To Help Australia, Look to Aboriginal Fire Management
Why you can trust us
Since September 2019, Australia has been ravaged by bushfires. You know the statistics: about , around , and nearly affected. The fires have also affected Aboriginal communities and lands.
On January 3, the small , New South Wales, was destroyed, including the homes of five members of the local Aboriginal Land Council and the Land Council building. In Victoria, the has been on high alert, as the East Gippsland bushfires burn just 20 kilometers away. 鈥攔eserved areas of land managed by local Indigenous people鈥攈ave been devastated as well. Russell Irving, project coordinator at the Minyumai Indigenous Protected Area in New South Wales, that, 鈥淲e and many of our small-scale farmer neighbours are at threat of becoming members of the rapidly growing number of climate refugees in our own country.鈥�
Historically, bushfires in Australia were a lot less common than they are today. Climate change is partially to blame. in Australia over the last century, causing more . But the ongoing impacts of colonialism鈥攊苍肠濒耻诲颈苍驳 poor land management鈥攊s also part of the puzzle. For tens of thousands of years, Aboriginal Australians managed their environment through controlled burns. These fires continue to shape Australia鈥檚 landscape. In the Central Arnhem region in northern Australia, for example, a study found were more abundant in areas that had been burned by Aboriginal people, because the grass in burned areas was more nitrogen-rich than grass in non-burned areas.
This intimate relationship with the land was violently interrupted by colonization. When colonizers first arrived in Australia, they took note of the Indigenous peoples鈥� use of fire. In 1889, British : 鈥淭he natives were about, burning, burning, ever burning; one would think they…lived on fire instead of water.鈥�
Knowledge of cultural burning was suppressed through , , banning of Indigenous languages, and other practices over centuries. Until 1992, : Australia had previously operated under the idea that the land was 鈥渦nowned鈥� before colonization and Indigenous people were not legally recognized as traditional stewards. Today, thanks to decades of activism and lawsuits, Aboriginal Australians control of land. The land reclamation movement has in part focused on revitalizing traditional fire management.
Contemporary revitalization of traditional fire practices began in the 1990s in Cape York, Queensland, with elders Dr. Tomin George and Dr. George Musgrave. In an interview with the podcast , Tagalaka filmmaker and traditional fire practitioner Victor Steffensen reflected on the beginning of the movement: 鈥淭hose old people are walking encyclopaedias and you know, they knew how to look after our own country. Yet no one was listening to them, the authorities weren鈥檛 listening…and the young people weren鈥檛 picking that knowledge up.鈥� So he started to record Dr. George and Dr. Musgrave鈥檚 knowledge and educate others. In 2008, they hosted the based on the elders鈥� knowledge. Though Dr. George and Dr. Musgrave have passed away, activists such as Steffensen continue to hold the fire workshop, educating hundreds of Indigenous Australians and allies through national workshops, community-based trainings, podcasts, and partnering with universities.
Aboriginal fire management, also called cultural burning, involves an intimate relationship to the land. It is not one specific technique, but a localized understanding of what is needed for the environment at the time. If the fire is too hot, it may harm seeds and nutrients in the soil. Cultural burners often avoid burning logs or trees where animals and insects live. While the Aboriginal fire management is proactive, Western-style controlled burning, also called hazard reduction burning, is reactive.
Hazard reduction burning is often done by dropping incendiaries from planes, making it more cost effective, but less controlled. There is growing evidence that this style of burning , especially in times of extreme drought. A in Australia found that controlled burns only reduced the amount of land damaged by bushfires in four of the bioregions, but overall, the study concluded, Western-style controlled burning had very little impact.
Cultural burning, on the other hand, strengthens ecosystems. The Bega Local Aboriginal Land Council in New South Wales . In 2018, intense bushfires were in the region, destroying nearly 100 homes and leaving the forest black and bare. Yet six months later, in areas where cultural burning had taken place both before and after the fire, regrowth had already begun. By burning after the fire, traditional fire practitioners were able to prevent invasive species from growing.
As bushfires in Australia continue to increase in intensity, Aboriginal land management鈥攍ike cultural burning鈥攎ay be a crucial part of the solution. 鈥淎ll these government departments, environmentalists, national parks, farmers and pastoralists have the best intentions but they all have their different interests,鈥� said Steffensen in a December 17, 2019, . 鈥淒oing it our way on a continent-wide scale would be costly and take up a lot of working hours, but in the long run it could save billions.鈥�
is a key factor in why these fires are so abrasive. Australia is than it once was. But Western-style land management鈥攁nd the history of colonization and suppression of Aboriginal land management鈥攈as played a role as well.
鈥淚t鈥檚 our cultural obligation to do these sorts of things,鈥� said Peter Dixon, a cultural burn crew member for the Bega Local Aboriginal Land Council, in an . 鈥淎nd it has been for thousands of years.鈥�
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Abaki Beck
is a public health graduate student and freelance writer. She writes about Indigenous feminism, Indigenous science and knowledge, and gender-based violence in Native communities.
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