Magpie

• Bruce Pascoe is best known for his natural history, Dark Emu, which argues that systems of pre-colonial food production and land management in Australia have been dramatically understated.
• At last count, the book had sold at least 360,000 copies of the original edition – and many more in the form of adaptations, translations, children’s and overseas editions.
• Since the publication of Dark Emu in 2014, Pascoe has had to endure extraordinary public scrutiny, as well as vehement attacks on his personal and professional reputation.

• In light of the last ten years, Black Duck: A Year at Yumburra is a healing and necessary book.
• The farm is a deliberate project designed to test, extend and materialise some of the ideas put forward in Dark Emu.
• The meaning of Yumburra, Pascoe tells us, is Black Duck, the “supreme spiritual being of Yuin country”.

Six seasons on the farm

• Through more than 60 subtitled journal entries, accompanied by numerous photographs and sketches, Pascoe charts the activities of his days.
• These include labouring chores on the farm, visits paid and received (both there and interstate), thoughts, visions and experiments with food and agriculture, and memories and reflections on relationships reaching far back into childhood.
• Pascoe describes life on the farm as solitary at times, but also active.
• Daily farm work includes clearing watercourses or fixing tools and machinery, and at these times his friendships with the nonhuman are forged in both subtle and overt ways.

• Despite their vigilance, the Spur-winged Plover loses a lot of chicks to eagles and foxes […] Their calls are ever-present on the farm.
• If the horses gallop, an eagle passes, a dingo wakes or a car arrives, you hear about it instantly.
• You can’t make friend with Birran Durran Durran because everything is a threat in its opinion.
• Despite their vigilance, the Spur-winged Plover loses a lot of chicks to eagles and foxes […] Their calls are ever-present on the farm.

• There is a sense of time moving on through the seasons.
• Yumburra, too, was affected by that event, leading one of the farm workers to rename a whole section of the farm “Apocalypse Valley” in the aftermath.
• “The unbridled pleasure I used to take in the forest, waters and shores is now tinged with sadness and dread.”

A true storyteller

• The author is respectfully light on detail on these matters, but the reader is left in no doubt about their deep importance to him.
• Pascoe’s authorial style sometimes comes across as a touch too lackadaisical and larrikin-esque, drifting as if unmoored.
• And yet, he’s a true storyteller – and no sooner have you hesitated, than he reels you in again, and has you marvelling with him at the grandchildren’s handstands and cartwheels on the paddle board on the river, or at the cunning of the dingo pair who’ve taken out a young Buru (kangaroo) by gripping him by the ears and drowning him.
• I assume it was the same animal because she made a great point of making sure I was watching her expertise.
• It might be a romantic thought or a wish for longevity of a friend but, whatever the case, I enjoy the personality.“

• Sometimes Pascoe quotes from her journal entries, discrete and beautifully rendered observations of wildlife on her own nearby property.
• But as I was reading, I found myself wondering how else Lyn contributed to the book, and on what terms.

Connection to culture and Country

• For anyone with lingering doubts about Pascoe’s commitment and connection to Country, this book will set them straight.
• It is a quiet, funny, warm and insistent call to return to and care for Country.

Julienne van Loon has been a recipient of funding from Creative Australia, Creative Victoria and ArtsWA.

• This year, Crown Royal has teamed up with Houston Legend Bun B to kick off the rodeo festivities.
• On February 29, Crown Royal kicked off the rodeo festivities with Houston native, Bun B, and hosted "Hats Off to Houston," an intimate dinner attended by the city's tastemakers and fashion trendsetters.
• The celebration raised a glass to the Houston legend and the local artistry that is at the heart of Houston's rich culture.
• "What better way to kick off Rodeo other than with Houston legend, Bun B?

• Hopefully, unlike last year’s final, it will be a gripping match.
• Perhaps most importantly, after lean years during COVID, there has also been bountiful spectator interest this season.
• All this follows a bumper season for the AFL, with 36,110 attendees per game, the league’s highest average since 2010.

Rivals with September history

• No other two clubs have faced each other more in an AFL grand final.
• The Magpies lost to the Lions in 2002 and 2003, so they will be especially keen to soar against their Queensland rivals.
• As with last week’s preliminary final, Collingwood will have the advantage of playing in Melbourne against an interstate rival.

The Lions are reborn

• In 1996, the Brisbane Bears were reinvented as the Brisbane Lions following an AFL-managed merger with the financially distraught Fitzroy Lions.
• A move from the Gold Coast’s Carrara Stadium to Brisbane’s Gabba embedded the newly branded Lions in Queensland’s capital.
• That said, after the heady three-peat of 2000-3, the Lions endured some very lean years, making the finals only once between 2005 and 2018.
• That year, the Lions were eliminated in the preliminary final, so it was a metaphorical opportunity lost.

Collingwood’s transformation

• But sport is not simply about winning or losing; it’s also about how you play the game – both on and off the field.
• In that respect, Collingwood is undergoing a renaissance that could not have been imagined just two years ago.
• This led to the 2021 release of the “Do Better” report, which found evidence of systemic racism at the club.
• Read more:
  As the 2022 AFLM season comes to a close, the game must ask itself some difficult questions – especially on racism

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