Young Dark Emu: A Truer History
Publisher: Magabala Books
Genre: Children's, Non-Fiction, Young Adult
Bruce Pascoe wants our children to rebel. “We need our children to rebel … If we don’t encourage them to demonstrate or protest, then we need to instil the wisest of all our skills in our children: doubt,” he says. His beautiful and highly recommended book, Young Dark Emu: A Truer History, is perfectly timed reading for a generation of young people interrogating our past in the search for a more equitable future for humanity.
The book describes the need for “a different way of seeing” how Aboriginal people lived before Australia was colonised. It doesn’t shy away from the violence of settlement, but gently takes us on a journey towards acknowledging the advanced agricultural and land management expertise according to which Aboriginal communities developed sustainable food and housing solutions for generation upon generation. In a world where young and old alike are searching for a way out of environmental crisis, we could have no better guide.