Aboriginal Tradition Could Prevent Bushfires in Australia

Summary

In the northeastern bush of Australia, Aboriginal children are learning the ancient tradition of using fire strategically to prevent larger, devastating bushfires. This knowledge contrasts with Western fear of fire, emphasizing collaboration with nature. Organizations like Firesticks are promoting this cultural practice throughout the country. The traditional method involves controlled burns that don't harm trees and foster ecosystem health, contrary to destructive airdropped fires. The approach maintains biodiversity, supports spiritual and cultural connections, and is essential for Aboriginal communities to sustain their lands. By integrating their ancient fire management, Aboriginal people aim to protect Australia's vulnerable environment from uncontrollable wildfires.

Highlights

• Aboriginal practices use fire to manage and prevent bushfires, contrasting with Western fear of fire. 🔥
• Firesticks hosts workshops to teach traditional burning techniques nationwide. 🌍
• Controlled burns don't harm trees and maintain ecosystem balance. 🍃
• Destructive fires result from incorrect ignition and poor fire management. 🚫
• Traditional burning is a spiritual and practical method to protect land and people. 🌿

Key Takeaways

• Aboriginal fire management uses controlled burns to prevent destructive wildfires. 🔥
• Traditional burns protect trees and ecosystems, unlike harmful airdrop fires. 🌿
• Workshops like Firesticks spread Aboriginal practices across Australia. 🌍
• Collaboration with Aboriginal communities can improve fire management strategies. 🤝
• This cultural practice strengthens connections to the land and community well-being. 🌱

Overview

In the remote bush of northeastern Australia, Indigenous children are learning to master fire as a preventive tool against devastating bushfires. This ancient practice of traditional burning is an essential part of Aboriginal culture, offering a solution that diverges from Western approaches, which often view fire with fear. By working with fire rather than against it, Aboriginal communities promote healthier ecosystems and reduce the risks of massive wildfires.

Organizations like Firesticks are crucial in spreading this knowledge across Australia. Through workshops, they teach people how to implement controlled burns that keep trees and essential habitats intact. Unlike the destructive fires caused by misguided airdropping and poor methods, these burns are gentle and intentional, ensuring vital aspects of the landscape, like grasses needed by birds, remain undamaged.

Emphasizing a cultural renaissance, Aboriginal leaders stress the importance of integrating traditional knowledge with modern fire management to protect the land spiritually and physically. This approach not only fortifies the environment against wildfires but also revitalizes community bonds and supports mental well-being. By blending ancient wisdom with contemporary practices, they aim for a healthier and more unified relationship with the land.

