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Salt: Selected Essays and Stories
A collection of stories and essays by the award-winning author of Dark Emu, showcasing his shimmering genius across a lifetime of work.
Bruce Pascoe has been described as a ‘living national treasure’ and his work as ‘revelatory’. This volume of his best and most celebrated stories and essays, collected here for the first time, ranges across his long career, and explores his enduring fascination with Australia’s landscape, culture, land management and history.
Featuring new and previously unpublished fiction alongside his most revered and thought-provoking nonfiction – including extracts from his modern classic Dark Emu – this collection is perfect for Pascoe fans and new readers alike. It’s time all Australians saw the range and depth of this most marvellous of local writers.
Bruce Pascoe has been described as a ‘living national treasure’ and his work as ‘revelatory’. This volume of his best and most celebrated stories and essays, collected here for the first time, ranges across his long career, and explores his enduring fascination with Australia’s landscape, culture, land management and history.
Featuring new and previously unpublished fiction alongside his most revered and thought-provoking nonfiction – including extracts from his modern classic Dark Emu – this collection is perfect for Pascoe fans and new readers alike. It’s time all Australians saw the range and depth of this most marvellous of local writers.
320 pages, Paperback
Published August 6, 2019
86 people are currently reading
981 people want to read
About the author
Bruce Pascoe
46 books319 followersBruce Pascoe was born of Bunurong and Tasmanian Aboriginal heritage in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond and graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Education. He is a member of the Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative of southern Victoria and has been the director of the Australian Studies Project for the Commonwealth Schools Commission.
Bruce has had a varied career as a teacher, farmer, fisherman, barman, fencing contractor, lecturer, Aboriginal language researcher, archaeological site worker and editor.
He won the Fellowship of Australian Writers´ Literature Award in 1999 and his novel Fog a Dox (published by Magabala Books in 2012), won the Young Adult category of the 2013 Prime Minister's Literary Awards.
Source: http://brucepascoe.com.au/about/
Bruce has had a varied career as a teacher, farmer, fisherman, barman, fencing contractor, lecturer, Aboriginal language researcher, archaeological site worker and editor.
He won the Fellowship of Australian Writers´ Literature Award in 1999 and his novel Fog a Dox (published by Magabala Books in 2012), won the Young Adult category of the 2013 Prime Minister's Literary Awards.
Source: http://brucepascoe.com.au/about/
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
November 8, 2019
A cri de coeur from Australian iconoclast Bruce Pascoe,
Salt
is a compilation of 35 short pieces — both fiction and non-fiction — written at various times throughout his long career of reframing mainstream Australia’s narrative of our First Peoples.
Having discovered Pascoe via his brilliant nonfiction book Dark Emu, I was expecting the polemical essays in this collection to be great, and they are. But I was totally unprepared for the quiet beauty of the stories. They are tender portraits of small-town and rural Australia, taking in connection to country, nature, and identity. Here’s a bit where an old man at an art exhibition starts playing tunes on a gum leaf:
”… everybody stopped just where they were because with a bloody leaf pinched off a dusty, half-starved gum at the front door he hit every note as if with a diamond hammer, swept into a few glissades and tremolos, and inserted the blues into songs that had never expected to hear themselves as anything but sugared cream.”
The book is arranged thematically, with sections titled ‘Country’, ‘Lament’, ‘Sea Wolves’, Embrasure’, ‘Tracks’ & ‘Culturelines’. There’s no context provided for the pieces and it’s often unclear for a few pages whether you’re reading a story or a personal essay. While the stories are tender, the essays are chiding, mournful, or angry. In a country where most (non-indigenous) Australians would be unable to name even a single Aboriginal nation, Pascoe makes an impassioned plea for us to stop ignoring several millennia of this continent’s history:
”The time when we could survive as an intelligent nation while believing the Little Golden Book of our history has passed … The national heart is compressed, and its generosity coldly selective … we cannot build our individual and national castle on the sands of a fabricated history … or we will be condemned to self-congratulation for the rest of our lives – a nation without modesty, without compassion, a spoilt and selfish people forever chortling about goodness and mateship … If Australia cannot learn about the past and the descendants of those who once owned the land, it is doomed to a shallow, friable national intelligence. Where there is sand, there is little rock.”
