What the Media are saying about Dark Emu & Dark Emu Exposed
Update of 19 April 2023
Tony Thomas of Quadrant Online discusses his latest article on the flourishing business empire of Dark Emu author, Professor Bruce Pascoe, on the Andrew Bolt show.
Update of June 19th 2021
Bruce Pascoe and his Dark Emu have hit the headlines again in 2021 (if ever they ever left them?).
Two well-credentialed academics, anthropologist Peter Sutton and archaeologist Keryn Walshe have just published a new book, Farmers or Hunter Gatherers?, The Dark Emu Debate, which basically just says, in a more professional way, what we have been banging on about at Dark Emu Exposed for the past two years - that Bruce Pascoe just made up much of his book Dark Emu, and most of it is just rubbish. Peter Sutton agrees with us that Dark Emu should be withdrawn from schools. Hear, hear! Our goal is realised. You can hear him here.
We have reposted this blog-page with the latest media commentary, at the bottom of the page, about what is shaping up to be the greatest literary hoax in Australian history, the Dark Emu Hoax.
Original Post of Feb 12th 2020
I started the Dark Emu Exposed website in June 2019 in an attempt to make Australians aware of what I thought was a dangerous book, Young Dark Emu, which was about to be published for use in schools. Its parent book, Dark Emu, published in 2014, I thought was “trash history”, but then Mr Pascoe is completely entitled to publish a book about his theories, and re-write Australian history as he sees fit, for adult readers to enjoy, hate or ignore as they please. However, our children are sacred and it is just not acceptable to allow them to be indoctrinated with texts that completely re-write our Australian history based on no new evidence. Mr Pascoe, his publisher Magabala Books, and school administrators have no right to introduce such a poor text for use by our grade 4 and 5 (9 to 11 year old) children. Almost as horrifying, was the fact that it appeared that not one, professionally qualified academic had stood up in public and condemned the book, or at least severely questioned its suitability, for inclusion in the school syllabus.
With one thing leading to another, I had soon attracted some 20 like-minded, average, normal, ‘Quiet Australians’, from all walks of life, but with a shared interest in amateur Australian history and a concern for truth and accuracy in the depiction of our Colonial and Aboriginal histories. Many of them had also been independently trying to de-bunk Bruce Pascoe and his book via social media platforms. As we checked Mr Pascoe’s Dark Emu text, and compared it to his quoted “original” references, and what he was saying in his lectures, we started to find some errors. These finds were small ones at first, which can be forgiven in any academic work, but then larger errors appeared and, most worryingly, some even appeared to be possibly wilful manipulations, additions or omissions to slant the narrative and bolster his argument. We amassed many examples and the blog posts grew.
In August 2019 we contacted Andrew Bolt at the Herald Sun/Skynews, who took an interest in our project, and overtime Bolt then published a series of articles and videos, and the rest is history, as they say, with our project’s website readership exploding and being commented on by Chris Kenny on Skynews, in Quadrant magazine, in The Australian and Herald Sun newspapers, and even the Daily Mail in the UK.
Much extra weight to the community campaign to de-bunk Dark Emu came with the publication in November 2019 of Peter O’Briens book, Bitter Harvest: The illusion of Aboriginal agriculture in Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu . This was quite independent of our work, showing that others in the community were feeling as incensed as we were with Pascoe’s revisionist theories. Comments also began to appear in a small way on Twitter, often by Aboriginal people and groups who objected to Bruce Pascoe and his Dark Emu book as much as we did.
The Progressive Left media completely ignored the issue until late November 2019, when very small references to the Pascoe controversy started to appear in the Guardian and on ABC Ballarat radio. Some longer print articles are now (late November 2019) appearing. Some ABC presenters engaged in the odd personal Twitter skirmish with opponents, but none of these presenters appears to have arranged a formal ABC slot to debate the issues, much to the disappointment of those taxpayers who see this as just one more instance of ABC bias. To our mind this only supports Andrew Bolt’s case that the ABC is biased.
