The text below provides some insight into how that note came about....
ABC have a statutory responsibility under their
charter and editorial policies to ensure their output is impartial and reflects a diversity of views. The aim being to
"equip audiences to make up their own minds".
On a number of topics ABC has
demonstrably failed to live up to this principle and the message is less about providing the public with a range of views so they are able to judge for themselves and more about the ABC preaching their own views and their own opinions regardless of the facts and evidence. The tale of the stuffed emu outlined below is another example of that failure. This time it involves a site developed by ABC education that promotes one man's point of view about Australian history while ignoring errors in that view and failing to provide an alternate perspective supported by the historical evidence.
ABC picks and chooses where it follows its editorial guidelines. One area where the public must insist the principles are followed is on its education site.
Stuffed emu
ABC education note: Note also that since 2019, Pascoe's work has been evaluated differently by some people, who don't agree with his interpretations of historical sources. This resource contains excerpts from the original texts and scientific evidence that Bruce draws on. We encourage you to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of all historical sources.
Bruce Pascoe is a writer and claims to be an Aboriginal man with links to a number of Aboriginal communities. His
claims of Aboriginal heritage have been
challenged by members of those communities and a
genological study was unable to find any evidence of Pascoe's Aboriginal past. He has thus far failed to provide any answers to the serious questions raised about his claims. In a letter (see below) published by the Koori Mail on 20 April 2011 Pascoe himself highlighted issues with non-Aboriginal writers entering literary prizes reserved for Aboriginal writers without sufficient proof of identity. He indicated that even a
"statutory declaration was not sufficient proof of identity". We leave readers to make up their own minds about the strength of Pascoe's claims and the morality of his receipt of
various writing awards and other prizes reserved for people with Aboriginal heritage.
From Koori Mail 20 April 2011
In 2014 Pascoe published
Dark Emu: Black seeds: agriculture or accident?. The book is essentially Pascoe's interpretation of early explorer's accounts of interactions with Aboriginal peoples. Pascoe believes his version of those accounts provides evidence that Aboriginal people should not be viewed as Hunter-Gatherers but as settled farmers who used sophisticated agricultural methods.
The book won a number of awards most notably in context with the information above, the NSW Premier's Literary Awards: Book of the Year and the Indigenous Writers' Prize, but it took some time for Pascoe's views to be challenged. It took a while for someone to check those historical sources but when they did they found Pascoe's interpretation of the explorer's journals to be deeply flawed. The most comprehensive challenge came in late 2019 from writer Peter O'Brien who published
"Bitter Harvest: The illusion of Aboriginal agriculture in Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu". The book is described thus:
"Bitter Harvest is a comprehensive appraisal of Bruce Pascoe’s book Dark Emu. Pascoe postulates that, rather than being a nomadic hunter-gatherer society, Australian Aborigines were actually sedentary agriculturalists with ‘skills superior to those of the white colonisers who took their land and despoiled it’. Dark Emu has enjoyed extraordinary public and critical acclaim, winning Premier’s literary awards in New South Wales and named Book of the Year. Professor Marcia Langton called it ‘the most important book on Australia’. Its ideas have already been taken up in school texts and the ABC is producing a documentary series about it.
But nothing in Dark Emu justifies its success. Bitter Harvest is a forensic but highly readable examination which reveals that Bruce Pascoe omits, distorts or mischaracterises important information to such an extent that, as purported history, Dark Emu is worthless. Even worse, it promotes a divisive, victim-based agenda that pits one Australian against another."
In May 2019 ABC education released a "
digibook" featuring Bruce Pascoe discussing concepts from his book. The "digibook" is intended for use by schools and is directed at school children studying Australian History. The digibook draws heavily from Dark Emu. Like much of ABC's content the site went largely unnoticed until late 2019 when media drew attention to extensive criticism of Pascoe's work.
