A Beery Tale By James Reed
As an alcoholic I am naturally protective of beer. I love the stuff. Wine too. Cheap plonk even better. But then again, I am not much of a “racist,”
and respect Aboriginal culture, and appreciate the warnings from the Elders about the existential threat that excess grog causes to the communities. And why not? So, I have divided loyalties on this one, and will just have to sit it out on the rusty galvanised iron fence. Ouch!
“A beer made in collaboration with Dark Emu author Bruce Pascoe which includes a sacred Dreamtime story stamped on the side of the can has raised the ire of some in the Indigenous community.
It has sparked a furious response from some Yuin Indigenous people of the NSW south coast, who say Pascoe has disrespected an initiation into ancient teachings and should be “ashamed” to use the knowledge to “promote grog”.
Indigenous dancer and language consultant Warren Ngarrae Foster, who was involved in an acclaimed Opera House production based on Dark Emu, slammed Pascoe, saying “a book is one thing, but telling the sacred story of our creator on the can of grog is another, shame on you, Bruce”.
Pascoe’s book Dark Emu has come under fire after historians debunked his theories about Aboriginal farming and settlements.
Craft brewer Sailors Grave Brewing collaborated with Pascoe to create the boutique dark beer called Dark Emu Dark Lager, which includes native grass seeds harvested from Pascoe’s Victorian farm.
The beer’s tin is decorated with artwork about the “giant creator emu, Baiame, after it left earth and rose into the sky” to became part of the Milky Way. The beer sells for $22 for a four-pack or $8 for a single can online.
“First Nations people have been making fermented beverages both here in Australia and across the world for thousands and thousands of years, we are just the conduit for this particular story in what is just a blip in time,” the brewer said.
The brewing company spent six months working with Pascoe.
But Mr Foster, from Wallaga Lake near Bermagui, said the Yuin story written on the can of alcohol was special and sacred to the Yuin people.
In a social media post, he said: “WTF is this guy Bruce Pascoe using an ancient Dreamtime story to promote his grog.
“You should be ashamed of yourself disrespecting all those ancient teachings you was told.”
Mr Foster’s words provoked a heated response online, with some Indigenous commentators saying beer is “one of the biggest colonial poisons to our people”.
Businesswoman and former Crown prosecutor Josephine Cashman was sacked from an Indigenous government advisory body last year for questioning Pascoe’s Indigenous heritage and the Dark Emu book.
She says she worked in the drug and alcohol field in the late 1990s on the south coast, and said Pascoe was “brazen”.
Through a spokesman, the beer company said Pascoe was not paid any money from the beer’s sales nor from the ingredients he supplied, and a percentage of sales were donated to help Aboriginal students.
The spokesman also said the company had worked closely and consulted Yuin elders, including elder Noel Butler, on previous beers.
Mr Butler is one of several directors of the Indigenous enterprise Black Duck Foods, founded by Pascoe.”
See kiddies, the trouble beer can lead to! Best to keep to mineral water. Who would want to end up a sorry old, self-pitying sausage like me, Uncle Jimmy?
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