Aboriginal Tradition Could Prevent Bushfires in Australia Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 Narrator: In the remote bush of northeastern Australia, these children are learning to light fires. It's an Aboriginal tradition that goes back thousands of years: using fire to stop fire. And many Indigenous people see it as part of a solution for devastating blazes like the ones that have ravaged the country. - Western knowledge of fire is that they're afraid of it, whereas traditional burning, and Aboriginal knowledge, is that we work with it.
• 00:30 - 01:00 Narrator: In Queensland, the Indigenous organization Firesticks is hosting workshops for people from across the country to spread that knowledge. We traveled there during the Southern Hemisphere winter in July of 2019 to witness the traditional burning many believed could help save Australia from itself.
• 01:00 - 01:30 - We always hear about the big fires down south, people losing their family, and you hear how they're burning down there, and it's all wrong. They're doing it all wrong. Nobody seemed to kind of figure it out. We're trying to learn a different way how to stop it. We got tired of people getting hurt down there.
• 01:30 - 02:00 - Burn it against the wind. If we would have burned it the wrong way, it would have took everything out. But because the fire is trickling, we're leaving behind grasses that are there for certain birds that need that grass, or it won't burn everything, you know? So it just trickles through all day like this. Like that.
• 02:00 - 02:30 Lovely, eh? - The fire would actually just crawl along the ground and not leap up into the trees and up into the canopies. And I guess that's traditional burning. - This is a healthy event. The trees are untouched. The white smoke from the grasses, feeding the trees to germinate and the shade all through the country after the fires,
• 02:30 - 03:00 it'll be nice and cool in here, even after the fire, because we haven't harmed any of the trees and the canopies, but yet we've completely cleaned the floor. - So where we are now, this is what we call Corromp, which is a boxwood community. So this has been done by a central burn
• 03:00 - 03:30 and dropping the bombs on the country. What happened, they came in on the wind side with the wind and they dropped multiple fires in here and she came through and rode through and now this whole place is sad. No flowers, no shade, no food. And all of this comes from the wrong ignition and the wrong way of looking at country. - It just tears your heart out. It just makes you want to sit down and cry.
• 03:30 - 04:00 After seeing all that country we did and feeling proud of it, but then to get out there and see something what the park just did, it shatters you. Makes you really sad inside to see something like that. - When you do a lot of the airdropping, you can't tell what's on there and what kind of trees
• 04:00 - 04:30 and what animals are there and it doesn't give enough time for the animals as well, to get away. - So he's actually a director. - But honestly, do you think this is a healthy burn? - No, I don't. It's just the resources to look at on such a big national park. That's where the limitations come on board. And also you will look at the environment the way you guys do culturally.
• 04:30 - 05:00 And there's also our environment as well, so we need to make sure those two interact together. - Yes. There's been massive damage to this area. And like I said, it affects the people spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally. There's a lot of emotions going on because a lot of hard work we've put into this country. - Only reality, if we get wildfires coming through later in the year, it's going to look 10 times worse than this. - We've got, like Rod's saying, we've got people ready to go. - We've been doing this with no money for all those years.
• 05:00 - 05:30 - That's right. - We never had no money. - So if you guys want to come along and voice your opinions, I'd love you to come along. - There's no excuses. There's no excuses. No matter what anyone says, we don't do that. We're not here to hang anyone or get wild at Parks. We're here to work with Parks and for them to chest up and to say, well, come on, let's make this better. We got an opportunity here.
• 05:30 - 06:00 - Consultation, when it comes to burning country, is the key, and good communication. Building that rapport with Aboriginal communities. - I'd like the welcome you all to our country. Happy country.
• 06:00 - 06:30 - We're trying to introduce traditional burning back onto country where Aboriginal people can burn their own country. - A lot of ecosystems in Australia are dependent on fire, and we need to look after them. Our knowledge of reading landscape and understanding
• 06:30 - 07:00 how fire fits on there comes from thousands of years. And when we look at the bush now, it's unhealthy. You know, there's weeds and there's, you know, invasive natives, it's unbalanced. And so we need to make the country healthy again. And fire is a big part of that. The right fire does everything. Firstly, it's burning spiritually,
• 07:00 - 07:30 and it's a spiritual connection to the country. The second component of it is looking after all the trees and the animals in here and making sure they're not getting all burned. So we're looking out for our biodiversity. And finally, what our burns are is to protect our country from wildfires. No wildfire will get through here after this, for this year.
• 07:30 - 08:00 - When the land is healthy, the people are healthy. And mentally we feel a lot better because our country is looking strong and that also affects our children, and our women, and our men, and we feel stronger inside because we know that we're doing the right thing by caring for our country.
• 08:00 - 08:30 It's all about sharing knowledge and sharing with each other because we've got to share this country. - We have an amazing amount of knowledge that could really show them the right way forward. People can burn the incorrect way and it's simply because they don't know the land.
• 08:30 - 09:00 - As we're all getting older, the next generation has to take on these roles, caring for our country and making sure it's maintained and healthy. - Now everybody got to watch the fire. Stop it from burning the camp down. So you burn it off, look it's going to die down slightly. Going to stop burning. Now, you have to watch down here. Look, see it's going to come back down this way. It's going to go right through now. Go away down the airstrip.
• 09:00 - 09:30 You can't keep going that way. - It's very important that our younger ones get out on country with us. Light that first match, smell that first burn. And see their country back the way it is.