YOUNG DARK EMU - A TRUER HISTORY BY BRUCE PASCOE

Young Dark Emu- A Truer History is a valuable reference book for children that questions a period in Australia’s history. It is a simplified version of Bruce Pascoe’s book Dark Emu which won him the Book of the Year and Indigenous Writer Prize in 2016.

Each chapter introduces the reader to an element of the culture of the Aboriginal people as it existed when the first white settlers arrived. Using quotes and illustrations from the journals of white settlers it explores agriculture, aquaculture, dwellings, food storage, land management and sacred sites.

The Aboriginal people inhabited a landscape that at times could be harsh. They lived in villages, cultivated the land, hunted and had rich spiritual lives. All of this was eroded away or violently destroyed by the arrival of a colonial power that believed it had the right to settle and take over any land it chose. History shows that colonisation was widespread. Many European and Asian countries explored the world and where they were able, took other countries as their own. In the present day, some countries still try to expand into other regions but it is now seen as an unacceptable practice.

The Aboriginal people, their culture and life style were decimated by colonial intervention and like may before them and still to this day, the conqueror is the one that gets to write the loudest history. After the 1860s there was little evidence left of how the Aboriginal people had lived on the land and so it became a widespread belief that they had been a nomadic hunter-gatherer people.

Bruce Pascoe’s Young Dar Emu – A Truer History shows a different way of looking at Australia’s history. It shows the reader how to look deeper and explore further, rather than relying on just one source for information. Recounting history is not just a simple matter of reading the version from one cultural authority, it should involve multiple sources and in that way, a bigger, truer story will emerge.

For Ages: 8-13 years

Number of Pages: 80 Hardback.

Published: June 2019

Rating: 4/5