A complaint is raised:
Having read both Dark Emu and Bitter Harvest and looked over ABC Education's Digibook we were concerned children viewing the page would be critically misinformed and on 13 November 2019 we raised a complaint to the ABC about the content and failure to follow ABC editorial guidelines with respect to factual content and diversity of views:
Subject: Factual errors and omissions in ABC education piece about Bruce Pascoe
Comments: ABC education are promoting the work of Bruce Pascoe's "Dark Emu" but there appear to be significant factual errors in Pascoe's past and his story that would result in the intended school age audience being critically misinformed. Revelations about Bruce Pascoe's ancestry on the Bolt Report 12/11/2019 cast doubt on Pascoe's claimed Aboriginal ancestry which has a major bearing on claims he makes in the videos and his credibility as an indigenous writer. Fact checking of Pascoe's book "Dark Emu" from various sources including by writer Peter O’Brien in his book "Bitter Harvest: The illusion of Aboriginal agriculture in Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu", by Quadrant Books need to be considered by ABC and properly addressed. O'Brien writes: “Almost every significant claim that Pascoe makes that is sourced, turns out to be either false or misrepresented. As purported history, Dark Emu is worthless. Even worse, it promotes a divisive, victim-based agenda that pits one Australian against another.”
ABC have a responsibility under its editorial policies to provide factual information. It is currently promoting a work that is "worthless". It is clear that facts concerning Pascoe and his book are lacking and ABC need to correct the information.
We got the following reply from ABC sent 20 December 2019, but only received by us on 29 January owing to it ending up in our spam folder:
With
regard to your contact of 13 November, this was assessed as not requiring a
response; it is general in nature and does not identify or reference any
specific aspects of the ABC content to support the view that there are
inaccuracies and omissions. Should you wish to resubmit your complaint, please indicate which editorial standards (https://edpols.abc.net.au/policies/) you believe to be relevant to your complaint, and why you
believe the content failed to meet those standards – with examples from the
content.
Your
comments regarding a forthcoming ABC documentary are noted; Audience and Consumer
Affairs investigates complaints regarding content that has been broadcast or
published.
Yours
sincerely
Denise
Musto
Investigations
Manager
Audience and Consumer Affairs
In light of Ms Musto's request to resubmit our complaint with more information, we submitted a 13 page letter dealing with specific issues with the content of the website (content is provided below) on 5 March 2020.
Ms Musto replied on 1 May 2020 with the following:
Thank you for your complaint regarding the ABC Education resource Bruce Pascoe: Aboriginal agriculture, technology and ingenuity. I apologise for the delay in responding.
Your concerns have been considered by Audience and Consumer Affairs, a unit which is separate to and independent of program making areas within the ABC. Our role is to review and, where appropriate, investigate complaints alleging that ABC content has breached the ABC’s editorial standards: https://edpols.abc.net.au/policies/
In essence, your complaint asks Audience and Consumer Affairs to make a determination on the accuracy of Dark Emu, in response to criticism of it and Bruce Pascoe by Peter O’Brien and others, including the Dark Emu Exposed website. While noting your concerns, Audience and Consumer Affairs have concluded that the substantial investigation you seek is not warranted and nor is it a proportionate use of the ABC’s complaint handling resources for the following reasons:
- This ABC Education resource has been available online since May 2019; as you would be aware, Audience and Consumer Affairs do not generally accept complaints for investigation which are received more than six weeks after broadcast or publication of the content in question. You have not provided any reasons for the delay in submitting your complaint. Nonetheless, we accept that since this resource was published, there has been some criticism of Dark Emu, and in light of this and in good faith we have broadly considered the matters you raise.
- This resource is based on the acclaimed, award-winning book Dark Emu by author Bruce Pascoe. Since its initial publication in 2014, the book has been generally well-received, as evidenced by the number of awards it won or was shortlisted for, as well as numerous positive reviews in the media and in academic journals. It was selected as the inaugural book for the Parliamentary Book Club and has been praised by politicians and other public figures. We are advised by ABC Education that Bruce Pascoe: Aboriginal agriculture, technology and ingenuity was produced for a number of reasons: the unit received a number of requests for a resource to be developed based on the book; the children’s version Young Dark Emu is being used in some classrooms; and more broadly there is a high demand from their audience for Indigenous history resources. Given these facts, Audience and Consumer Affairs are satisfied that Dark Emu is a credible and appropriate subject for an ABC Education resource.
