There's also an introduction, entitled 'The Land Grab', which summarises the process by which Aboriginal land was forcibly sequestered by European colonists during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.Ī section entitled 'Sustainable Futures' ends the book on a hopeful note, advocating for the reclamation and acknowledgement of Australian colonial history from the indigenous perspective, and championing the use of indigenous land management techniques as Australia (and the world) battles climate change. Sections address elements of pre-colonial Aboriginal civilization in Australia including Agriculture, Aquaculture, Home (Structural Shelters), Food Storage, Fire and Sacred Places. Young Dark Emu is structured in much the same way as its adult predecessor, and contains many of the same illuminating illustrations and photographs. Having found the original Dark Emu (my review here) fascinating, I was keen to get my hands on a copy of this alternate edition aimed at younger readers, to share with my daughter (aged 10). My advice if you are genuinely interested in the truth on this subject is to read the primary sources Bruce uses, but also to read the multitude of other sources on Aboriginal culture, bush food & land management practices many written by Aboriginal people living traditionally today. This book will be accepted by most of the public who normally just believe nice stories rather than true stories. It's good that Bruce draws attention to the fact that Aboriginal people managed the land (not farmed) in a sustainable manner, and cared for the environment as opposed to the capitalist system which destroys the environment.

He says fish traps are aquaculture which is just silly. His mention of stone houses is exaggerated, because the location he discusses (lake Condah) while certainly containing Aboriginal structure, also has the remains of European structures according to some archaeologists (eg.

Read these primary sources and you get a different picture to the one Bruce paints.

He also quotes from Mitchell, Sturt, and Dawson very selectively, leaving out all the parts that contradict his argument. For example Bruce puts a photo of a Meriam Island House (Torres Strait) in his section on ‘Arnhem Land Dome Houses'.

The book is persuasive rather than informative, and at times inaccurate.

Young dark emu