Teacher Notes

Dark Emu. Black seeds: agriculture or accident

written by Bruce Pascoe
Teacher Notes prepared by Nola Turner-Jensen

OVERVIEW
Dark Emu. Black seeds: Agriculture or Accident? puts forward an argument
for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer tag for pre-colonial 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. Rupert
Gerritsen and Bill Gammage in their latest books support this premise but
Pascoe takes this a step 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. Pascoe has had a varied career as a
teacher, farmer, fisherman, barman, fencing contractor, lecturer, Aboriginal
language researcher, archaeological site worker and editor. In 2013, his novel,
Fog a Dox won the 2013 Prime Ministers Literary Award for YA Fiction.

THEMES
Indigenous Culture
Aspects of Indigenous culture are embedded in the text.
 Connection to country and place.
 An innate trust in and respect for tradition.
 Respect for elders, family, rules and community.
 Indigenous languages.
 Indigenous land use and food gathering techniques.

Pastoral Industry
 The pastoral industry often mistreated Indigenous people and many
pastoralists used force or violent means to run them off their ancestral
lands, particularly in prime farming regions.
 The pastoral industry often failed to recognise any traditional ties
various Aboriginal groups had to the land.

Australian History
 The injustice and discrimination experienced by Indigenous people
during colonial times.
 The ingenuity and use of farming techniques by Aboriginal.

Dark Emu. Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident Teacher Notes Magabala Books 1
  Missions and government departments often did not serve the best
interests of Indigenous people.
 Many Indigenous people were displaced from their ancestral lands.

WRITING STYLE
Dark Emu combines extensive visual as well as written references from
explorer’s journals with interviews conducted by the author with local
Aboriginal elders and archaeologists and other key traditional owners to
present an alternative view of pre-colonial Aboriginal society. Dark Emu is not
only a fascinating collation of factual accounts relating to Australia’s early
European pioneers but also highlights the ingenuity and uniqueness of
ancient Australian survival techniques in some of the harshest environments
on earth. Written in third person, with the author’s voice pitching into the
narrative, this reference book provides a glimpse of Australia as Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people saw it. Its accessibility makes it perfect as
reference material for upper secondary Geography and History.

LINKS TO THE AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM

These notes have been written in context with the Australian Curriculum. The
appendix highlights a selection of relevant cross-curriculum priorities, general
capabilities and content descriptors across a range of year levels that the
following activities address.

CULTURAL NOTES
An effective way to include Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander information is to
regionalise it within your curriculum. Educating your students about their own
local history, bringing to life the Indigenous past of your region and using local
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages (wherever possible) within the
school and classroom context is a wonderful way to start.

Australia’s ancient people, the Aboriginal people have been proven by

archaeologists and anthropologists to have been in Australia for at least 50
thousand years.

Many of the Aboriginal language groups believe they have been in Australia
since time began.

The stories that are attached to this belief tell of a time of creation, and that
the creation beings that made the animals, people and landscapes were
their ancestors. These ancestors still live amongst nature watching and
guiding the Aboriginal people where ever they live.

This belief of a creation time or Dreaming explains Aboriginal people’s deep

connection to their own traditional lands. It is not for the lands value or
ownership rights; it is because everything within those lands holds the living
essence of their ancestors.

Aboriginal people believe that their land and everything on it is a gift from the
ancestors. According to their traditional lore they are responsible for looking

Dark Emu. Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident Teacher Notes Magabala Books 2
after it. Aboriginal Australians have taken that responsibility most seriously.
They have managed to sustain a sometimes harsh and drought-ridden land
and its flora and fauna for thousands of years. A remarkable achievement by
today’s standards.

Aboriginal people believed that the land was alive with gifts from their
ancestors. Thus they felt deeply connected to every bush, tree and waterway
in a way most people find hard to imagine.

Aboriginal conservation practices were born from:

 traditional ties to special areas (tribal lands) allocated to them.
 survival in landscapes where sources of food were difficult to find at
times..
 a belief system that their ancestors provided, ensuring the group did
the right thing in all areas of life.

In this text, students will learn how the Aboriginal people of Australia used
traditional conservation and land management practices over thousands of
years. They will also gain an understanding that in a vast time period only a
few native animal and plant species became extinct and that many of those
species extinction is believed to have occurred because of huge climactic
changes.

For more information regarding the contextualising of this text to your own
region, please refer to the following websites:

www.crackerjackeducation.com.au (Australia’s leading Aboriginal & Torres

Strait Islander education resource website which includes an interactive
timeline)
http://www.crackerjackeducation.com.au/resources/interactive-timeline-
1770-1810/

http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/main.html (The Australian Institute of Aboriginal

and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) is the world's premier institution for
information and research about the cultures and lifestyles of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander peoples.)

http://www.12canoes.com.au/ (Twelve Canoes is a website which paints a

compelling portrait of the art, culture, history and place of the Yolngu people
whose homeland is the town of Ramingining and the Arafura Swamp of
north-central Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.)

