Innocent transcription errors or wilful attempts to slant the narrative? Read our review and critique and you decide!
Is this Intellectual Checkmate for Bruce Pascoe?
For an uninitiated Aboriginal man, to have read a copy of the book Yiwara, would be sacrilege, punishable by spearing or death - for a non-Aboriginal historian, to ignore the evidence in Yiwara that the Aborigines were solely hunter-gatherers, and not ‘settled farmers’, would amount to a deliberate hiding of evidence. Mr Pascoe says he has read this book.
Fact Checking of Mr Pascoe's Grain Stores
Is Mr Pascoe describing a real Aboriginal grain store or constructing a hypothetical, idealised one?
Bogan Picks and the Case of the Missing Hoe
Another case of Cultural Appropriation? Torres Strait Islanders had agriculture, but Australian Aborigines did not.
Mr Pascoe’s ‘Hoes’, 'Megafauna Butchering Tools' or a Simple Pounding Tool? - It’s your Bogan Pick
A 1 metre Bogan pick so large you can’t lift it above your waist.
Really?
Mr Pascoe’s ‘Stone Hoes’ - But Wait There Are More
If the Aborigines really had ‘stone ploughs’ to till and cultivate their crops, why weren’t hundreds found, complete with their wooden handles?
Mr Pascoe's Cultural Appropriation
Mr Pascoe claims this photograph is of an Aboriginal ‘Dome’ house that his great, great grandfather may have used while living at Lockhart River in Queensland. Actually, we find that it is a ‘Dome’ house constructed by the Meriam people from the Torres Strait Islands and shows Melanesian and Polynesian influences. It is not Australian Aboriginal at all, and is not from the Australian mainland.
Mr Pascoe's Imaginary Aboriginal Irrigation Schemes
The few, recorded Aboriginal dams were constructed to conserve flood waters for drinking water, not to irrigate crops.
Professor W.E.H. Stanner and The Selectivity of Mr Pascoe’s Scholarship
Mr Pascoe’s Selectivity Bias – Just ignore the Facts that don’t fit the Narrative
Real Examples of Non-farming Aboriginals
There is abundant, authenticated evidence of the Aboriginal Hunter-Gatherer society. But you may need to put on your ‘Rose-Coloured-Glasses’ to find the “evidence” of Mr Pascoe’s Aboriginal Agriculture!
Other Historians and Anthropologists Agree - Aboriginal Society was a Hunter Gatherer Society
No other academic seems to agree with Mr Pascoe’s Theory
Where are the Coconuts?
Why weren’t there any coconut plantations in Aboriginal Australia?
We Respond to a Reader's Comments on our Critique of Mr Pascoe's Dark Emu.
The Six Main Centres of Pre-historic Agricultural Society - And the Australian Continent Wasn’t One of Them
Tommy McRae - The Aboriginal Source
Don’t trust the Imperial British Version of our history? Let’s see what a contemporary Aboriginal had to say.
The Gerritsen-Pascoe Theory of Aboriginal Agriculture - a Scholarly Rebuttal
This is not “domesticated yam farming with sowing, cultivation, irrigation and crop protection”, but instead is traditional foraging and gathering.
Why No Agriculture? Maybe it was due to Aboriginal Fundamentalism?
Did Aboriginal Blasphemy Laws Snuff Out Any Agricultural Advances by Aboriginal Women?
No Domesticated Plants or Animals? Then No Agriculture or Husbandry
Despite opportunities to adopt an agrarian lifestyle, Aborigines chose to remain as Hunter Gatherers. This is neither right nor wrong, but was their own social and economic choice. Their agency should not be up for re-appropriation.
Whose Theory Do We Believe? - Mr Bruce Pascoe's or Mr Jared Diamond's?
The New Dark Emu : “Pascoe puts forward a compelling argument for the understanding that pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians were on a trajectory from their hunter-gatherer existence towards food production and agriculture within the next 3000 years. The evidence shows that the first beginnings of an agricultural way of life were starting in isolated parts of the continent. It is the story of mankind and a story that we will all admire and find fascinating as Australians."
Aborigines relied upon Mythology, not Agronomy, for the maintenance of their food supply
Aborigines relied on “Increase” Centres and Ceremonies and Rituals to ensure a food supply for everyone. They did not use human intervention in the form of Agriculture to create a food supply.
The Daily Grind - A Day in the Life of an Aboriginal Woman Baker
Aboriginal communities own some 30% of Australia’s land mass, much of it encompassing Mr Pascoe’s Aboriginal Grain Belt - Why can’t I buy a decent Aboriginal Seed Cake, Mr Pascoe?