I did find the constant switching between fiction and non-fiction a little jarring, and there is some repetition among the essays as Pascoe returns to the same themes (many of which are also present in Dark Emu) so l recommend reading this book slowly, a piece or two at a time. A truly memorable collection.
Having discovered Pascoe via his brilliant nonfiction book Dark Emu, I was expecting the polemical essays in this collection to be great, and they are. But I was totally unprepared for the quiet beauty of the stories. They are tender portraits of small-town and rural Australia, taking in connection to country, nature, and identity. Here’s a bit where an old man at an art exhibition starts playing tunes on a gum leaf:
”… everybody stopped just where they were because with a bloody leaf pinched off a dusty, half-starved gum at the front door he hit every note as if with a diamond hammer, swept into a few glissades and tremolos, and inserted the blues into songs that had never expected to hear themselves as anything but sugared cream.”
The book is arranged thematically, with sections titled ‘Country’, ‘Lament’, ‘Sea Wolves’, Embrasure’, ‘Tracks’ & ‘Culturelines’. There’s no context provided for the pieces and it’s often unclear for a few pages whether you’re reading a story or a personal essay. While the stories are tender, the essays are chiding, mournful, or angry. In a country where most (non-indigenous) Australians would be unable to name even a single Aboriginal nation, Pascoe makes an impassioned plea for us to stop ignoring several millennia of this continent’s history:
”The time when we could survive as an intelligent nation while believing the Little Golden Book of our history has passed … The national heart is compressed, and its generosity coldly selective … we cannot build our individual and national castle on the sands of a fabricated history … or we will be condemned to self-congratulation for the rest of our lives – a nation without modesty, without compassion, a spoilt and selfish people forever chortling about goodness and mateship … If Australia cannot learn about the past and the descendants of those who once owned the land, it is doomed to a shallow, friable national intelligence. Where there is sand, there is little rock.”
I did find the constant switching between fiction and non-fiction a little jarring, and there is some repetition among the essays as Pascoe returns to the same themes (many of which are also present in Dark Emu) so l recommend reading this book slowly, a piece or two at a time. A truly memorable collection.
March 4, 2024
Mixed bag of stories and essays from Bruce Pascoe who also wrote Dark Emu which talks about the existence and impact of Aborigines prior to the British invasion of 1788. Some stories are of the same ilk, others about the continuing existence and strife of being Aborigine in Australia today. Mostly ok, some more interesting than others, but it was hard to keep the stream going in my mind. 3 stars, library ebook.
September 14, 2022
I had heard about Pascoe’s “Dark Emu” and it was on my “to read” list. Early in August the SMH ran an article about Pascoe, so when Salt became available I jumped at the opportunity to read it.
Pascoe is of Bunurong and Yuin descent. He is an awarding-winning writer, editor and, more recently, historian. He has always combined his writing craft with other careers, and in his time has worked as a teacher, farmer, fisherman, lecturer and Aboriginal language researcher.
This book has added greatly to the discussion of this continent’s history.
The muffled prejudice towards the indigenous people of Australia is often uncovered on social media and in the musings of conservative politicians and commentators. Their offerings are strong on bias and weak on facts. Pascoe adds greatly to the bank of knowledge about the Aboriginal people, their history and why they are who they are today.
I can remember in the small town of Kempsey in the early 1990s how council members saw the flying of the Aboriginal flag as being the end of the world as we knew it. I saw Mabo and Wik being seen as the end of thousands of pastoralist and the mining industry. John Howard and his conservative cohort fought tirelessly against the simple concept of saying sorry to those Aboriginal people who were taken from their families. Now we have the Uluru Statement from the Heart being seen as an attack on Australian democracy.
Pascoe’s “Salt” gives much substance to a fuller and deeper understanding of Aboriginal people, their culture, food, technology and societies before European invasion.
I use that word “invasion” purposefully. How else can you describe the arrival of white people late in the eighteenth century as anything else? There were people already here and according to Pascoe had been for up to 100,000 years.
Whether it is fifty, sixty or a hundred thousand years this alone is a strong indicator of the strength and durability of Aboriginal economy and society. The first Europeans had the mindset to dismiss the Aborigines as being primitive, unimportant and doomed people.
