read. Dark Emu is instead partial, somewhat repetitive and occasional awkwardly written. Pascoe talks only a little about the fact that the popular image of pre-invasion indigenous societies is in fact an image of post-invasion communities massively diminished by land theft, violence and disease. On that last point, there is nothing, or almost nothing, in the book, whereas it would have been interesting to learn whether it was true that many communities were essentially post-plague before they were even invaded.

Of course this second frustration is a harsh one. Jared Diamond was able to make Guns, Germs and Steel a magnum opus because he had the tenure and detachment to write it at leisure. Pascoe is amid the wreckage of a war that continues to be fought, sifting through evidence that has been destroyed at every opportunity.

So I was certainly able to get over my frustration in order to find the powerful arguments and evidence in this book both moving and challenging to my world view. I'll finish with two quotes which summarise the challenging notions that I'll take away from this book:
"Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were on the same cognitive trajectory as the rest of the human family, albeit in a different stream and a unique channel in that stream."

"It seems improbably that a country can continue to hide from the actuality of its history in order to validate the fact that having said sorry we refuse to say thanks." [I interepret this as our refusal to say thanks for their custodianship of the land we now live in]
… (mere)
 
Markeret
robfwalter | 21 andre anmeldelser | Jul 31, 2023 |

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84
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4
Medlemmer
1,244
Popularitet
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ISBN
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