How can we help?

1. Slides, attached below.
2. Students can create their own discussion around the central question, or you can clone and use this ready-made example.
3. Watch the debate video Bruce Pascoe: The Truth About Aboriginal Agriculture (approx. 13 mins) before sharing with students.

• Guiding Question: "Does privileging written history silence other ways of knowing the past?”

• Brief recap of key concepts:
  • Historical objectivity: The idea that history can be neutral, fact-based, and free from bias—debated in Lesson 1.
  • Historical gatekeeping: How dominant groups control which histories are documented and taught—explored in Lesson 2.
  • Indigenous knowledge systems: Ways of knowing grounded in oral tradition, land stewardship, observation, and community practice.

• Ask students:
  • If history depends on written records, whose stories get left out?
  • Can oral tradition and lived practice be considered “evidence” in the same way as written documents?
  • What happens when knowledge systems are excluded from official history — intentionally or otherwise?

Listening Task

• Video: Bruce Pascoe: The Truth About Aboriginal Agriculture (approx. 13 mins)
• Students should actively map Bruce’s key arguments, counterarguments, and ethical claims.
• Key Points to Listen For:
  • • How does Pascoe challenge the label of “hunter-gatherers” for Aboriginal Australians?
    • What kinds of evidence does he use — and why is that evidence often overlooked?
    • How do colonial explorers describe the land use and agriculture they witnessed?
    • What role does language (e.g., “stooped,” “tilled,” “terraced”) play in reframing Aboriginal history?
    • Why has this version of history been omitted from mainstream education?

Note-Taking Framework:

• Main Arguments 
  • What is Pascoe’s central claim about Aboriginal agricultural history?
  • How does he argue this history has been erased or ignored?
• Supporting examples: 
  • Which explorers’ journals does he cite?
  • What specific examples of Aboriginal farming and land management are provided?
• Counterarguments: 
  • Why were academics or institutions resistant to his findings?
  • How does Pascoe address doubts or opposition about oral or non-Western knowledge?

Kialo Discussion

• In small groups, students create a new Kialo discussion around the guiding question.
  
• Alternatively, if students require more structure, clone and share this ready-made discussion, based on the theses below, and use the suggested claims as prompts for students.
• Students should use their analysis to ensure they select the strongest arguments from the listening task. 
• They should add these to the Kialo discussion as arguments, counterarguments, examples, and evaluations.
• Encourage students to refer to the concepts of responsibility, perspective, and evidence in their arguments.

Example Claims:

NAME: Does privileging written history silence other ways of knowing about the past?

THESIS: Privileging written history silences other ways of knowing about the past.

Starter Claim: Oral or land-based knowledge doesn’t fit written formats and is devalued.

• PRO: Indigenous knowledge, like reading the land, fire-stick farming, and water use, is often dismissed because it’s practical and not written down.
  • Example: The video shows Aboriginal communities farming through observation and connection to land, not written instructions.
• CON: Some oral traditions aren’t meant to record facts, so they can’t always be judged like written history.
  • Example: Critics of Dark Emu say using symbolic stories as historical proof can wrongly apply modern farming ideas to older traditions.

Starter Claim: Colonial written history deliberately erased Indigenous knowledge.

• PRO: Settlers used written history to make the land seem empty and uncultivated, silencing oral knowledge of Indigenous farming.
  • Example: Colonial texts left out words like “tilled” and “terraced” to support the myth of terra nullius.
• CON: Some colonial writings did record Indigenous farming but were ignored or misread later.
  • Example: Thomas Mitchell described “nine miles of stooped grain,” but these records weren’t taken seriously until recently.

Starter Claim: Written history can be used to amplify oral traditions.

• PRO: Writing can help spread and protect oral knowledge.
  • Example: Pascoe’s Dark Emu shared stories of Indigenous farming that had only existed in oral form, leading to wider awareness and change.
• CON: Writing down oral stories can change or reduce their meaning.
  • Example: In the video, scholars warn that calling Aboriginal people “first farmers” may misrepresent their traditions through Western farming ideas.

Starter Claim: Writing preserves oral knowledge at risk of being lost.

• PRO: Writing helps save oral traditions for future generations.
  • Example: When elders pass away, writing down songlines, farming methods, and calendars helps keep this knowledge alive.
• CON: Using writing to preserve oral stories still puts it above other ways of knowing.
  • Example: The video notes Aboriginal knowledge was ignored until backed by written sources, showing that writing often decides what’s seen as real history.

Discuss the following reflection questions in open discussion or exit ticket format:

• What surprised you most about Bruce Pascoe’s account of Aboriginal agriculture?
  • How does this challenge the hunter-gatherer stereotype?
• What historical evidence did Pascoe use, and how did it change the narrative?
  • Why do you think this evidence was ignored or excluded from mainstream history?
• How does the suppression of Indigenous agricultural knowledge relate to cultural appropriation in fashion and other industries today?
  • What patterns of erasure or exploitation are repeated across sectors?
• Should the way we define “history” change to include oral traditions and Indigenous sources of knowledge?
  • Who decides what counts as historical truth?
• What responsibilities do educators, governments, and media have in correcting historical omissions?
  • Can reclaiming Indigenous history influence current conversations about land, sustainability, and identity?