Fire and Water, Healing Country and People

Summary

This video by Landcare Australia explores the intricate relationship between fire management and land healing, emphasizing the importance of indigenous cultural practices. The narrative highlights the collaboration between local rangers, landholders, and Aboriginal elders in reviving traditional fire management techniques to restore natural landscapes. These practices not only address environmental concerns like invasive species and deforestation but also reinstate cultural connections, promote biodiversity, and sustain healthy ecosystems. Such endeavors are vital for the cultural and ecological future of Australia's landscapes and its people, stressing the role of collective action and cultural respect in healing both country and community.

Highlights

• Calling out to country and acknowledging traditional lands strengthens cultural ties. 🌏
• Fire management is used not just for hazard reduction, but for land health and food security. 🌽
• Controlled burning reveals a transition from weed-full to native grass landscapes. 🌾
• Aboriginal fire management respects the harmony between fire and water systems. 💧
• Healing the land is intertwined with healing people and cultural identity. 🧡

Key Takeaways

• Acknowledge the land and its traditional custodians with respect and song. 🎶
• Traditional fire management is about balance and respecting the landscape. 🌿
• Using fire correctly can rejuvenate land and promote native vegetation. 🔥
• Collaboration between different sectors leads to successful land restoration. 🤝
• Cultural practices play a crucial role in ecological and community health. 🌱

Overview

The video unfolds with a cultural invocation, as Aboriginal elders express the significance of 'calling out to country'—an act of identifying oneself and respecting the land's traditional custodians. This practice is more than acknowledging the land; it encourages a deeper relationship with it, recognizing its inhabitants and history as integral to the land management practices employed today.

As the narrative progresses, the focus shifts towards the strategic use of fire to manage and restore native landscapes. This fire management transcends typical hazard reduction purposes, aiming instead to rejuvenate ecosystems, increase biodiversity, and cultivate native species over invasive weeds. This method reflects thousands of years of Aboriginal wisdom where fire is a tool for nurturing the landscape, not just protecting it.

Towards the end, the conversation broadens to include the essential partnership between Aboriginal communities, government, and landholders. This collaboration is not merely logistical; it's cultural and educational, paving the way for a mutual understanding and respect. Demonstrating cultural fire management to land carers fosters an invitation for integration and shared learning, illustrating that healing the land inherently involves healing the community and its cultural identity.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Acknowledging Country The chapter titled 'Acknowledging Country' begins with a musical introduction.
• 01:00 - 05:00: Introducing Cultural Burning The chapter 'Introducing Cultural Burning' begins with Doug discussing the importance of acknowledging the country. In his native language, he communicates with the land, introducing himself by stating his presence. This ceremony highlights the significance of cultural recognition, specifically towards the homes of the Bulway people who speak the Jabaga language.
• 05:00 - 11:00: Healing Country and People This chapter focuses on the concept of 'Healing Country and People', emphasizing the significance of acknowledging and respecting the land and its original inhabitants. The speaker refers to the Jabber guy, Nagali, and Gulai people as near neighbors, highlighting the importance of recognizing these communities. Moreover, the chapter discusses the practice of 'Welcome to Country' ceremonies, which serve as a formal means of paying respect to the Indigenous land and its cultural heritage. It highlights the spiritual connection and respect needed when one enters special places within the country, thereby advocating for healing through acknowledgment and reverence.
• 12:00 - 15:00: Importance of Water The chapter discusses the significance of focusing on the country when discussing matters related to it, instead of individual experiences. It emphasizes the importance of recognizing and acknowledging the country itself. As an example, the work being done on Kangini, located on Bulwai country near Davies Creek National Park, is mentioned. It highlights collaboration efforts with Victor and the landholder over this property, thereby emphasizing cooperative measures in working with and for the country.
• 15:00 - 17:00: Youth Empowerment and Community This chapter highlights the collaborative efforts involved in applying prescribed fire management in Australia. It emphasizes the importance of working with rangers and landholders, who form a cooperative group, to undertake this task. The chapter also introduces Victor, who has been working with the USF for the last three to four years on this project, focusing on management aspects and the significance of being on Broadway and Jabukai country.
• 17:00 - 18:00: Future Vision and Collaboration The chapter discusses the trend among landholders in Australia to buy land with the intention of preserving it. Many of these landowners are seeking guidance on proper land management. In response, some property owners are collaborating with local rangers to help manage their land effectively, particularly in terms of fire management. This collaboration reflects a growing movement towards sustainable land stewardship.
• 18:00 - 19:00: Conclusion The chapter reflects on the history and transformation of a cattle property that had previously been used for forestry and logging. It highlights the challenges faced due to past management practices that led to areas being overrun with weeds. However, positive changes are noted following a controlled burning process in some areas, which has resulted in the resurgence of native grasses in those regions, demonstrating successful land management and restoration efforts.

