Joe,

I welcome your kind thoughts.

And wish the same for you.

Foxy,

You're dodging the issues. If you assert something, you - not anybody else - is obliged to provide some demonstrable evidence. You have to make your case, nobody else is obliged to have to chase references up. Give us the gist of Aboriginal farming, where, what, how, with some evidence if it exists.

Joe

Joe,

Been there, done that.

I see no point to adding to what I've already
discussed and I'm not interested in having
any further conversations with you on this
topic.

Foxy,

So I don't accept whatever absurdity that you proclaim without question ? What a total racist bastard I must be.

Still, I suspect that Pascoe is putting one over you true believers. Gullible people are such fun.

Joe

Hi Joe,

Spoke to the wife, and yes 'Ho' is the one sided spade used, good for digging 'kumara' in particular.

All tools were hand tools, the only mechanisation was the horse, very useful animal, could be used for basic ploughing and also for raking (levelling) Besides the 'ho' other tools were 'hawara' large shovel, 'paoka' garden folk, 'reiki' hand rake and sliding tool to do weeding, wife not sure of its name.

The main things grown were; 'kumara'(sweet potato), 'riwai'(Maori potato) 'kanga'(corn), 'ániana' (onions), 'kapeti' (cabbage), 'kareti'(carrots), 'tonapi'(turnips), 'pankena'(pumpkin) and 'kamo kamo'(squash).

The garden had a creek on two sides, west and south, watering was by hand, but rainfall was good so not over difficult for watering, soil was very good. When busy, which was most days garden work was all day 7am to 5pm. Sometimes only 2 people, sometimes 4 or 5, but usually just the two of them. Wife said the hardest garden job was weeding.

Storage without electricity was not a great problem, vegetables kept very well in the 'whata' (enclosed store house on stilts), and meat, butter (home made) and milk was kept in the 'pataka'(open store room on stilts with mesh around). Then there was preserving, jams and pickles salting of mutton was done a lot, corn can be preserved in a sack for 6 months in a clean flowing stream, amazing but rotten corn is the name they give it, and believe me an acquired taste . The creek was full of eels and watercress, and sea food was not far away, as was other foods in the bush. They also had a good supply of fruit from their orchard and from other whanau, along with plenty of chickens producing meat and eggs. Never ever went short of food, the traditional boil-up was a must, but they ate hot food every night cooked on the "wood range". Funny the wife spoke of having to sweep the dirt floor (later on her father put in a timber floor in the house), modernism!

p/s I like 'puha' (thistle) in the boil-up with dough boys included.

Foxy,

I have never read anything that "the Institute of Public Affairs, and people like Andrew Bolt, Rowan Dean, Keith Windschuttle." have said about aboriginal history if they ever have.

What I have read is accounts by early explorers, and what is consistently missing is any record of agriculture.

Perhaps you shouldn't just read BS from shonky authors trying to bend history to fit their fantasy.