Bruce Pascoe in an Aboriginal Australian man, award-winning writer, and farmer. Last month I was fortunate to host Bruce in conversation at the brilliant Quantum Words Festival here in Perth. This was Schools Day, so there were about 150 people, mostly students, in the theatre. The session’s touchstone was Bruce’s extraordinary book Young Dark Emu. In keeping with its themes, we travelled deep and wide here, and in pin-drop attentive silence.

The event billing read: In Young Dark Emu - A Truer History, Bruce Pascoe uses the accounts of early European explorers, colonists and farmers, to argue for an understanding of Australia prior to the arrival of Europeans as a land of cultivated farming areas, productive fisheries, permanent homes, and thriving villages. Bruce discusses his work with Anthony James.

This conversation was recorded live at the Quantum Words Festival in Walyalup / Fremantle on 16 September 2022.

Title slide image: live audience for this event at John Curtin College of the Arts.

Music:
Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now.

Find more:
Read a transcript of our conversation on the episode web page.

You can also watch our conversation here (starting at 2.06.30)

Black Duck Foods.

Young Dark Emu (and so much more at Magabala Books in Broome).

Quantum Words Perth.

Send us a text

Pre-roll music: Heartland Rebel, by Steven Beddall (sourced from Artlist).

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