CLASSROOM IDEAS
 Discuss the sorts of shelters in their correct regional context, Aboriginal
& Torres Strait Islander people would have used in different weather
seasons. Find out what seasons the local ATSI people would have used
in your area. For example, on page 86, the people of Cape York and
Arnhem Land, where the seasons were divided into the wet and dry,

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 usually had two seasonal camps and two different styles of housing.
There were large, thatched, waterproofed and domed wet season
huts and in the dry they used lighter, more airy buildings.) Australia has
vastly contrasting environments and landscapes with different types of
natural materials from which to build or make ‘homes’. Some
environments require(d) the building of more substantial structures.
 How might the seasons have affected the types of houses
Aboriginal people built?
 , In the past, Aboriginal people didn’t build the types of houses we live
in today. Why?
 Take a look at the information and activities on the Bureau of
Meteorology website about Indigenous weather seasons.
http://www.bom.gov.au/iwk/walabunnba/index.shtml
Compare them to the European seasons that have been adopted in
Australia.
 The author, Bruce Pascoe, believes that the early settlers, authorities
and explorers did not present the evidence of the farming techniques
and established Aboriginal communities because it would have
proved previous ownership and usage by Aboriginal people. He
believes that this would not have been beneficial for the European
settlers in their choice for establishing colonies on prime land areas
throughout Australia. Can you think of any other reason why it has not
been widely reported previously?
 In what ways would Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander peoples
knowledge about native Australian animals help them?
 What knowledge can we take from Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander
people about native animals and plants which will assist in the future
protection of plant and animal species, particularly endangered ones?
For example, how does knowing whether animals hunt at night or day,
what or where they eat, when they have their young etc. help protect
a species?
 Research diary entries of early settlers and their relationship with local
Aboriginal and/or TSI people. Split the students into two groups; ask
one group to write journal entries from the perspective of new English
settlers and the other to record the thoughts of traditional Aboriginal
and TSI peoples whose land is being taken away or overrun with cattle
and sheep. Compare these two views and discuss the implications.
 Investigate the traditional way Aboriginal people farmed or harvested
kangaroos and the current status of this primary industry today.
 Visit a local or nearby Aboriginal and/or TSI cultural site and investigate
how it is being maintained and managed.
 Research and identify the traditional hunting techniques of Indigenous
people living in or around your area.

Dark Emu. Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident Teacher Notes Magabala Books 4
Appendix – Links to the Australian Curriculum
Year Level Subject Possible Curriculum
Content Descriptions
Year 9 History Historical Knowledge and
Humanities and Social Sciences Understanding/Making a
Elaborations Better World?/Movement
1. investigating the experiences of a of peoples (1750 – 1901)
specific group of arrivals to
Australia (for example convicts in
Sydney, Hobart, Brisbane; or free
settlers in Melbourne, Adelaide,
Perth or Darwin)
2. describing the impact of this
group on the Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander peoples of
the region
URL
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/
Elements/ACDSEH084

Year 9 Humanities and Social Sciences / History Historical Knowledge and

Elaborations Understanding/Australia
1. explaining the effects of contact and Asia/Making a nation
(for example the massacres of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people; their killing of
sheep; the spread of European
diseases) and categorising these
effects as either intended or
unintended.
2. investigating the forcible removal
of children from Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander families in the
late nineteenth century/early
twentieth century (leading to the
Stolen Generations), such as the
motivations for the removal of
children, the practices and laws
that were in place, and
experiences of separation.
URL
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/
Elements/ACDSEH020

Year 10 Geography Historical

Humanities and Social Sciences Skills/Chronology, terms
Elaborations and concepts
1. placing in sequence the main
events of the Freedom Rides
campaigns in the United States
and Australia and explaining the
links between the two campaigns

Dark Emu. Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident Teacher Notes Magabala Books 5
 2. using interactive timelines to
explore the various manifestations
or effects of an event in different
geographical locations
URL
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/
Elements/ACHHS182

Year 10 Geography Geographical Knowledge

Elaborations and Understanding /Unit
1. analysing the likely causes of the 1: Environmental change
environmental change by and management
identifying the biophysical
processes involved in the change
and the human actions, and their
underlying causes, that produce
the environmental change, and
combining them in a human-
environment system examining
the consequences of the
environmental change
2. describing the nature of the
environmental change and its
effect on the sustainability of the
source, sink, service and spiritual
functions of the environment
URL
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/
Elements/ACHGK073

Year 10 Humanities and Social Sciences / Geographical Knowledge

Geography and Understanding /Unit
Elaborations 1: Environmental change
1. researching the role of Aboriginal and management
and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
in environmental management
2. explaining Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander models of
sustainability that contribute to
broader conservation practices
URL
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/
Elements/ACHGK072

Dark Emu. Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident Teacher Notes Magabala Books 6