At the First languages Talk in Parkes recently were (L-R) Beau Williams, CEO of First Languages Australia, Geoff An-derson, board member of First Languages Australia, Kerryn Jones, Manager Cultural, Education and Library Services at Parkes Shire Council and Bruce Pascoe, author of Dark Emu.
A crowd of about 80 people packed the Parkes Shire Library recently to listen to the author Bruce Pascoe talk about his award-winning book Dark Emu.
“I cannot stop admiring the old people,” said Bruce, who re-examined colonial accounts of Aboriginal people in Australia in his book, and cited evidence of pre-colonial agriculture, engineering and building construction by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Bruce said an incredible moment in human history took place in Australia. “About 100,000 years ago they were sitting around their fires at night looking at the stars and they worked out a series of laws that people would follow, and basically it is: Wiradjuri people will stay on Wirdajuri country, and they will not take land of the Yuin people.
“This is unmatched in human history, because in history if your neighbour is weak you move onto their land and take it. Those old people knew they were angry, bad tempered and violent people, but they decided to bar war and devise a system to beat war. It’s the single most crucial difference between people of this nation and all the other cultures of the world.”
Bruce said other cultures were very violent. “That is what Shakespeare is all about, yet our mob decided we will have no war. Not only that, but every generation accepted the law and kept it going and going and going. So now Wiradjuri people are on Wiradjuri land, Yuin people are on Yuin land, and we don’t lust after each other’s geography. We can visit, but we cannot ever fight for land.”
Bruce also touched on the importance of looking after Mother Earth. “If we follow the rules of the old people, everything comes through the Mother. If you do things that harm the Mother, then you’re working against the law. How could you harm the Mother? There is plenty of meat, fish, water around if we use it well and share it instead of hogging and using more and more all the time. That is why I admire the old law.
“The law is about patience, tolerance and respect, I am so in awe of that old law. You don’t have to be Aboriginal to appreciate the law. What you have to do is respect it.”