Time is now for unity on bushfire solutions

For tens of thousands of years, Aboriginal people set fire to their land. The slow, cool cultural burns helped heal, regenerate and reduce the risk of serious bushfires. But this traditional burning practice was largely lost after colonisation and European settlement. In recent months, about 18 million acres of land have been burnt, 2000 homes and 28 lives have been lost and nearly one billion animals have been affected by the fires. A group of Noongar elders recently joined a national chorus of calls — which grows louder with more land perishing to bushfires — to revive these ancient methods and help prevent the current scale of devastation. One of the elders, Carol Pettersen, said she had been trying to spark the conversation of cultural burning for more than a decade. “There has always been desire and conversation among us, but we just haven’t had the right opportunity to get it on the fire-risk mitigation agenda,” she said. “But with everything happening now, we seriously need to start looking at some of these old practices and start combining them with new science. “Traditional burning had its own science, but the landscape has changed between then and now — it has become populated and dense — so it’s a matter of balancing both and marrying them together.” A local conservation organisation, Gondwana Link, is another voice pushing towards the integration of traditional Aboriginal burning. “The key point is that we are having increasing trouble in controlling these bushfires with the current prescribed burns,” Gondwana Link chief executive Keith Bradby said. In its core concept, traditional burning is somewhat similar to contemporary prescribed burns. But it involves a more intimate relationship with the land. Aboriginal communities around Australia have varying methods, each tailored and tied to the deeply rooted knowledge of the specific landscape in that part of the country. But the most important difference, according to local elders, is that cultural burns are carried out on a much smaller scale, more frequently and during cooler months of the year. In 2018, Mr Bradby and Ms Pettersen were involved in a study by Western Sydney University researcher Jessica Weir and Australian Capital Territory Aboriginal fire management officer Dean Freeman. The pair were collating a report based on the exchange of knowledge about cultural burning with traditional owners and fire authorities in southern WA. The report, published last year, focused on how the practice could be used in the region in the “anticipatory shadow of catastrophic wildfires that can destroy, and have destroyed, much of value in his part of the world”. In the report, titled Fire in the South: a cross-continental exchange, Dr Weir said many of those involved in the exchange discussed the similarities and differences between hazard reduction burns and cultural burns. “Cultural burning is a practice that supports country,” she said. “It is also a practice that can inform fractured societal debates about the merits of prescribed burning in terms of protecting life and property, and the new science about the ecological impacts of such hazard reduction. “Fundamentally, the Aboriginal people we met with talked about the importance of understanding fire differently, to reposition it as not just something to fear, but as central to the regeneration of life. “At the same time, all were concerned about the growth in catastrophic wildfires, and this intensified the focus on anticipat-ory land management practices.” Mr Freeman, a Wiradjuri man, said fire was an intrinsic part of Aboriginal people as both a spiritual and practical tool. “We used fire for everything — for cooking, for light, to keep warm — we have a very positive connection with it,” he said. “But European settlers used it largely in warfare.” According to Mr Freeman, current hazard reduction fires are lit in a circle or a square, trapping wildlife inside. The trained firefighter, who has been overseeing cultural burns in Canberra for more than five years, said his traditional technique allowed control of the path of the fire, reducing fuel load, while allowing native grasses to shoot back. “We undertake burns on a much smaller scale, so we can manage it and control it — we basically walk with the fire,” he said. “Most of the time, it’s no taller than 30cm.” But while some Aboriginal communities still carry out cultural burns in parts of the country, it has been a long time since Noongar people have been able to carry out burns on their country in the Great Southern. Noongar elder Lester Coyne said he lived in the bush as a child and recalled his parents and elders carrying out cultural burns. “The bush provided our food, our shelter, our shade — the whole lot — so looking after it was our responsibility,” he said. “They used a patchwork model. They’d burn small patches, consistently, not just once a year and they would often burn patches that backed onto the river. And they’d also light up a section, knowing that a year ago they burned another section, probably 3km or 4km away, so the fire could only run and link up where the old one finished.” Mr Coyne acknowledged that the landscape in the Eastern States was different, with more valleys and ridges, making controlled cultural burning much harder. “But I think everyone is becoming very keen to look at different models,” he said. “It’s only inevitable that we need to try a different approach.” The Department of Fire and Emergency Services recently advertised for the role of a traditional fire programs co-ordinator within the Bushfire Centre of Excellence, which is being built in the Shire of Murray. DFES Bushfire Centre of Excellence chief superintendent John Tillman said the position would provide support to local communities seeking to implement traditional burning methods. “DFES supports traditional burning as an additional mitigation tool to existing prescribed burning methods,” Mr Tillman said. “We recognise the benefits of traditional burning, such as the historical and local knowledge from traditional owners, and their ability to identify and protect culturally significant sites. “We encourage local governments, through their Bushfire Risk Management Plans, to utilise traditional burning where appropriate.” Dr Weir said now was a better time than ever to instigate a collaboration between local governments, fire services and Noongar communities to develop a new fire management plan. “The ACT government’s support of cultural burning is one example of how fire management is being refashioned with neither land rights nor native title,” her report said. “But motivated individuals doing the work to make it possible, because it is the right thing to do.”