I'm a whitefella who has never met Bruce Pascoe, but I’ve heard a lot about him. For the past few years, I have worked across Gippsland in the field of Aboriginal cultural heritage, and many of the people I meet mention his name. Experience has led me to try and dodge most of these conversations, knowing that our discussion will probably satisfy neither party, but I’m not having much luck. People want to talk about Pascoe, and often it is unpleasant. I have heard him described as a charlatan and worse, usually by those who have not met him, spoken with him, or read his work. Most of these critics are whitefellas, preoccupied with questioning or discrediting his Aboriginal heritage.

I find this preoccupation both odd and depressing. As with so much about Aboriginal culture and identity, some whitefellas want to frame the debate and force their say – Aboriginal matters decided on whitefella terms, as has been the case since colonisation. By contrast, the Aboriginal people I know have little interest in throwing barbs about Pascoe and his background. Rather, they want to speak about Country and how we might work together to heal the calamities that more than two centuries of colonial practice have inflicted on the landscape. To my mind, that tells us two things: that Aboriginal culture is inherently generous, and that Aboriginal people are often better at identifying the matters that warrant attention.