Welcome to Litsy!

#CoverLove Brown
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs

A shot of a free lecture I attended at the Sydney Writer‘s Festival on Friday by the tagged author. #whereisallissa hint I am wearing a pink coat. I headed off to op shop after this. That morning I‘d been to fascinating lectures on 🎣(so I could impress my nephew & dad with my knowledge), turning plays into books & how Australian author Kate Forsyth uses myths to create her novels. I learn so much at these festivals and love using my brain again.

#52bookclub23 #setinaustralia #naturalitsy @AllDebooks

In Dark Emu we learn that pre colonial Australia was not populated by unsophisticated nomadic hunter gatherers, but by people who had established agriculture, lived in houses and villages, curated the landscape. Major crops included yams and grains. A people who lived for ~65,000 years with an attachment and respect for land and who did not rely on violence as an integral part of their society. We could all learn so much from First Nations people.

Reading about the Aboriginal people during this American Thanksgiving. There are so many similarities between how the colonizers disregarded the Native people's humanity. This is an interesting look at why and what has been overlooked re: these old world people.
Highly readable, though there are many facts and figures it was a breeze to get into and through.

It is always nice when a male author acknowledges that the contributions from women are not taken seriously, and that it is a problem.

"The evidence of Mary Gilmore is downgraded by some academics, and one suspects that being a woman and a poet didn't help her cause. The writing of Alice Duncan -Kemp is also often dismissed simply because she was a woman."

Disappointed in this one. People have been raving about the importance of this book but I found it a bit flawed and not the revelation I was expecting. Much of what he talks about is not new and has been taught in Australian schools in the past. I found it hard to believe that students and academics researching Aboriginal history and culture are as ignorant as Pascoe claims. There is much to admire, learn and value about Aboriginal culture

Oh you just have to read this! It should be studied at schools! So that "we will admire and love our land all the more!"

#3Books #WrittenByAPOC

Article in today's New York Times. Interested in Australian Littens comments, perspectives. I read a lot of Northwest U.S. indigenous history because I live on land that was the Tribes and I work on restoring salmon with Tribes. But I've read little on Aboriginal history. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/20/books/bruce-pascoe-aboriginal-history-austral...

This was an amazing read that throws the history taught by our nation on its hard, and backs it up with accounts from primary resources. It‘s a must read for every Australian.

Please be a rest day, please be a rest day, please be a rest day. We have been doing so much this week a rest day would be nice.

6.30 am. The whole house is asleep. The sun hasn‘t even poked his head over the horizon, time for some quiet reading. It‘s going to be a long day on three hours sleep.

This is a must read for all Australians. It‘s heartbreaking, enlightening and awe-inspiring. I‘m so glad I read this. I can‘t recommend it highly enough.

A dark, grey, cold and rainy day in Adelaide today....I‘m settled in for a few hours of reading and soul searching.

I can not say how much I am loving this book.

New book! Looking forward to learning more about our indigenous heritage.

Important reading for all Australians. To balance out the lack of education on our Aboriginal history in schools and general day to day life. Fascinating.

I'm lucky to live on this farm in the centre of the photo which sits on Birpai lands. Dark Emu tells a story of Aboriginal culture. I can't believe I grew up not knowing details of Aboriginal agriculture, land practises, house building and social structure. We need a retelling of the truth and acknowledgement of their story for future generations. #australianhistory Highly recommended.

Day 6 #7books7days

Books that made a deep impression on me.

If you‘ve not had a go at this challenge and would like to please do 🤗📚❤️.

#7Books7Days Day7

Books that left a deep impression on me

Would you like to join in @thegreensofa ?

This was an interesting exercise. Thanks again for the original tag Linda😘

It‘s very hard to photograph a black dog!

#7books7days Day 1

Books that made a deep impression on me.

This book should be required reading by all Australians. 💛❤️🖤
#Oznonfiction

Thank you to the Boonurung and Wiradjuri people on whose land I now live, work and play and thanks to the muwinina people on whose land I spent many years growing up. 🙏
🌟10
Should be read by all Australians

Rolls sprouted the virtues of Astraleba lappacea (Curly Mitchell grass). ... Panicum decompositum (Mitchell's native millet) and Themeda Avanacea (native oatgrass) and ... native rices...I bet a stall in any city market could sell flours from these grains at premium prices to whole food enthusiasts... We seem to be stuck on wattle seed and lemon myrtle, but supply a few good cooks .. and watch as ...develops a genuine Australian cuisine.

What would happen if we turned away from total reliance on sheep and cattle and diversified into emu and kangaroo?... The utilisation of those animals that are already adapted to our climate and geography, and that damage it less as a result, should become the subject of serious ecological and economic debate in Australia.

Today, on this day of mourning, invasion and survival, I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians on whose land I stand and pay my respects to the Elders past, present, and future. I stand in solidarity for truth and justice and to #ChangeTheHeart of Australia.

