Talking Point: Put Aboriginal fire knowledge into practice

ANDRY SCULTHORPE: An integrated approach to dealing with the threat of bushfires is urgently needed

DIFFERENT VIEW: Indigenous knowledge can help. Above, fire south of Geeveston. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

IN traditional times our ancestors believed that fire was a gift from the spirits, spirits who can be seen in the night sky and who sent the gift of fire to the people.

Fire was a link between people, the earth and the spirit world. With this gift came a culture that revolved around the use of fire to bring comfort and balance to the world.

Fire would create an environment where life could flourish. We know this to be true as we know that the relationship between people, country and fire has existed for tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands of years.

We also know that the country after this extensive period of burning was never healthier.

However, the past 200 years tell a different story. With removal of the people and their fire, the land has suffered in many ways.

So another bushfire season brings more discussion on fire management. Debates intensify and we see a flux of commentary about what to do differently in the future, and what happened in the past, usually accompanied with some mention of the Aborigines and what they used to do, and the inevitable conclusion: “But times are different, and anyway we’ve lost all that knowledge now.’’

So we look to science, hoping for truths and answers. Yet our unwavering focus on European knowledge systems to answer complex ecological problems has not provided us with the understanding we seek. However, the idea of putting fire back into the landscape is probably largely an agreed-upon necessity.

We believe the application of traditional Aboriginal principles and beliefs enables us to begin the practice of putting fire back into the landscape with conscientious and holistic objectives. It is Aboriginal knowledge that provides the starting point for understanding sustainable fire practice.

Aboriginal culture by necessity has evolved and adapted fast in the past 200 years. Just as knowledge shared through ancient pathways has been shared between nations over millennia, today as Aboriginal people work to rebuild their nations we see collective knowledge transfer occurring between borders. This is the source of the deepest understanding of this country and the primary source of knowledge we can use to guide other important complementary activities such as research and scientific observation.

Where destruction of local knowledge has occurred, it is rebuilt using a basis of shared Aboriginal principles that provide a method for further learning and allowing the land to impart its teachings back to us.

Yet the Western knowledge system is so much more valued by society than the knowledge of living Aboriginal people. Perhaps an obsession with authenticity and the dismissal of Aboriginal people’s validity in a modern world is part of the issue, or perhaps attempting to synthesise all information through a pre-existing scientific filter is a problem.

We are at risk of repeating the mistakes of the past, with a colonial approach to fuel reduction and a reliance on industrial answers to bushfire threat. The threats are real and getting worse, so an integrated approach to dealing with the threat will be required. But in order to prevent more environmental destruction in the name of a good cause, we will need to place higher priority of the wellbeing of the country. We will need to use fire in a way that does not further harm already struggling ecosystems.

Aboriginal fire practice works to improve country, not remove it. Reduction in severity of wildfire is only part of the objective, but it is a relevant and important benefit.

Around the country as well as in lutruwita/Tasmania, the revival of Aboriginal fire practice is emerging as an important cultural reclamation.

Fire practice in Aboriginal communities is culturally important, and as with other cultural practices such as language, art and story, the ownership of this development lies with the Aboriginal people. It will be tempting for non-Aboriginal people to appropriate the concept of Aboriginal burning, and more harm may be done to Aboriginal people in the process.

An important part of Aboriginal fire or land management is the respecting of the importance of allowing self-determination and community control over heritage and cultural practices.

Fire in the landscape is everyone’s business, and the way in which it is done affects all of us eventually.

Addressing the threats we face and providing for a more balanced environment will require everyone working together, not in opposition or in mutual exclusion.

The Aboriginal community can provide a valuable contribution to the state if resourced sensibly for the task at hand.

There is a lot of work to do and we need to think long-term, as well as address the immediate concerns.

For this to work a new paradigm needs to be entered into in how we manage land and fire and how we employ Aboriginal people to undertake fire management.

A more inclusive and creative approach is needed that allows for new ideas on how we get people back on land-practice fire culture, taking the time to read the landscape and create more intimate relationships between the land and fire practitioners.

Andry Sculthorpe is the land and heritage project officer with the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre and a director of the Firesticks Alliance Aboriginal Corporation.