Later this year the ABC will screen a two-part adaptation of 'Dark Emu'. The project is funded by Screen Australia, in other words by Australia's taxpayers, who will get farrago of a lies, half-truths and misrepresentations for their money. Why has no one stepped in to scuttle this monumental assault on truth?

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History, of its very nature, is subjective to some extent, with different writers putting different interpretations on events. But my quarrel with 'Dark Emu' is not a disagreement with Pascoe’s interpretation of history. It is with his shameless distortion of facts and sources. Here are yet more examples

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Bruce Pascoe has tapped a receptive audience and lucrative market in those who see a revised perception of indigenous society as enhancing the push for sovereignty and changes to the Constitution. Those who rank cause above truth and choose to remain diplomatically schtum do neither scholarship nor Aborigines any favours

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If Dark Emu's claims of Aboriginal settlements and agriculture were true, one could expect archeological expeditions to have turned up evidence of pottery. The National Museum of Australia, proud of its 'working relationship' with Pascoe, tells one of his presumed supporters it has such relics. To another, it says it doesn't have a shard

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In a 2011 letter to the Koori Times, the 'Dark Emu' author wrote of his concern that entrants in the David Unaipon literary awards included 'people without an Aboriginal heritage.' Pascoe, whose genealogical record shows no trace of an Aboriginal ancestor, was one of the competition's judges

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Why did it take so long for the Aboriginal community -- at least some of them -- to speak out, prompting what has now spawned a referral to the Australian Federal Police? Could it be that fake history is acceptable, but only if written by an 'Aboriginal'?

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There is no Aboriginal line of descent in any of Bruce Pascoe’s forebears, so it is not only his history in 'Dark Emu' that is bogus, but also his public biography. He should return his Indigenous Writers Prize and any other award given him for his claim to be an Aborigine. And he should apologise to his readers for deceiving them

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A few years ago, I spoke at a conference on the prevention of sexual abuse against Aboriginal children, a huge problem and which inspired NITV to cover the gathering on its webpage. The topic attracted but a handful of reactions because, well, it's not as much fun as complaining about 'white racism', a subject guaranteed to draw comments by the hundreds

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At the Garma Festival, Noel Pearson lavished praise on former Chief Justice Murray Gleeson’s call for the recognition of an Aboriginal Voice in the Constitution. Pearson said the judge had demolished the conservative case put by the Institute of Public Affairs and journalist Andrew Bolt that “race has no place” in the Constitution. Keith Windschuttle disagrees

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Would any Aboriginal leaders have the hide to air Recognition's real intent -- to formally divide Australians by race -- as a nation prepared to cast its votes in the referendum Ken Wyatt endorsed in his address to the National Press Club? I doubt it. Such frankness would guarantee yet another entry in the long ledger of referenda Australians have rejected at the ballot box

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