Richly informative. Pascoe makes the case for a new Australian history. Aboriginal Australians managed land, grew & stored grains, built houses & engineered fishing systems. White settlers (& so history books) portrayed them as mere Hunter-gatherers. Pascoe shows how this was wrong & gives reasons why (& thus our twisted narrative & problems w reconciliation). We can learn much from Aboriginal ways of managing land & eating sustainably.

Almost finished this one - it‘s eye-opening. Recommended.

Thankyou for spoiling me @Rissreads Very keen to read this and then pass it on to some people I know who I think should read it. I love the detail on the mug. Emus or ‘wobbly bottoms‘ as we call them in my family are currently my nephew Ted‘s favourite things so I hope he doesn‘t see my bookmarks xo

My latest book buys to add to the growing pile 🤣Some Litsy inspired books and a much recommended Australian non-fiction book- Dark Emu which is a must read I think. Happy Sunday reading😊📚

This is a really important book. At the start I was thinking, a bit guiltily "This is all very worthy but I'm not really interested in anyone's farming practices" but it got steadily more interesting as it investigated the evidence of aboriginal civilisation that debunks the myth of them as primitive hunter-gathers and exposes the European assumption of entitlement to everything. It's not very well written, dry prose and unnecessarily repetitive?

There is a lot of thought-provoking material in this book. These two passages are among the stand-outs for me.

My ‘Booktube at the Gym‘ video is up - this tag is as fun as it sounds. Thank you @shawnmooney ! I discuss these books and more.
https://youtu.be/umsmYZogrAA

This book has made me feel anger that we have been fed a huge lie and shame that we continue to ignore that lie and do nothing about it! I am also sad to think that our inactivity is resulting in all the wonders , artefacts and archaeological information of the Aborininal people and their past will be lost forever. That the knowledge and truth of this land at that time and their people doesn‘t matter to us. 😩😡💩

It reads like a scientific journal but has so much feeling trapped in all the facts. Very insightful and heartbreaking

Dark Emu is extraordinarily interesting; while I knew that the agricultural systems of the First Nations Peoples were far more sophisticated than most Australians have been taught to believe, I was really clueless as to the true extent of the agri- and aqua- cultural management of Australia before European invasion. Pascoe demonstrates how those practices were woven into the spiritual and political life and helped to ensure a peaceful society.

“The belief that Aboriginal people were ‘mere‘ hunter gatherers has been used as a political tool to justify dispossession.”

Holy moly. Why have I waited until now to read this? I feel a bit like I did when I first read Why Weren‘t We Told by Henry Reynolds many years ago.

Check out this recent Ted Talk if you‘re interested:
https://tedxsydney.com/talk/a-real-history-of-aboriginal-australians-the-first-a...

9000 year old stone houses? Grain storage by the ton? Villages of dome-style cladded homes with food storage rooms and pens for animals? Fish traps? Terraced agriculture?

Australian Aborigines as primitive hunter gatherers? We appear to have been sold a lemon people. 😡
❤️🖤💛

Aboriginal Australians the world‘s first bakers?!
🥖👊😲
Mind being blown by this non fiction read.

When we were recently in Arnhem Land our tour guide showed us a deep groove in a horizontal rock face near some ancient rock art. He said that people had previously thought it was an ink well, but that it was more likely worn down over many years to grind grain for bread making. Wow. Just wow.
🖤💛❤️

#Nextup A bit of fact and a bit of fiction. Happy Friday night Littens 📚🍷👏.

#Bookhaul #Bookmail 📚👏🤓.
Feed is a #blameitonlitsy purchase for my husband. I‘m always on the lookout for new dystopian fiction for him.
Room On Our Rock is a #blameiton @Jeg 😂. Bought it for my niece‘s birthday.
Bastard Out Of Carolina was recommended recently by a good friend.

I am very excited to get my hands on the tagged book, a seminal rewriting of history that challenges the hunter gatherer view of Australian Aborigines 👊❤️💛🖤.

I learnt so much from reading this book. It's hard to describe how important I think it is so I'm sharing this review quote.

If the test of sophistication were whether or not all were fed regardless of rank or whether all contributed to the spiritual and cultural health of the civilisation, Aboriginal Australia might have a much higher rank that some of the nations considered the hallmark of human evolution

History we didn't learn in school

Not even 100 pages into this book and it's shattered my understanding of our first peoples. This is not what I was taught in school. This should be compulsory reading for all Australians.

Some non-fiction for #booktober - I'm only one chapter in, but I already want to push a copy of Dark Emu on everyone I know. It's short but packed with fascinating info and insight.

Pascoe peels away the bias in his primary sources (journals of early settlers and explorers) to topple cultural stereotypes about pre-contact indigenous Australians.

We need diverse scholars & historians. This book is one example of why. #diversereads