Young Dark Emu

Bruce Pascoe

2 ideas

1. Budj Bim eel traps and channels

   In western Victoria, the Gunditjmara built stone channels, weirs and ponds to trap and hold short-finned eels. Archaeologists date parts of the system to thousands of years old, and it is now UNESCO World Heritage listed. The book uses it as concrete proof that Aboriginal people engineered their landscape and managed food supplies over long periods.

2. Terra nullius as a self-serving misreading

   The book argues that portraying Aboriginal people as nomads with no agriculture or fixed settlement served colonial interests, because it made the land seem unowned and justified taking it without treaty. On this view, the categories colonists used to describe Aboriginal life were political tools, not neutral observations. The accuracy of any rival description therefore also carries political weight.

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