'A Coloured History' with Bruce Pascoe and Henry Reynolds

'Mounted Police and Blacks'
The killing of Aboriginals at Slaughterhouse Creek by British troops.

ABC News 24 - BIG IDEAS | 21 August 2014 | Sydney Writers' Festival

By now we know all there is to know about Australia's history. Or do we?

This is a fascinating discussion with historians Henry Reynolds and Bruce Pascoe on war, memorials, commemoration and agriculture.

Henry Reynolds, Bruce Pascoe with ABC's Big Ideas moderator Lydia Miller

Firstly, Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu explores primary sources to show Aboriginals were not just hunter-gatherers, but agriculturalists. It is a contentious issue and there are a number of historians who would take issue with Pascoe’s line.

Then Henry Reynolds’s Forgotten War asks why there are no memorials of the wars fought between Indigenous Australians and white colonists. Furthermore, why is the subject more controversial now than it was 100 years ago? As we commemorate the outbreak of World War One, 100 years ago, we should take a look at another perspective on the great wars that Australians have fought in.

This session was recorded at the Sydney Writers’ Festival and moderated by Lydia Miller.