- Audience and Consumer Affairs is aware that since 2019, Dark Emu has been the subject of some sustained criticism from a range of mostly non-expert sources, much of it relating to the accuracy of Dark Emu and Bruce Pascoe’s interpretation of sources. Given this somewhat persistent criticism, we have viewed the fact checking documentation undertaken by ABC Education for this resource, which demonstrates that reasonable efforts were made to ensure accuracy. We have also considered the context in which this resource is presented. Following receipt of your complaint, we note that ABC Education have updated the prologue to Bruce Pascoe: Aboriginal agriculture, technology and ingenuity to appropriately include this information: Note also that since 2019, Pascoe's work has been evaluated differently by some people, who don't agree with his interpretations of historical sources. This resource contains excerpts from the original texts and scientific evidence that Bruce draws on. We encourage you to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of all historical sources. The presentation of this module, as the name suggests, prominently features Bruce Pascoe and it is clear that he is presenting an alternative viewpoint, underpinned by research, which challenges the belief that Indigenous Australians were hunter-gatherers. The ABC’s Editorial Policies allow for this point-of-view style of presentation.
While we have declined to further investigate your complaint, please be assured that your concerns are noted and have been made available to ABC Education. Thank you again for writing to us.
Yours sincerely
Denise Musto
Investigations Manager
Audience and Consumer Affairs
Once again ABC's minions thumb their noses at their charter and editorial guidelines, ignoring the historical evidence and promote their own warped world views.
We understand production of a new documentary featuring Bruce Pascoe is in progress readers are encouraged to watch and see if it meets ABC's policies with respect to facts and diversity of viewpoints and if not direct your complaints to this site:
ABC Complaints.
Complaint #2
Bruce Pascoe:
Aboriginal agriculture, technology and ingenuity
Errors, misrepresentations and omissions
Text from ABC education site in numbered italics and issues
identified listed below each.
Summary
The ABC Education website Bruce Pascoe: Aboriginal agriculture, technology
and ingenuity
breaches ABC’s editorial code for:
Accuracy
Includes errors of fact and false and misleading information
Impartiality and
diversity of perspectives
Does not provide for facts presented by experts that
demonstrate Pascoe is in error. This is particularly egregious considering the
presentation is for school children.
Recommendations
Remove site from ABC Education, or provide room for
alternate views.
Specific issues
The section below provides commentary on the text of the
website detailed specific issues. It is broken down into chapters on the
website.
Prologue
1. Bruce examined the journals of the early explorers and
found evidence of a complex civilisation that was using sophisticated
technologies to live, farm and manage the land.
Pascoe’s book has been thoroughly debunked by Peter
O’Brien’s Bitter Harvest and the Dark Emu exposed website. His work also called
into question by prominent academics and other writers. Students using the ABC
education website should be informed of the controversy concerning Pascoe’s
book.
Bitter Harvest: The
illusion of Aboriginal agriculture in Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu
Bitter Harvest is a comprehensive appraisal of Bruce
Pascoe’s book Dark Emu. Pascoe postulates that, rather than being a
nomadic hunter-gatherer society, Australian Aborigines were actually sedentary
agriculturalists with ‘skills superior to those of the white colonisers who
took their land and despoiled it’. Dark Emu has enjoyed extraordinary
public and critical acclaim, winning Premier’s literary awards in New South
Wales and named Book of the Year. Professor Marcia Langton called it ‘the most
important book on Australia’. Its ideas have already been taken up in school
texts and the ABC is producing a documentary series about it.
But nothing in Dark Emu justifies its
success. Bitter Harvest is a forensic but highly readable examination
which reveals that Bruce Pascoe omits, distorts or mischaracterises important
information to such an extent that, as purported history, Dark Emu is
worthless. Even worse, it promotes a divisive, victim-based agenda that pits
one Australian against another
Dark Emu exposed
When we first read Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu, we were
captivated by his story. Many of our friends had read it too and said they felt
good about the “fact” that the Australian Aborigines were not “just” a
hunter-gatherer society when the British settled Australia in 1788, but they
were in fact, as the Judges of the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards claimed
“..liv[ing] sophisticated lives…[in an]
Aboriginal democracy [that] created ‘the 'Great Australian Peace’ on a
continent which was extensively farmed, skilfully managed and deeply loved.”