Fire and Water, Healing Country and People Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] so what what we
• 00:30 - 01:00 do um here doug is is we do a um are calling out to country um and that's about acknowledging um country um and in in my language i'll sing out and introduce myself so i'm going to bumba so i'm here i'm talking to country and i tell country who i am um um and then we acknowledging country then so this these are the homes of the um the bulway people people and they speak the jabaga language and
• 01:00 - 01:30 near neighbours are the jabber guy and the nagali and the gulai people but yeah we acknowledge country here today and calling out to it and for me it's about um um it's like saying um if you when you walk into those special places that you know what would you say to that place and that's calling out the country acknowledging that country in that way um i think one of the things i think in the approach when we do welcome to countries or when welcome to country is done is
• 01:30 - 02:00 that it's made about people but it should be about country so that's what we're just calling out the country here now no java ganji now or boomba no bulway now when so just tell the country that i'm here um yeah so we've been doing some um working over the um on this property kangini which is on um on bulwai country near davies creek national park and we've had victor working with us and the land holder over
• 02:00 - 02:30 the last few years to apply the right fire for this country and the the work that's been undertaken um with rangers and and the land holder um which is a cooperative um group so victor's been doing some work with usf for the last three or four years around this so yeah what do you think about some of the management aspects here firstly it's just great to be here on broadway country and jabukai country
• 02:30 - 03:00 and and um yeah for me i'm takalak i'm i'm another eight hours west of here but i grew up in this area here with barry and a lot of land holders are doing that now these days all over the country they're buying land and they want to look after it and i find that all over australia and a lot of them want to know how to look after the right way and so for this case these property owners have got the local rangers to manage this land for them with the fire
• 03:00 - 03:30 this used to be our cattle property and i think some forestry too yeah and forestry logging and as you can see it's just full of weeds and because of the past management and basically it was just all full of weed and what we're seeing now um we put one burn through on one side some areas we haven't burnt and you can see obviously where we haven't burnt but other areas where we have burnt you can see that all the native grasses are coming through
• 03:30 - 04:00 and now we've got more native grasses than weeds that are coming through the country whereas before it was just all full of um stylo and different weeds and introduced grasses like the greater grass you see in front of us and that's the typical for a lot of cleared landscapes where they take out the timber and they deforest it or and they stop managing it with fire and so the main goal for this property is for them they want us to get it back to its natural state and so
• 04:00 - 04:30 the first step is to is to get the trees back healthy again and to and to bring back trees where there's no trees and we do all that with the fire so this is a great case study on a national scale of showing both private and government sectors working with aboriginal people and working together and getting really good results but the other interesting thing i think big about this property is is the range of landscapes so you know we've got that ironwood country and nine bar country up top there and
• 04:30 - 05:00 mystery country and bloodwood down in here so we're able to apply um all those different understandings and and cultural knowledge and apply different types of fire out all year round basically and most importantly um it's getting right down to that fine line you know of that real like perfection of land management using fire and without using fire in places where you don't need fire and that is that fine perfection that aboriginal
• 05:00 - 05:30 people have developed over thousands of years of being a part of that landscape and that's the connection that we're working from and trying to work people towards again and that is about managing the land for food for all the natural plants and all the animals they're all tied to cultural affiliation and identity to people and landscapes and when we look at the country that way and managed the way that the old people saw it as as their
• 05:30 - 06:00 greatest asset of all and not mitigation and not hazard reduction and protecting houses but actually seeing it as food and seeing our landscape as an economy that sustains a cultural connection and sustains the whole livelihood of health everything and not just for abundant people but right across the board and so a couple of things that came up there were around fire management as as one of the tools in the toolkit and there are other things you can do as
