Young Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe

This is a fabulous new book from Bruce Pascoe. His history book – Dark Emu – is a best seller and has made appearances on shortlists around the country. It profoundly challenged our notions of pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians, presenting us with evidence that our First Nations people had sophisticated agriculture and a system of pan-continental government that generated peace and prosperity. There is now evidence that they were making bread 65,000 years ago. It would be another 13,000 years before the Ancient Egyptians got around to it.

Now there is a young reader version rewriting our history for those who will shape our future. This book sets out insightful commentary backed up with first hand sources in an appropriate way for junior readers and beyond. It gets its name from the darkness between the stars of the Milky Way that Aboriginal Australia call Dark Emu, and Bruce invites us to do the same with our history – to see what is there and has been overshadowed by history from the point of view of the colonisers.

This is a really important book that Aussie kids (and their parents) will find fascinating.