However, a little digging into the “evidence” presented by
Mr Pascoe has deflated our enthusiasm and the more we dig, the more
disappointed we become. When it comes to Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, we
all know they are not “true”, but it is nice to promote the narrative, as it is
all in a good cause and a delight to our children. However for adults, the
accuracy of history is important and historical facts should not be fabricated,
bent or manipulated to serve ideological ends, or to satisfy the needs of a
“virtue-signalling” readership.
As we upload our reviews and critiques in blog-posts over
the coming months, let the reader decide as to whether Mr Pascoe :
“…puts forward a compelling argument for a reconsideration
of the hunter gatherer label for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians…[where]
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.” - from Dark Emu dust
jacket blurb;
or whether his arguments fail to overcome the accepted,
Australian belief of :
“They [the Australian Aborigines] are, of course, nomads —
hunters and foragers who grow nothing, build nothing, and stay nowhere long. They
make almost no physical mark on the environment…They move about, carrying their
scant possessions, in small bands of anything from ten to sixty persons…Their
tools and crafts, meagre — pitiably meagre — though they are, have nonetheless
been good enough to let them win the battle for survival, and to win it
comfortably at that. With no pottery, no knowledge of metals, no wheel, no
domestication of animals, no agriculture, they have still been able to people
the entire continent…”
- W.E.H. Stanner, The Dreaming & Other Essays, Black Inc
Agenda, 2010, p 64,65 & 70 - (our emphasis)
The site is edited by Roger Karge and, as of December 2019,
has around 30 independent researchers. Unfortunately, in the current climate in
which we live, most of our researchers need to operate under pseudonyms to
protect their careers. Some work within academia, or government departments,
that are strongly Progressive Left and, needless to say, any criticism of Mr
Pascoe and his book Dark Emu is likely to lead to their ostracisation!
We are independent and all the work by our contributors is
on an unpaid, voluntary basis and we do not receive any outside funding. We are
not aligned with, or funded by, the Herald Sun, The Australian or Quadrant
magazine, but we greatly appreciate their interest in our project and their
reporting on it from time to time.
Taking sides over
‘Dark Emu’
How the history wars avoid debate and reason
But throughout Dark Emu, Pascoe regularly exaggerates
and embellishes. One example: he quotes Thomas Mitchell’s description of large,
circular, chimneyed huts Mitchell observed near Mount Arapiles, in western
Victoria, on July 26, 1836, but leaves out the words “which were of a very
different construction from those of the aborigines in general”. Pascoe adds
his own commentary: Mitchell “recorded his astonishment at the size of the
villages”; he “counts the houses, and estimates a population of over one
thousand”; and “the evidence is everywhere that they have used the place for a
very long time”. But in his own journal, Mitchell doesn’t express astonishment,
he doesn’t count and he doesn’t estimate a population size. Nor does he present
any evidence that would support a conclusion about longevity of residence.
Granville Stapylton, Mitchell’s second-in-command, recorded seeing one hut
“capable of containing at least 40 persons and of very superior construction”
on July 26. Pascoe includes this, but not the rest of Stapylton’s sentence:
“and appearantly the work of A White Man it is A known fact that A runaway
Convict has been for years amongst these tribes.” That could be a reference to
the well-known escapee William Buckley (who was found by John Batman the
previous July), or it could be a racist myth. The point is that Pascoe simply
left it out.
By themselves, examples like these split hairs. But they’re
all the way through Dark Emu. Together, such selective quoting creates an
impression of societies with a sturdiness, permanence, sedentarism and
technical sophistication that’s not supported by the source material. In
speeches and interviews Pascoe is known to reach even further. And far too
often Pascoe relies on secondary sources, including those obviously pushing
ideological barrows.
