The Dark Emu author rails against Christianity, capitalism and colonialism – and Shakespeare and Charles Dickens cop a serve too.
O n the eve of publication of his new book, Bruce Pascoe is steeling himself for potential controversy that could rival the storm that affected and bruised him for years over the 2014 book that rewrote Australian history: Dark Emu.
Where Dark Emu contentiously sought to reframe pre-invasion Australian First Nations people from hunter-gatherers into farmer-cultivators, Pascoe’s new book, The European Mind: Colonialism, Capitalism, Christianity and How to Recover, sheets home the blame for the excesses of racism and dispossession on to a troika of western shibboleths: Christianity, capitalism and colonialism.
On a hot early spring morning in Sydney, Pascoe sits on a stage at the New South Wales State Library to promote his new book. While “beautiful”, he says the original Mitchell reading room where the event is being hosted is ironically “one of the most colonial” in Sydney, with its early 1900s club atmosphere.
For it did get nasty last time, including with renewed allegations questioning the veracity of his Aboriginal identity, and an academic takedown of his research and methodology.
With his farm-labour wiriness, trademark wild mane of silver hair and long beard, the fit-looking 79-year-old says there have “been times, I admit, when I struggle”.
The book includes a four-page bibliography and 14 pages of endnotes.
With 406,000 copies sold, Dark Emu remains one of this country’s highest-selling books in the broad category of Australian history.