During December 2019, the ABC appears to have gone strangely silent on the matter of the controversy surrounding Mr Pascoe. Is this a sign that ABC management are beginning to believe some, or all, of our evidence? Or are they hoping that the issue will just go away by their ignoring of it, so it won’t affect their launch in April 2020 of the Bruce Pascoe Documentary? Or maybe they think they are on the ‘moral high-ground’ and we are completely wrong, so they do not need to justify our concerns with a formal response! Only time will tell. Without giving anything away concerning the moves that we know are afoot, we predict that this issue will be resolved one way or another in early 2020 - So stay posted! - Roger Karge, Editor
Here is our Media time-line so far :
Our First Post in the Media
It all started with ‘Letter to the Editor’ at Cairns News on June 16th 2019 - cairnsnews.org
Then from August 2019 things started to build as follows:
1. Andrew Bolt on : Skynews 1 , Skynews 2 , Skynews 3 , Skynews 4 ,
2.The Australian Newspaper : 28th November 2019 ; 9th December 2019 ; 23rd November 2019
3.Andrew Bolt in The Herald Sun : 21st November 2019 , 24th November 2019 , 25th November 2019 , 27th November 2019
4.The Daily Mail UK : 20th November 2019
5.The Conservative Woman UK : 30th November 2019
6.Quadrant : 12th November 2019
7.Inside Story : 26th November 2019
8.The Guardian : 27th November 2019 ,
9.The ABC : 27th November 2019
10.Joy Radio (with Mr Pascoe’s response to criticisms and a lovely Freudian slip at 0:48 !) Bruce also says he has the Certificates to support his claims to his Aboriginality (at 05:40) : 29th November 2019 - or download and listen here.
11.The Saturday paper : 30th November 2019 written based on Andrew Bolt’s responses to their questions two days previously : 28th November 2019
12…7ampodcast (The Saturday Paper) : 3rd December 2019
13.RRR Interview : The Mission: Journalist Rick Morton (The Saturday Paper) on Dark Emu and Andrew Bolt : 3rd December 2019
14.SMH : 19th January 2020
15.The Sunday Age : 19th January 2020
16.Jeff Sparrow in REDFLAG : 22th January 2020
17.Independent Australia : 24th January 2020
18.The Adelaide Review : 24th January 2020
19.ABC Radio where we are described as a “nefarious group” who “writes for Quadrant”! (not true - Editor) : 28th January 2020
20.The ‘penny starts to drop’ for some on the Left that Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu is flawed : The Monthly : 5th February 2020
21.The Age Editorial : 8th February 2020
22.The Spectator Australia : 13th February 2020
23.Andrew Bolt : 6th March 2020 and 6th March 2020
24.The Guardian Podcast : 13th May 2020
25.The Guardian : 13th May 2020 Bruce Pascoe talking on ABC radio from 27:30 : 20th June 2020
26.Andrew Bolt : 22nd June 2020 and 22nd June 2020
27.Crikey! : June 26th 2020
28.Finally a professional Historian comes out and refutes Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu : Professor Geofrey Blainey in an Andrew Bolt Interveiw : August 19 2020 and Youtube
29.The Wikipedia Wars - Andrew Bolt 30th January 2021 and Quadrant Magazine On-line 27th January 2021
30.The Bolt Report - The ABC ‘downgrades’ Bruce Pascoe to just an ‘author’ with no tribal monikers - Listen to the Bolt Report Thursday 26th March 2021 from 26:48.
Australia’s Greatest Literary Hoax? - A New Chapter in the Debunking of Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu
In June 2021, ‘like a thunder-clap’ from the sky, the left-leaning newspapers The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald finally decided that enough is enough. They launched a withering attack on the veracity of Bruce Pascoe and his Dark Emu book by running front page stories on the debunking of Dark Emu by two highly respected academics, anthropologist Peter Sutton and archaeologist Keryn Walshe in their book Farmers or Hunter-Gatherers? The Dark Emu Debate.
Despite our Dark Emu Exposed website (and Peter O’Brien at Quadrant) being two years ahead of these ‘academic-come-latelys’, we are still referred to as members of the ‘vitriolic’ Right. Ho hum. But our goal is in sight - to have Dark Emu removed from our schools - and Peter Sutton sounds like a terrier who will not rest until Dark Emu is assigned to the dustbin of history so we greatly welcome his efforts in this regard.
June 12, 2021
June 12, 2021
31.Konrad Marshall in The Sydney Morning Herald - June 12, 2021
32.SMH Good Weekend article, ‘Debunking Dark Emu’ by Stuart Rintoul.
33.Listen to the SMH Good Weekend podcast - Stuart Rintoul’s interview with Peter Sutton and Keryn Walshe
34.Rob Harris, The Sydney Morning Herald - June 12, 2021
35.Andrew Bolt Report - Exposing Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu Hoax - June 14, 2021
36.Andrew Bolt Podcast - listen here with Jacinta Price and Peter O’Brien and comment by Michael Kroger on Monday June 14th 2021
37.But some of the ‘woke’ editors at The Age now realise they need to wave the Progressive Left flag and throw Bruce a life-line, so they publish this conciliatory Editorial on June 14th 2021
Two days later, we observe the frantic scurrying of the Progressive Left media as they desperately try to recover the reputation of their guru, proud Yuin, Bunurong and Tasmanian man, Uncle Professor Bruce Pascoe and his Dark Emu.
