Exit left for Dark Emu, or worth continued analysis?

It beggars belief that, in the face of the recent rebuttal by two eminent academics of Bruce Pascoe’s offerings, not only is Dark Emu still being used in schools, its false tenets are being furthered by the (lazy) use of “educator guides” (“ABC has new look at Dark Emu”, 25/6) produced by its publishers. Nyunggai Warren Mundine points out (“Where was scrutiny of Pascoe’s claims”, 25/6) that not only is the book of little merit, its author’s Aboriginality is disputed. Set this against the backdrop of Mr Mundine’s experience of being taught false Aboriginal history as a child and one sees the extent of the travesty. This is, on all possible considerations, just plain wrong and the book and its materials should immediately be withdrawn from all schools.

Leni Palk, Unley, SA

You quote archaeologist Keryn Walshe saying: “(Dark Emu) shouldn’t be in the school curriculum because of the errors and incorrectness of the entire work.” What you don’t say is that Dr Walshe and her co-author, anthropologist Peter Sutton, believe schoolchildren should be taught that pre-invasion Aborig­ines farmed animals and plants “not through physical cultivation or conservation but through spiritual propagation”. Dr Walshe and Dr Sutton’s main philosophical objection to Dark Emu is that Bruce Pascoe supports the idea of societies moving through stages from paleolithic nomadic hunting and gathering, through neolithic proto-agriculture and permanent settlements, to modernity, with large urban settlements, new technologies, scientific reasoning and something like universal literacy. Those who are crowing now about Dr Walshe and Dr Sutton’s challenge need to ask whether we will be better off when children are taught their idea that “speaking to the spirits of ancestors at resource sites” is the equal of ploughs and hard graft when you want to deliver the food surpluses that make specialisation, urbanisation and modernity possible.

Chris Oliver, Paddington, Qld

Over the years I have worked in and for the Aboriginal community. I have dealt with and had dear friends in the community, male and female, whose shade of skin was white. One was a prominent footballer who was routinely dismissed from the other side of the fence because he was believed to be too white to be Aboriginal. My friend knew he was Aboriginal. So did I, but he believed he didn’t have to prove it to anyone because he was a man of integrity. My friend can trace his ancestry to South Gippsland and the Lake Tyers Aboriginal community. Bruce Pascoe can trace his ancestry to South Gippsland, too. He claims to be Aboriginal and expects it to be believed, and like my friend he is a man of integrity. Warren Mundine is from northern NSW. It is likely he knows little about Lake Tyers. The attack on Professor Pascoe is an attack on his integrity. It’s got woke cancel culture written all over it.

Brian Sanaghan, West Preston, Vic

Dark Emu has been subsumed by many better books on my bedside table since given for a Christmas gift. Heartfelt thanks to Nyunggai Warren Mundine for his experience and insightful analysis. It is well time that our woke ABC and school curriculums read this damning indictment by Peter Sutton and Keryn Walshe. Released from Dark Emu bondage, I can now move on to Peter Ridd’s Reef Heresy? Science, Research and the Great Barrier Reef.

Ruth Bonetti, The Gap, Qld

Why the woke left wishes to paint Aboriginal people as bucolic characters from a Constable painting is bizarre. Aboriginal people have developed a wonderful culture, survived one of the harshest environments on earth for tens of thousands of years and have developed survival skills to shame Bear Grylls. This is a proud history and does not need to be tampered with by woke whitefellas.

Iain Rae, River Heads, Qld

Does anyone see a parallel between the James Cook University sacking of Peter Ridd and the inclusion of Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu in the public school curriculum? One was sacked because he dared to challenge the consensus narrative of academia on the climate change effect on the Great Barrier Reef. The other’s implausible claims fitted the consensus on the First Nations’ narrative in our schools and anyone who dared question his claims was accused of racism by supporters in the mainstream media.

John Bell, Heidelberg Heights, Vic