Paul,
I have the 2020x1 edition and in the front blurb pages one Darina Adam’s of the Irish Examiner is quoted ‘Unputdownable’ and someone has pencilled in ‘Unbelievable’.

Foxy,

Yes, many reprints but how many in each?

Magabala is an Indigenous publisher and not a big business, my copy was printed by Griffin Press of South Australia.

https://www.themonthly.com.au/blog/russell-marks/2020/05/2020/1580868886/taking-sides-over-dark-emu#mtr

"But throughout Dark Emu, Pascoe regularly exaggerates and embellishes. One example: he quotes Thomas Mitchell’s description of large, circular, chimneyed huts Mitchell observed near Mount Arapiles, in western Victoria, on July 26, 1836, but leaves out the words “which were of a very different construction from those of the aborigines in general”. Pascoe adds his own commentary: Mitchell “recorded his astonishment at the size of the villages”; he “counts the houses, and estimates a population of over one thousand”; and “the evidence is everywhere that they have used the place for a very long time”. But in his own journal, Mitchell doesn’t express astonishment, he doesn’t count and he doesn’t estimate a population size. Nor does he present any evidence that would support a conclusion about longevity of residence. Granville Stapylton, Mitchell’s second-in-command, recorded seeing one hut “capable of containing at least 40 persons and of very superior construction” on July 26. Pascoe includes this, but not the rest of Stapylton’s sentence: “and appearantly the work of A White Man it is A known fact that A runaway Convict has been for years amongst these tribes.” That could be a reference to the well-known escapee William Buckley (who was found by John Batman the previous July), or it could be a racist myth. The point is that Pascoe simply left it out.

By themselves, examples like these split hairs. But they’re all the way through Dark Emu. Together, such selective quoting creates an impression of societies with a sturdiness, permanence, sedentarism and technical sophistication that’s not supported by the source material. In speeches and interviews, Pascoe is known to reach even further. And far too often Pascoe relies on secondary sources, including those obviously pushing ideological barrows."

Shadow Minister,

You've left quite a lot out. So you're criticising
an author for being "selective" when you're doing
the exact same thing yourself. Interesting.

You've left out the fact that:

Russell Marks also makes the following points
that "Dark Emu" rests on a foundamental
truth:

"That the European explorers saw things (and from within
their own world view, wrote them down) that the first
settlers (and the institutions that supported them didn't
want known) (because they were busy expanding the colonial
frontier, which necessarily meant acting illegally) and
that subsequent settlers couldn't see (because these
things were no longer in evidence)."

Marks - also tells us in summing up his article, that -

"instead of persuasion and deliberation, - instead of
core democratic values, - what continues is the pusuit
of righteous ideological rigidity which favours shamings,
take-downs and out right abuse."

He says that - "As with most public debates in the age
of Twitter, Fox News (and social media) there seems little
possibility of shared kindness, or compassion, or shared
understanding here."

He infers that the so called "Right"
has reorganised to protect settler
Australia's colonial legacy. That it's been on a permanent
seek and destroy mission setting their sight on
attack dog columnists (Andrew Bolt) and narrowcasters
on what they see as objectio9nable individuals. (Like
Bruce Pascoe).

Marks makes it quite clear that it seems their mission is to
extinguish the basis for Indigenous sovereignty and
self determination.

Perhaps what we should aim for is more persuasion and
deliberation? Reading Sutton and Walshe's book would
also help.

Foxy,
I look forward to your rebuttal of claims that Pascoe. selectively edited quotations from prominent explorers etc., for his own ends.

Shew us all just how Pascoe’s work has been distorted.

Is Mise,

I think I've provided enough views on the
subject and the issues involved.
I have nothing further to add.

Foxy,
Hope you like it; the corner that you’ve been coed into!1