Three things with Bruce Pascoe: ‘My teeth were all over the place, like a dropped Mahjong set’

Dark Emu author Bruce Pascoe is appearing at the Melbourne and Sydney writers’ festivals in May to speak about his new memoir Black Duck, co-written with his wife Lyn Harwood Photograph: Supplied

Few Australian books have been quite as impactful as Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu. In the decade since it was published, Pascoe’s investigation into precolonial Aboriginal agriculture practices has sold more than 360,000 copies – and started a culture war.

Pascoe’s latest book is a reflection of sorts on the impact of Dark Emu. Black Duck, a memoir co-written with his wife, Lyn Harwood, captures a year at Yumburra, the couple’s property just outside of Mallacoota, Victoria. It tracks the aftermath of bushfires, the work of rebuilding a marriage and the personal cost of finding yourself at the centre of a national debate – as well as proposing a blueprint for better food growing and land management processes.