The Dark Emu author rails against Christianity, capitalism and colonialism – and Shakespeare and Charles Dickens cop a serve too. He’s ready for blowback
On the eve of publication of his new book, Bruce Pascoe is steeling himself for potential controversy that could rival the bitter storm that battered 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 more complex farmer-cultivators, Pascoe’s new book, The European Mind: Colonialism, Capitalism, Christianity and How to Recover, sheets home the blame for the most heinous excesses of racism and dispossession on to a troika of western shibboleths: Christianity, capitalism and colonialism.