Lit Panel Discussion

Bruce Pascoe is a Bunurong man born in Melbourne. He is a member of the Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-
operative of southern Victoria and has been the director of the Australian Studies Project for the
Commonwealth Schools Commission. Bruce has had a varied career as a teacher, farmer, fisherman,
barman, fencing contractor, lecturer, Aboriginal language researcher, archaeological site worker and editor.
He now lives in Gipsy Point in Victoria. His books include the short story collections Night Animals (1986)
and Nightjar (2000); the novels Fox (1988), Ruby Eyed Coucal (1996), Ribcage (1999), Shark (1999),
Earth (2001), and Ocean (2002); historical works Cape Otway: Coast of secrets (1997) and Convincing
Ground (2007); the childrens’ book Foxies in a Firehose (2006); Young Adult fiction Fog a Dox (2012); the
critically-acclaimed Dark Emu (2014); and the mid-primary fiction book Seahorse (2015). In 2013 Bruce
was awarded the YA Fiction Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fog a Dox. In 2016, Dark Emu won the
Book of the Year and was co-winner of the Indigenous Writer’s Prize in the NSW Premier’s Literary
Awards.

Reading
Hello everyone, my focus for this panel discussion is the representation of the land, which in this case
refers to Australia, and the representation of national identity, in particular I will be exploring the binary
between the European settlers and Indigenous Australians in terms of their contrasting and conflicting
beliefs on the management of land.
Through the relationship between Douglas and the Thylacine, Pascoe represents the natural ecology
of Australia as connected to the people which inhabit it. I interpret Douglas' interactions with the
Thylacine as representing a more accepting and humanist perspective on Aboriginal identity and its
place in modern Australian society. Pascoe intends for Indigenous Australians to be seen as equals
from the perspective of Western society, through political and social equalities, and in return Aboriginal
culture will respect Westerners through its own faculties.
2,9,18
From the short story we understand how European settlers are represented as infused with a
dominating attitude, and a desire to subjugate and manipulate the land around them. While Douglas
does not conform to the belief of his own superiority and right to stewardship of Australia's land and
environment, he unconsciously desecrates Australia's environment by helping to construct fences that
disrupts the natural ecology of the land. I thus interpret Douglas as someone who's own values are
betrayed by the society of which he resides; that is he unknowingly propagates the colonisation and
exploitations of Australia's land in opposition to his own belief of respecting the land and it's people.
5
Finally, I interpret the character of Douglas as contrasting the stereotypical Western colonialist as he is
able to treat Indigenous culture with respect. Through the death of the Thylacine, which I interpret as
representing Aboriginal culture and identity, Douglas' grief shows his own remorse for the decay of
Aboriginal identity at the hands of his fellow white settlers.
Additionally, I interpret Pascoe as endorsing reconciliation and the treatment of Indigenous Australian
with respect and equality in contemporary Australia.

Discussion
douglas as recalcitrant to western society in general
- Douglas didn't need people. ... but it was a way of meeting people without going through the
bother of trying to balance a noisy china cup on a saucer and think of something to say at the
same time6
6: Douglas is resistant to conforming to western cultures - i.e. he does not like socialite
gatherings and upper class culture, yet he still wants to connect to others. ⟹ Douglas is
characterised as humanist; he sees his experiences, his interactions with others as rewarding, not
partying/dancing. we understand douglas is more empathetic to human emotions, hence he is able to
connect emotionally with the Thylacine
allusion to "The tyger" - similarities between Blake's tyger and Pascoe's thylacine
- If in the eleven books the brother owned, he'd found 'Tyger! Tyger! burning bright,' he would
have read it aloud and hoped that the words would heal.21
21: tyger tyger, british romanticism (alludes to how douglas is most likely a british settler), explores
blake's fearfulness of the creator who makes such a powerful creature as the tyger. strong
connection between blake's tyger and the thylacine! both have elements of the mythical (magic
realism), and we both perceive them as magestic and flawless. douglas mourns the death of a
beautiful, aesthetically perfect creature - his empathy is unique to him