The trees are special, they are the lungs of the earth, they are the providers of everything we need in more ways than anyone can imagine and the key to understanding how we apply fire to the landscape. If you don’t know the trees, then you will never know how to apply fire the way Aboriginal people have done to look after the land.’ (83, Steffensen).
Australia’s history with devastating bushfires has continuously ignited interest in the land management practices conducted by the Indigenous Australians. Following the aftermath of the Black Saturday bushfires which ravaged Victoria in 2009, many leading professionals turned to mitigation measures conducted by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community in order to prevent another travesty.
The integration of Aboriginal cultural practices in fire safety provides a unique opportunity to improve land and community resilience, whilst respecting and preserving indigenous knowledge. A key Aboriginal fire management practice and strategy that is implemented into modern fire safety include cultural burning.
Cultural burning consists of low-intensity controlled burns and have been traditionally used by Aboriginal communities for thousands of years. Through conducting careful care for the land, promoting biodiversity and preventing large scale bushfires, cultural burning has been adopted by the NSW Rural Fire Service through the term Hazard Reduction Burns (HRB). HRB’s are commonly used to control Asset Protection Zones (APZ) and is one of the few ways in which Indigenous practices are utilised as a key component of bushfire risk mitigation.
In Bushfire and Fire Management, a book that is helpful to read, in order to understand more about cultural burning, and embedding this into fire safety practices is Viktor Steffensen’s ‘Fire country, How Indigenous Fire Management Could Help Save Australia.’ Steffensen’s book provides personal accounts of his own life as he grew up, learning from Aboriginal Elders, and drawing on the ways Aboriginal communities have a deep understanding of land management. Steffensen provides a compelling and in-depth overview of Cool Burning and how this practice is significantly overlooked in the world of Bushfire management and calls for more Indigenous methods to be used.
‘Western fire regimes are based on hazard reduction, they don’t see the layers of cultural and environmental connections that make up Aboriginal fire knowledge, based on all elements of nature living in harmony.’ (35, Steffensen).
Cool burning is an incredibly significant part of bushfire and fire management, that is still yet to be implemented within fire management across Australia. In his book, Steffensen provides an important account of how Western forms of management vastly differ and lack the sensitivity and care which Aboriginal forms of land management provide. Cool burning, and cool fires remove fuel loads which are of a lower intensity, compared to traditional fires that are much harsher and can rapidly grow out of control leading to destruction.
‘Indigenous burns are much more different, relaxed and cool, which is different to fire.’
Some ways that cool fire is applied, is by considering a wide range of factors such as time, weather, biodiversity and habitat. When considering these elements, it also accounts the safety for both people and animals living in fire prone areas. If animals live around a particular area, and cool burning is practiced close to their habitat, it provides them a chance to move away and return, without their habitat being completely destroyed. Steffensen notes an example of this by mentioning green shoots, which are able to grow back after a few years even after undergoing the cool burning process.
‘Mosaic pattern of burning country is important to support the diversity and needs of different species. It is perfectly locked together in connectedness. When spring arrived, much of the lowland, richer soil systems were burnt in the old days. All the burnt winter country would then have far less chance of a wildfire coming through in summer.’ (57, Steffensen).
Another key example he explains is through Banksias. Banksias are able to create heat on its own, and when a cool fire goes underneath the banksia, dead leaves around it start to pick up the flames. Banksias are able suck up the fire and engulf itself in flames, creating heat to germinate its hard seeds. Minimal usage of fire only needs to be used and doesn’t have the same risk of spreading rapidly and burning through other types of vegetation.
Steffensen notes that having this type of knowledge is important, as understanding how certain areas and plants react to fire are different from each other. Cool fires should be applied diligently and intentionally. What is necessary is that both academics and traditional forms of knowledge, and management practices need to collaborate and work with local experts who are able to understand the plants and areas.
As the theme of this NAIDOC week calls for strengthening the next vision and their legacy, integrating these methods of cool burning, listening and learning Indigenous forms of land management and care is a vital way to move forward for everyone.
References
Steffensen, Victor. Fire Country: How Indigenous Fire Management Could Save Australia. Hardie Grant Explore, 2020.
How Indigenous fire management practices could protect bushland Australian Story. ABC News Indepth, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-9hmEiH828&t=152s