38.From Millie Roberts (who?) at JUNKEE on June 16, 2021
39.This opinion piece from Ben Wilkie in the SMH June 16, 2021
40.Then some academics on the ‘B-team’ re-publish their very interesting paper, Hidden in plain sight: the archaeological landscape of Mithaka Country, south-west Queensland, on the ‘academic’ website, The Conversation in support of the Dark Emu thesis. Their article, with frequent mentions of Aboriginal ‘villages’ and the words ‘agriculture’ and ‘aquaculture’ appears to be designed to rescue some shred of credibility for Bruce Pascoe’s ‘Aboriginal farmer’ theory. They even refer to Bruce Pascoe’s literary muse, Rupert Gerritsen and an “archaeologist” [no he wasn’t]. - June 18th 2021.
But the clear-thinking Critics smell as hoax :
41.The Mocker says it how it is at, The Australian : Dark Emu’s feel-good factor trumps academic rigour - June 17th 2021 and here
42.Parnell Palme McGuinness in the SMH : OPINION - Want to be part of the fashionable set? Don’t join the ‘freethinkers’ - June 19th 2021 and here.
43.And it is good to see that ‘General’ Henry Ergas, safely ensconced at The Australian HQ way behind the lines, has decided it is now safe to ride in and observe the carcass of the Dead Emu, once the Aussie foot-soldiers, fighting in the trenches for the past two years, have finally killed the beast. Thank God, as General Ergas tells us, for the officers-come-lately, Captains,
‘Sutton and Walshe’ and ‘their courage’ which ‘not only does this country and its Indigenous people an immense service; it also shows that, despite everything, our finest scholars are still capable of producing “books with spine”. - The Australian , June 18th 2021 and here. [Oh, where would Australia be without its superior and courageous intellectual classes].
44.Frank Chung on news.com.au - Academics behind Dark Emu debunking say Indigenous history book should be removed from school libraries June 18th 2021.
45.Chris Kenny of Skynews interviews Anthony Dillon and Jacinta Price about the exposure of the Dark Emu Hoax, both of whom are “very pleased” to see the debate over Dark Emu finally coming out - June 18th 2021
46.‘When the tide goes out, you can see who was swimming naked’ - Excellent exposure of the ‘endorsers’ for Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu Hoax by Skynews - June 20th 2021
47.Media Watch on the ABC comments on the Debunking of Dark Emu - June 21st 2021
48.Mark Latham wants ‘fake history’ book blacklisted from NSW schools - 2GB Radio with Ben Fordham June 22nd 2021
49.Andrew Bolt on Skynews on Paul Barry’s (non)-apology over ABC coverage of Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu debunking - June 23rd 2021
50.Frank Chung at news.com.au - ‘NSW to allow ‘debunked’ history book Dark Emu to remain in schools’ - June 24th 2021
51.Nyunggai Warren Mundine in The Australian - ’Where was scrutiny of Bruce Pascoe’s claims in Dark Emu?’ - June 25th 2021
52.Rebecca Urban in The Australian - ‘Young Dark Emu ‘shouldn’t be in school curriculum’ - June 25th 2021
53.Fran Kelly on ABC RN Breakfast - struggles to rescue the reputation of Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu in her interview with Peter Sutton & Keryn Walshe - Download and listen Here -June 24th 2021
54.Cassie McCullagh on the ABC Radio Focus Sydney - The Dark Emu stoush : an interview with Peter Sutton & Keryn Walshe - Download and listen Here -June 16th 2021
55.Roanna Edwards on ABC Saturday Breakfast Perth - The Dark Emu Debate: Does it really matter if Aboriginal Australians were farmers or hunter-gatherers? - Download and listen Here -June 19th 2021
56. Finally a Sensible Balance Starts to Emerge - Ever so slowly, Education Departments in the States are acknowledging that as an educational ‘text’, Dark Emu is [deeply] flawed. The academic counter to Dark Emu is a book by Peter Sutton and Karen Walshe which is now being recommended as a reading text to students - see here and here.
57. Finally SBS starts to ask sensible questions. Bruce Pascoe appears on the SBS Insight program (Episode #34, October 2022) where he receives some pointed questions. The clever editing by the SBS team, with the camera cutting to Bruce Pascoe as the conversation deals with the problems of ‘fakes’ and box-tickers, is very illuminating. See here or here. See also here, here and here
58. Andrew Bolt’s take on the Insight program above. See here
59. Cory Bernadi on SkyNews - Commentary on ‘fakes’ in general and Bruce Pascoe in particular here
60. Dark Emu Documentary wins 2023 Walkley award - Andrew Bolt here
61. Andrew Bolt dismantles Bruce Pascoe’s new book, ‘Black Duck Foods’ here on 25 March 2024
For more recent media reports on Bruce Pascoe’s Ancestry controversy go to our Blog Page