2. Researchers continue to discover new evidence of the
earliest human occupation of Australia. A recent scientific study in
south-west Victoria suggests Aboriginal Australians may have been living on the
continent for 120,000 years.
The study in question is highly
speculative and has not been independently confirmed. It is not an appropriate
remark for an education site without further commentary of the surrounding
issues and should eb removed or amended to reflcet current consensus ie about
50,000 years. https://theconversation.com/when-did-aboriginal-people-first-arrive-in-australia-100830 If humans were in Australia 120000 years a significant part
of current understanding of pre-historical movement of humans out of Africa
would be overturned.
3. we learn about the vast agricultural fields, ingenious
aquaculture systems, sophisticated use of fire and successful industries that
existed in Australia prior to colonisation.
As detailed in Bitter Harvest
and elsewhere Pascoe’s claims are distortions, misrepresentations and
exaggerations. The ABC education site requires significant room for alternate
view points and discussion of areas where Pascoe claims do not stack up.
Chapter 1.
4. “Bruce Pascoe is a Yuin, Bunurong and Tasmanian man.”
All reference Pascoe’s claims
aboriginal heritage should be removed from ABC websites until his claims are
proven.
Through the remainder of
Chapter 1 Pascoe’s addresses the ABC audience as though he is aboriginal, but
he isn’t.
Chapter 2.
5. “They weren't Stone Age people.”
They were in fact stone age
people. The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone
was widely used to make implements with an edge, a point, or a percussion
surface. The period lasted roughly 3.4 million years and ended between 8700 BCE
and 2000 BCE with the advent of metalworking.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Age
6. I come from this country. This is Yuin country. This is my law.
Chapter 3.
7. I read that Sir Thomas Mitchell rode through
nine miles of stooped grain and that grain grew higher than the saddle on his
horse. The country was that rich. But the Aboriginal people had harvested nine
miles of that and stooped it, stacked it into sheaves right across the country.
This is a complete fabrication and misrepresentation of what
Mitchel saw and wrote. What Mitchell actually said in his 1848 Journal of an
Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia, on page 90 (1969 reprint),
was :
“Dry heaps of this grass, that had been pulled expressly for
the purpose of gathering the seed, lay along our path for many miles. I counted
nine miles along the river, in which we rode through this grass only, reaching
to our saddle-girths, and the same grass seemed to grow back from the river, at
least as far as the eye could reach through a very open forest. I had never
seen such rich natural pasturage in any other part of New South Wales.”
So, Mitchell records that he rode through nine miles of
rich, natural pasturage (grass) standing up to his horse’s saddle-girth (that
is, not fields of human cultivation, but just tall, wild grass fields), with
some dry, pulled grass laying in heaps along the way; he did NOT appear to ride
through a continuous “nine miles of stooked grain”.
Mr Pascoe also seems to incorrectly cite this in Dark Emu as
being from Mitchell’s other cited journal, Three Expeditions into the Interior
of Eastern Australia, when in fact we found it in Mitchell’s 1848, Journal of
an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia, on page 90 (1969
reprint).
The voice over text must be amended to reflect what Mitchell
actually wrote. There was not 9 miles of stooped or stooked grain.
8. And Lieutenant Grey.....couldn't walk across the fields that Aboriginal
people had been growing yam on in Western Australia. They'd been so deeply
tilled.
What Mr Pascoe doesn’t tell the reader
however, is that he has lifted this isolated section from the brilliantly
detailed work of Gerritsen, and totally
omitted any reference to the crucial paragraphs before, and
after, this section. These paragraphs detail Gerritsen’s theory that Dutch
survivors from the Batavia shipwreck and mutiny landed on the West Australian
mainland and befriended the local aboriginal tribe, the Nhanda, inter-married
with them, and introduced them to the cultivation of the Asian yam variety that
the Dutch were most probably carrying as supplies.
Section should be amended to include full reference to
suggestions by Gerritsen that Dutch survivors introduced Yam cultivation.
9. In Australia, they went out of their way to prove that Aboriginal
people weren't human
A statement completely
unsupported by any factual evidence- remove.