"A revealing fact that Pascoe unveils is Pope Alexander VI decree called the Doctrine of Discovery. It established the spiritual, political and legal justification for the colonisation and seizure of land not inhabited by Christians.
The rationale went like this. If a people did not recognise the name of Jesus Christ – and you’ll be surprised how many different continents did not - it was the duty of the Christian to take their land and bring them into the light. Most of those brought into the light has that light extinguished immediately by Christian swords. Many Christians yearn for the same solution. As do Muslims."
The above quote also demonstrates Pascoe’s cynical and sarcastic attitude to the invasion and subsequent destruction of so much Aboriginal culture, languages and history. Much of his attitude arises from the deliberate ignorance of Aboriginal people and their history known by modern Australians.
The book is a mixture of didactic writings on Aboriginal issues and creative writing pieces where Pascoe writes of his world and its inhabitants.
The opening story, A Letter to Barry is a short story masterpiece. The quality of the writing took my breath away. Pascoe is travelling up a river remembering the place from when he was a young teacher. His writing rambles like our memories. Sights ignite thoughts of people passed. A sentence encapsulates a life. The story opens with him observing a fox hunting fish. The descriptions are warm and vivid. On his return journey the fox is still there. He becomes aware that it is ailing and it is easy to kill.
"The golden eyes could barely focus, but she knew my intent. She avoided the first swing of the club by the merest turn of her head, but I collected it with the returning pendulum and cracked that fine skull. Blood gushed from its ears and nose."
Stories such as Thylacine, capture a taste and smell of Australian country life. The language is often sparse and the images savage. Sentences are short, metaphors are many and the occasional complex word give his writing brevity and power. His writing reminds me of the work Eric Rolls, earthy, considered and substantial.
In stories like The Imperial Mind, Andrews Bolt’s Disappointment and An Enemy of the People, Pascoe deals with the prejudices that exist and surface regularly from the mouths of right wing commentators and in social media. They reach a crescendo when a black fella gets “too uppity” like Adam Goodes and don’t play the role of a quiet acceptable Aboriginal person.
I found Rearranging the Dead Cat particularly challenging. Pascoe discusses the roles and portrayal that many great Australian authors gave to Aboriginal people in their stories. Winton, Malouf, White, Hall. He is critical. There is validity to his criticism, however, when I reflect on my own values in the 60s and 70s they were a product of the time. There wasn’t the consciousness of aboriginality as exists now.
Salt is a varied collection of reminiscences, polemic expositions on Aborigines and enchanting character driven stories. I believe that it will have a lasting impact on Australian society as it tussels with the history, the present and the future of the Aboriginal people of this country.
Pascoe is of Bunurong and Yuin descent. He is an awarding-winning writer, editor and, more recently, historian. He has always combined his writing craft with other careers, and in his time has worked as a teacher, farmer, fisherman, lecturer and Aboriginal language researcher.
This book has added greatly to the discussion of this continent’s history.
The muffled prejudice towards the indigenous people of Australia is often uncovered on social media and in the musings of conservative politicians and commentators. Their offerings are strong on bias and weak on facts. Pascoe adds greatly to the bank of knowledge about the Aboriginal people, their history and why they are who they are today.
I can remember in the small town of Kempsey in the early 1990s how council members saw the flying of the Aboriginal flag as being the end of the world as we knew it. I saw Mabo and Wik being seen as the end of thousands of pastoralist and the mining industry. John Howard and his conservative cohort fought tirelessly against the simple concept of saying sorry to those Aboriginal people who were taken from their families. Now we have the Uluru Statement from the Heart being seen as an attack on Australian democracy.
Pascoe’s “Salt” gives much substance to a fuller and deeper understanding of Aboriginal people, their culture, food, technology and societies before European invasion.
I use that word “invasion” purposefully. How else can you describe the arrival of white people late in the eighteenth century as anything else? There were people already here and according to Pascoe had been for up to 100,000 years.
Whether it is fifty, sixty or a hundred thousand years this alone is a strong indicator of the strength and durability of Aboriginal economy and society. The first Europeans had the mindset to dismiss the Aborigines as being primitive, unimportant and doomed people.
