So why, despite Dark Emu’s flaws, has it been so widely accepted?įor many people Dark Emu was a welcome antidote to the prevailing racism that regards Indigenous society as “primitive” and culturally backward. Before Sutton’s book, others had already raised the problems with Pascoe’s argument that Aboriginal society was agricultural, including historian Tom Griffiths and Russell Marks in The Monthly. Yet the problems with Bruce Pascoe’s book Dark Emu were always there for anyone who was concerned to check Pascoe’s claims and references. Many are concerned that the book is going to bolster the racist views of the likes of Andrew Bolt and Mark Latham and more generally set back the fight for rights and respect for Indigenous people in Australia. Peter Sutton and Keryn Walshe’s book Farmers or Hunter-Gatherers? has generated a storm of political debate. Respecting the sophistication and success of Indigenous societies doesn’t rely on pretending they were agricultural, argues Ian Rintoul
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