GET READY, SET.... READ!!

The March 'Book of the Month' is Dark Emu, Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident by Bruce Pascoe.

Dark Emu puts forward an argument for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer tag for precolonial Aboriginal Australians. The evidence insists that Aboriginal people right across the continent were using domesticated plants, sowing, harvesting, irrigating and storing – behaviours inconsistent with the hunter-gatherer tag. Gerritsen and Gammage in their latest books support this premise but Pascoe takes this further and challenges the hunter-gatherer tag as a convenient lie.

About the Author Bruce Pascoe is a Bunurong man born in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond. He is a member of the Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative of southern Victoria and has been the director of the Australian Studies Project for the Commonwealth Schools Commission. Bruce has had a varied career as a teacher, farmer, fisherman, barman, fencing contractor, lecturer, Aboriginal language researcher, archaeological site worker and editor. Books include the short story collections "Night Animals" and "Nightjar"; the novels "Fox," "Ruby Eyed Coucal," "Ribcage," "Shark," "Earth," and "Ocean"; historical works "Cape Otway: Coast of secrets" and "Convincing Ground"; the childrens book "Foxies in a Firehose" and the young adult fiction "Fog a Dox," which won the Prime Ministers Literary Award for YA Fiction, 2013."

See the previous post for my thoughts on Dark Emu and discussion questions.

HAPPY READING!

Ash xx

The full reading list can be found here.