"A revealing fact that Pascoe unveils is Pope Alexander VI decree called the Doctrine of Discovery. It established the spiritual, political and legal justification for the colonisation and seizure of land not inhabited by Christians.
The rationale went like this. If a people did not recognise the name of Jesus Christ – and you’ll be surprised how many different continents did not - it was the duty of the Christian to take their land and bring them into the light. Most of those brought into the light has that light extinguished immediately by Christian swords. Many Christians yearn for the same solution. As do Muslims."
The above quote also demonstrates Pascoe’s cynical and sarcastic attitude to the invasion and subsequent destruction of so much Aboriginal culture, languages and history. Much of his attitude arises from the deliberate ignorance of Aboriginal people and their history known by modern Australians.
The book is a mixture of didactic writings on Aboriginal issues and creative writing pieces where Pascoe writes of his world and its inhabitants.
The opening story, A Letter to Barry is a short story masterpiece. The quality of the writing took my breath away. Pascoe is travelling up a river remembering the place from when he was a young teacher. His writing rambles like our memories. Sights ignite thoughts of people passed. A sentence encapsulates a life. The story opens with him observing a fox hunting fish. The descriptions are warm and vivid. On his return journey the fox is still there. He becomes aware that it is ailing and it is easy to kill.
"The golden eyes could barely focus, but she knew my intent. She avoided the first swing of the club by the merest turn of her head, but I collected it with the returning pendulum and cracked that fine skull. Blood gushed from its ears and nose."
Stories such as Thylacine, capture a taste and smell of Australian country life. The language is often sparse and the images savage. Sentences are short, metaphors are many and the occasional complex word give his writing brevity and power. His writing reminds me of the work Eric Rolls, earthy, considered and substantial.
In stories like The Imperial Mind, Andrews Bolt’s Disappointment and An Enemy of the People, Pascoe deals with the prejudices that exist and surface regularly from the mouths of right wing commentators and in social media. They reach a crescendo when a black fella gets “too uppity” like Adam Goodes and don’t play the role of a quiet acceptable Aboriginal person.
I found Rearranging the Dead Cat particularly challenging. Pascoe discusses the roles and portrayal that many great Australian authors gave to Aboriginal people in their stories. Winton, Malouf, White, Hall. He is critical. There is validity to his criticism, however, when I reflect on my own values in the 60s and 70s they were a product of the time. There wasn’t the consciousness of aboriginality as exists now.
Salt is a varied collection of reminiscences, polemic expositions on Aborigines and enchanting character driven stories. I believe that it will have a lasting impact on Australian society as it tussels with the history, the present and the future of the Aboriginal people of this country.
June 4, 2020
This is a powerful collection. The writing has the rhythm of a bush ballad, an indigenous insight and some pieces have a vulnerable masculinity. Read some aloud to my husband and we were both blown away. Intense. Loved it.
February 18, 2024
A 3.5 !
This one started off incredibly engrossing but then started to get a bit repetitive and I got a bit bored reading some of the fiction stories. The essays were pretty crazy though and super educational, some even got me pulling out the sticky notes! Would totally recommend!!
This one started off incredibly engrossing but then started to get a bit repetitive and I got a bit bored reading some of the fiction stories. The essays were pretty crazy though and super educational, some even got me pulling out the sticky notes! Would totally recommend!!
January 4, 2020
This book was such a pleasure to read. It is a combination of essays and short stories by Bruce Pascoe that sing to the beauty of the Australian country and wildlife, challenge perceptions of colonisation and gives valuable insight into the wisdom and intuition of the true custodians of this land, the aboriginal people.
The book is broken up into six sections: Country, Lament, Sea Wolves, Embrasure, Tracks, Culture Lines. Each section contains essays or stories that expound on these themes.