Chapter 4.
Claims about earliest bread are
unsupported. In fact grinding stones have been identified from three
Palaeolithic sites across Europe. If Pascoe can speculate that Aborigines baked
bread one the basis of the grindstones then we can make the same assumption of
other stone age peoples. Recently the
starch grains were identified on 30,000 year old grinding stones from three
Palaeolithic sites across Europe: Bilancino II in Italy, Kostenki 16 in Russia,
and Pavlov VI in the Czech Republic. The starch includes Brachypodium grass and
Typha, commonly known as bulrush.
ABC to include reference to
other Palaeolithic grindstone locations.
Chapter 5.
10. Pascoe with the help off
ABC Education editorial staff misrepresent an encounter between Charles Sturt
and a group of natives.
BRUCE
PASCOE: One of the really, um, interesting stories that I came across was that
Charles Sturt, who was one of the more kindly explorers in the country - that
is, he didn't kill anyone, uh, but his brother was pegging out all the land, so
they were still avaricious, they were still greedy for land... But Sturt was
dying. Uh, he had scurvy. All his party had scurvy. The horses were so weak,
they couldn't ride them anymore. And they climbed a sand dune. They'd been
climbing them for weeks. They climbed one last sand dune and 400 Aboriginal
people hailed them.
VOICEOVER:
And on gaining the summit were hailed with a deafening shout by 3 or 400
natives... I had never before come so suddenly upon so large a party. Had these
people been of an unfriendly temper, we could not by any possibility have
escaped them.
BRUCE
PASCOE: And as the men staggered down the sand dune... And Sturt said they
couldn't have stopped themselves from going down that hill, because the
momentum was carrying them, and that if those Aboriginal people were in any way
aggressive, they were dead.
VOICEOVER:
Several of them brought us large troughs of water, and when we had taken a
little, held them up for our horses to drink; an instance of nerve that is very
remarkable.
BRUCE
PASCOE: Now, they'd never seen a horse and, yet, they recognised the horse as
a...another animal.....a sentient being, and they gave water to that creature
because they knew the horse needed water. That was an act of kindness that
Sturt recognised.
VOICEOVER:
Placing the troughs they carried against their breast, have allowed the horses
to drink, with their noses almost touching them... They likewise offered us
some roasted ducks, and some cake.
BRUCE
PASCOE: Roast duck...and cake. Roast duck and cake in the desert? Well, it
wasn't a desert for those people. They were harvesting that desert and they
were living a really good life and they had a village of houses and they
offered Sturt a new house they'd built.
VOICEOVER:
They pointed to a large new hut and told us we could sleep there. I had already
determined to remain, and on my intimating this to the natives they appeared
highly delighted. When the natives saw us quietly seated they came over, and
brought a quantity of sticks for us to make a fire, wood being extremely
scarce.
BRUCE
PASCOE: Firewood. They gave him more bread. They looked after him as you would
look after a visitor to your house.
VOICEOVER:
At sunset all the natives left us, and went to their own encampment; nor did
one approach us afterwards, but they sat up to a late hour at their own camp,
the women being employed beating the seed for cakes, between two stones. The
whole encampment with the long line of fires, looked exceedingly pretty, and
the dusky figures of the natives standing by them or moving from one hut to the
other, had the effect of a fine scene in a play.
BRUCE
PASCOE: It's a great moment in Australian history because the...the humanity of
the moment cannot be mistaken. The humanity of the moment - to give water to a
creature you've never seen and to give water to another human in need. It's a
great moment in history.
Peter
O’Brien outlines the facts about the encounter in Bitter Harvest: Pages 82-92 copies provided to ABC. The alternate view by O’Brien should be reproduced to provide balance to the
presentation.
Chapter 7.
Pascoe’s claims about Murnong
debunked in Bitter Harvest P11-26
Chapter 9.
Pascoes claims about
aquaculture debunked. Bitter Harvest P69-80
Chapter 11 Housing
Pascoes claims about Aboriginal
Housing debunked in Bitter Harvest P
80-113
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