Why Bruce Pascoe’s ‘Truer History’ is Mere Mythology

Bruce Pascoe’s books Dark Emu (2014 and 2018) and Young Dark Emu (2019) have been selling in the tens of thousands and are being introduced to our schools. Young Dark Emu is subtitled “a truer history”. Those in our schools should be coached in what “truer history” means. It requires distinguishing between history or archaeology and folk myths.

Pascoe’s books form a bridge between reflection on the physical sciences (physics, chemistry, biology) and on the human sciences (archaeology, history), because his approach to what he calls “a different way of seeing” blurs astronomy (science) with astrology (superstition and folk mythology) in ways that undermine his claim to being a good teacher or historian—never mind a good astronomer. Similarly, his approach to history blurs the distinction between inquiry and folk myth or mere “tradition”.

The fundamental question for school students is: How would we know that one version of the past was “truer” than…