I didn't realise the Pascoe initially was a fiction writer. His short stories are smooth wondrous things to read, that immediate capture place and the heart of the characters. They evoke such strong images and his essays salient points:
'Tea-tree tannin has steeped the river in amber, and you couldn't help admiring the dark ginger fox on a ground of golden liquor.' (From: A Letter To Barry/ Country)
''In here,' he says, and we climb behind the boulders and up into the cave. He's looking at me, waiting to see if I can see it. The hands. Three sets of hands, one big, one with two fingers missing, one tiny. I'm broken with grief, surprised to be so vulnerable to the ambush of story.' (From: Big Yengo /Lament)
'They did not invent it and they cannot destroy it. For the lore is not about success or failure, greed or power. It is about the land and the sea and our role in its continuance. The whale swims, the serpent coils: that is all.' (From: Whale and Serpent/Sea Wolves)
'Those who wrought the relay ruse of land acquisition were now represented in this West Brisbane guesthouse by a chubby angelic child whose conquest of savage beasts, which quivered to nuzzle the child's plump paw, represented the conquest of the Americas by Christians. The savage spirit quelled and brought to heal by the mildest of restraint.' (From: Peaceable Kingdom/Embrasure)
'I turn away from the sky to watch her. She is just a nest of hair, a gorgeous silver scramble.' ( From: Dawn/ Tracks)
'I could blame the pittosporum, but that wouldn't be right, although it was the end of summer and the air was thick with it. But it wasn't that, because pittosporum induces a dolorous lassitude, a luxurious and passive ease.' (From: Pittosporum/CultureLines)
I am so thankful to Bruce Pascoe for sharing a yarn. I am so grateful for him in expounding the beauty of the Australian landscape that was well cultivated by the aboriginal people, prior to colonisation, to provide food but also respect the complexity and needs of this country. I am disappointed that we have chosen to ignore this as a nation. There was a line in one essay: 'soon we will be growing mangoes in Canberra', on a sweltering 38'C day on the Central Coast, bush fires across NSW, Victoria and S.A., this is beginning to feel feasible, maybe we need to recognise that we need advice, wisdom and respect from our indigenous population to assist us with further agricultural management of Australia.
The book is broken up into six sections: Country, Lament, Sea Wolves, Embrasure, Tracks, Culture Lines. Each section contains essays or stories that expound on these themes.
I didn't realise the Pascoe initially was a fiction writer. His short stories are smooth wondrous things to read, that immediate capture place and the heart of the characters. They evoke such strong images and his essays salient points:
'Tea-tree tannin has steeped the river in amber, and you couldn't help admiring the dark ginger fox on a ground of golden liquor.' (From: A Letter To Barry/ Country)
''In here,' he says, and we climb behind the boulders and up into the cave. He's looking at me, waiting to see if I can see it. The hands. Three sets of hands, one big, one with two fingers missing, one tiny. I'm broken with grief, surprised to be so vulnerable to the ambush of story.' (From: Big Yengo /Lament)
'They did not invent it and they cannot destroy it. For the lore is not about success or failure, greed or power. It is about the land and the sea and our role in its continuance. The whale swims, the serpent coils: that is all.' (From: Whale and Serpent/Sea Wolves)
'Those who wrought the relay ruse of land acquisition were now represented in this West Brisbane guesthouse by a chubby angelic child whose conquest of savage beasts, which quivered to nuzzle the child's plump paw, represented the conquest of the Americas by Christians. The savage spirit quelled and brought to heal by the mildest of restraint.' (From: Peaceable Kingdom/Embrasure)
'I turn away from the sky to watch her. She is just a nest of hair, a gorgeous silver scramble.' ( From: Dawn/ Tracks)
'I could blame the pittosporum, but that wouldn't be right, although it was the end of summer and the air was thick with it. But it wasn't that, because pittosporum induces a dolorous lassitude, a luxurious and passive ease.' (From: Pittosporum/CultureLines)
I am so thankful to Bruce Pascoe for sharing a yarn. I am so grateful for him in expounding the beauty of the Australian landscape that was well cultivated by the aboriginal people, prior to colonisation, to provide food but also respect the complexity and needs of this country. I am disappointed that we have chosen to ignore this as a nation. There was a line in one essay: 'soon we will be growing mangoes in Canberra', on a sweltering 38'C day on the Central Coast, bush fires across NSW, Victoria and S.A., this is beginning to feel feasible, maybe we need to recognise that we need advice, wisdom and respect from our indigenous population to assist us with further agricultural management of Australia.
September 30, 2019
Great as always from Bruce Pascoe.
September 7, 2020
A collection of stories and essays by Bruce Pascoe about aboriginal culture, history, environment and other themes.
Audiobooks are super fun to listen to but in this case a print copy would have been a better option as with stories such as these it’s vital to set eyes on, savour and digest every written word.
Also, listening to the audiobook was a little confusing as each story runs in to each other, no title mentioned nor did the narrator give any clue whether the tale was fact or fiction.
POPSUGAR Reading Challenge 2020: #38 - An anthology
Audiobooks are super fun to listen to but in this case a print copy would have been a better option as with stories such as these it’s vital to set eyes on, savour and digest every written word.
Also, listening to the audiobook was a little confusing as each story runs in to each other, no title mentioned nor did the narrator give any clue whether the tale was fact or fiction.
POPSUGAR Reading Challenge 2020: #38 - An anthology
March 11, 2020
A few months ago, there was lots of public controversy surrounding Bruce Pascoe and his identity. In this collection of essays and short stories, he has pieces that directly address that controversy. Others can be read more as companion pieces to his ground-breaking Dark Emu. There are 35 essays and stories, so lots of ground is covered here. Pascoe is thoughtful and rigorous and I’m looking forward to selecting one of these essays for my first-year students to read (the hard part will be choosing just one).
July 9, 2020
Fantastic writing, amazing reading. The things you’ll learn. If you know the author from Dark Emu, you get history and so much more - short stories, essays, historical pieces.
July 15, 2020
A brilliant, entertaining and thought provoking collection.
September 25, 2020
Fantastically written short stories that leave you wanting more. The essays were quite repetitive in content and phrasing, so better to just read Dark Emu.
May 22, 2020
I wish we could do half star ratings on Goodreads! This would be a 3 1/2 star for me. There's an awful lot to be said about this book, but a book that is short story as well as essays is hard to comment on! Most of the stories drew me in, some were a bit weird, and all of the essays really got me thinking. I am really into Bruce Pascoe's writing style overall, and I can't wait to get into his more well known book Dark Emu. Everyone in Australia should read this book and have their thinking challenged.
January 24, 2020
Picked this up after reading Dark Emu. Both these books have completely changed my understanding of Australian Aborigines history and reinforced the need for education on this subject matter to be updated. Pascoe is an excellent writer, who challenges contemporary political commenters, as well as politicians. Well worth reading.
November 7, 2021
Reaping Seeds of Discontent - "But remember that you can't eat our food if you can't swallow our history."
The Imperial Mind - "It is a common vanity among humans that our assent is an exponential trajectory applauded by God. Abrahamic religions encourage us to believe that God has never seen anything as beautiful, beautiful and intelligent as we. These religions also insist that as the devout are closest to gods hem, all others need assistance to reach that plane. The imperialist mindset, so linked with religion, suggest that realising the true destiny of humans involves reaching a certain level of social and economic, and so spiritual, development. The magnificent vanity to assume that a God had chosen you to rule over all others."
"In 1493, Pope Alexander VI introduced a papa bull, the Doctrine of Discovery, that declared when Christians discovered a new land they had the responsibility to take the land away from those they judged as heathens - that is, those with a different god. If the people resisted, they had the right to take the land by force."
the Christian Right to dispossess Indigenous peoples because they had a divine mandate to care for the world and intervene in secular affairs where they violated natural law (natural law defined by the Church)
Terra Nullius arose directly from the Doctrine as one of the justification in breaking the 10 commandments. Justifying violence and murder that was against their natural law.
2007 UNDRoIP voted 143 to 4. The dissenting nations were US, Canada, NZ and Aus
"My skin is so light I often hear what mainstream Australia really thinks – and it is a scary revelation."
Temper Democratic, Bias Australian - "We love to talk about bush tomato, lemon myrtle and wattle seed because they fit our venal understanding of hunting and gathering, but when asked to consider the virtues of agricultural products grown on field so wide the explorers could see needed that beginning or the end, we become flummoxed and querulous."
Andrew Bolt's Disappointment
Rearranging The Dead Cat
Whale and Serpent - Guruwul (whale): "when the world was new, the lore was created, and the whale and the serpent looked about and saw the ocean. 'I will look after the land because that is my home but who will look after the ocean', said the serpent. 'I will look after all the salt water', said the whale, 'because the fish and the turtles, the crabs and the weeds, the coral and the caves all need care.' 'But you will need to return to the land every now and then to bring back your lore', said the serpent. 'I will', said the whale, 'I will be to myself on the sand I will come back to the land to regurgitate the lore so that the lore can be complete in the land and sea can know each other.'
Dear John
An Enemy Of The People (identifying as Black when you're light-skinned)
The Imperial Mind - "It is a common vanity among humans that our assent is an exponential trajectory applauded by God. Abrahamic religions encourage us to believe that God has never seen anything as beautiful, beautiful and intelligent as we. These religions also insist that as the devout are closest to gods hem, all others need assistance to reach that plane. The imperialist mindset, so linked with religion, suggest that realising the true destiny of humans involves reaching a certain level of social and economic, and so spiritual, development. The magnificent vanity to assume that a God had chosen you to rule over all others."
"In 1493, Pope Alexander VI introduced a papa bull, the Doctrine of Discovery, that declared when Christians discovered a new land they had the responsibility to take the land away from those they judged as heathens - that is, those with a different god. If the people resisted, they had the right to take the land by force."
the Christian Right to dispossess Indigenous peoples because they had a divine mandate to care for the world and intervene in secular affairs where they violated natural law (natural law defined by the Church)
Terra Nullius arose directly from the Doctrine as one of the justification in breaking the 10 commandments. Justifying violence and murder that was against their natural law.
2007 UNDRoIP voted 143 to 4. The dissenting nations were US, Canada, NZ and Aus
"My skin is so light I often hear what mainstream Australia really thinks – and it is a scary revelation."
Temper Democratic, Bias Australian - "We love to talk about bush tomato, lemon myrtle and wattle seed because they fit our venal understanding of hunting and gathering, but when asked to consider the virtues of agricultural products grown on field so wide the explorers could see needed that beginning or the end, we become flummoxed and querulous."
Andrew Bolt's Disappointment
Rearranging The Dead Cat
Whale and Serpent - Guruwul (whale): "when the world was new, the lore was created, and the whale and the serpent looked about and saw the ocean. 'I will look after the land because that is my home but who will look after the ocean', said the serpent. 'I will look after all the salt water', said the whale, 'because the fish and the turtles, the crabs and the weeds, the coral and the caves all need care.' 'But you will need to return to the land every now and then to bring back your lore', said the serpent. 'I will', said the whale, 'I will be to myself on the sand I will come back to the land to regurgitate the lore so that the lore can be complete in the land and sea can know each other.'
Dear John
An Enemy Of The People (identifying as Black when you're light-skinned)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 4, 2020
Bruce Pascoe is at his very best in his vivid and intimate portrayals, observations and recollections of rural landscapes and characters written in beautiful prose. He is at his worst lamenting and correcting the biased Australian history and politics that shape prejudice against and disadvantage of Indigenous Australia. This is not because these things are not real and evidently important to Pascoe. More so because they are so personal to him, however without his direct experience and observations that elsewhere allows him to transcend stereotypes. So we end up with a lot of politics with cherry-picked archaeology and revisionist history put into service. Without any doubt into a service that has a just cause, however relying on literary reviews as opposed to first hand observations that drive his best prose. In conclusion, a bit of a mixed bag of short stories and articles.
February 19, 2020
Beautiful, the audio book was great though some stories were not for me the short stories and essays about indigenous lives last and present were a treasure to read. I got lost a little when the stories transitioned and I just wished Bolinda would make a clearer cut between them, especially when it would have given more weight to the ending of each short story. But I honestly can’t fault it, loved the last story - dreaming of breaking bread with the woman who invented it as a form of reconciliation of land ❤️
December 6, 2020
Such writing, such insight, such knowledge, such wisdom and all woven through these short but wonderful and, for me, heart and mind shifting stories. I know Dark Emu was game changing but, for me, these stories, wrapped in a velvet glove, have been more accessible.
The images created are so evocative, sensitive and almost tangible that at times the story just eases into my consciousness which is a fabulous reading experience.
There is much I hope to be able to take into conversation and action. I will be planting seeds whenever I have the opportunity.
The images created are so evocative, sensitive and almost tangible that at times the story just eases into my consciousness which is a fabulous reading experience.
There is much I hope to be able to take into conversation and action. I will be planting seeds whenever I have the opportunity.
April 18, 2021
“Fragments of that intolerance [genocide and war] can be seen in the paybacks and punishments of Aboriginal Australia, but the restraint on these traits, which are so common to the human spirit, is the land itself. Traditional, pre-colonial Aboriginal faith is embedded in the land, and the responsibility for a particular district prevents all but the most fleeting outbreaks of violence. Soon the land calls back those it has created to observe the necessary functions of custodianship: that particular piece of land and no other.” (pp. 168-169)
July 25, 2021
3.5 stars
A great companion book to Dark Emu. It would work equally well as an introduction to DE or a follow up (which is as I read it, about 18 months afterwards). It was moving and I really enjoyed the mix of fiction and non-fiction and the chapters where you couldn’t tell. The only downside I found was that it was a touch too long at 35 separate chapters and stories. I felt myself losing attention and I skipped a few parts. Overall a moving and sobering listen being read by Bruce Pascoe himself.
A great companion book to Dark Emu. It would work equally well as an introduction to DE or a follow up (which is as I read it, about 18 months afterwards). It was moving and I really enjoyed the mix of fiction and non-fiction and the chapters where you couldn’t tell. The only downside I found was that it was a touch too long at 35 separate chapters and stories. I felt myself losing attention and I skipped a few parts. Overall a moving and sobering listen being read by Bruce Pascoe himself.
April 14, 2020
Where to begin in finding the words to convey how beautiful this collection of stories and essays and essays is? To explain how deeply it touched my soul, and how much it meant to me? Perhaps only Pascoe himself has the language in which to describe it.
Do yourself a favour and pick this one up! Pascoe’s simple, lyrical style of story-telling is evocative and engrossing. The most unassuming of phrases brought me to tears. I loved it so much.
5 stars, wholeheartedly.
Do yourself a favour and pick this one up! Pascoe’s simple, lyrical style of story-telling is evocative and engrossing. The most unassuming of phrases brought me to tears. I loved it so much.
5 stars, wholeheartedly.
June 22, 2020
I get it Bruce. I know the feeling of understanding something totally and feeling it passionately. I know that despair as your desire for others to share that understanding and that passion seems to fall constantly on deaf ears. I’d love to go back to that South Coast and listen to you tell me those stories and help you put the Biamanga mountain monolith back into place. Just so I could tell you that some of us understand and want to feel it the way you do.
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April 1, 2021I really like Pascoe’s sparse writing style in his short stories. The characters are often laconic but intelligent. The essays are interesting and suggest a few things that are unfortunately controversial in modern interpretations of history. One thing I found particularly interesting was Pascoe suggests farming endemic plants that Aboriginal people farmed. The plants are adapted to Australian conditions and so will require much less water and fertiliser than European plants.
March 2, 2022
I tried but it was not for me.
I wasn't sure if I was in the right mood to read this or whether I just didn't connect. I tried a few times unsuccessfully. Not having finished the book, nor even one essay, I don't feel I should write a review, but there may be others out there who share my experience.
I wasn't sure if I was in the right mood to read this or whether I just didn't connect. I tried a few times unsuccessfully. Not having finished the book, nor even one essay, I don't feel I should write a review, but there may be others out there who share my experience.
October 15, 2019
As with Pascoe’s books there is the tendency to over romance history and some times a few points come up that aren’t quite based on all the facts but his prose is lyrical and enveloping. The first story, a letter, was so hauntingly beautiful it stole my breath.
March 4, 2020
Recurrent themes in a book of essays is not unusual, however repetition across many of these essays suggests there is a significant editorial problem that prevents this collection coming across in a genuinely cohesive and compelling way.
April 1, 2024
Found this book hard to rate! Essays were a solid 5 but some of the stories lost me a little and found it jarring at times having so many and so short. But good read and passion shines through which I loved
July 8, 2024
Excellent selection of essays and short stories which i consumed in audio format, read by the author himself, Bruce Pascoe, who yet again demonstrates his enormous capacity to engage with fellow humanity via compelling, authentic storytelling about the big issues in modern day Australian life
October 7, 2019
What a story teller, hope he writes more books
January 25, 2020
This is a book about many moments in time. Whether fictional or based entirely (subjectively or otherwise) on fact, Pascoe does very well to capture them. And for that, Salt is a very worthy read
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