• 06:00 - 06:30 well and how you balance those things and how from a land care perspective you you can engage um with traditional knowledge to do that and then the other element is um uh the reference to cultural burning and what constitutes a cultural burn because there's a lot of conversation people say they're doing cultural burning but they don't have the knowledge of the old people you know the old people never used that term when i grew up with them and you know around other people and never heard cultural burning it was
• 06:30 - 07:00 always just aboriginal fire management you know and burning country aboriginal fire management is really important for aboriginal people because of their culture and reviving their culture it's important about employment and giving their young people direction all of this is about the aspirations of the elders and the elders all over australia they want to see their young people managing the land and looking after their land and keeping their culture going but fundamentally i think but the starting point is understanding and reading country
• 07:00 - 07:30 being able to apply a whole range of different land management tools um and then and fire is the key there but you know being able to mechanically clear and um and then set up monitoring plots for cultural indicators is the main work that we're trying to achieve through that yeah but i think that's a key point in regards to when uh modern day management practices about um looking at country and silos and isolation um whereas country needs to be viewed as a whole and that's what indigenous
• 07:30 - 08:00 knowledge is it's holistic and so when we learn about country we're talking about the trees the animals the plants everything and the benefits and then even the healthy people and the benefits to education and to employment so this is about um that big corner we've got to turn as a nation that this naidoc theme is touched on today this year's the healing country what we've got to deal with is massive and not only in healing the land practically and looking after country
• 08:00 - 08:30 that seems to be the easy part but the most hardest part is people and the landcare community is about healing country and like you've talked about agricultural productive landscapes right through the other conservation estate that's the that's the landcare movement so you're you're really talking to to everyone that's a participant in landcare wants to understand how this engagement can take place and you're starting to see it come together like we we certainly do fair bit of work with our local land care groups but that work
• 08:30 - 09:00 um started off around site prep and site rehab and and being able to have those areas in riparian zones restored um to what they should be we seem to extend into threatened species work so out in burning country we found words the songs that were when applied until old people were out in the country and they were listening and talking and started realizing that that that was that song that we had been missing for a long time um
• 09:00 - 09:30 so being able to apply those things so culture regenerates you know with land as well it's healing country and healing healing knowledge as well and knowledge yeah and healing people yeah people are a part of the country and that if you're gonna heal landscapes you've got to heal people with the landscape because this country has evolved with people over thousands of years of burning the right way and so people have been part of the evolution of the all the ecosystems barry's going to start the first one here and so you're going to sing out there
• 09:30 - 10:00 let the country know and off we go cool well know my boombah berry badang so i'm just saying i'm gonna go and open up country with fire
• 10:00 - 10:30 that's all part of singing at the country that's all part of connecting the country you can hear the bird thing out then they're all acknowledging it see they're all letting each other know and all the insects that start climbing the trees now and things start moving out the way it's all about food the right fire for the soils all the way to protecting all the lives of the insects so the birds can eat the insects we don't scorch the canopies so we've got shade
• 10:30 - 11:00 and that the trees are protected and not all burnt so that they can continue to flower for the through the season and continue to seed and continue to give shade this is a hot country we need shade so that's why the fire we only burn the grass and here what used to be weed from last burn we did now is turn to native grasses and only a little bit of weed instead of all weed so now we're burning the right
• 11:00 - 11:30 vegetation and that's what we aim to do we burn to bring back the right vegetation so the only thing we're burning is the grass and you can also see the organic matter is still there and that tells you we haven't cooked the organic matter in the soils so that they've got the goodness in there and the seed banks and you can still see grass seeds in there too but we've gotten rid of the fuel load and this is also protected from wildfire because we'll have green grasses here and not dead grasses so that's why we need to demonstrate through traditional knowledge so that
• 11:30 - 12:00 people know that the fires are gentle and very calm and burn in the right [Music] places [Music]
• 12:00 - 12:30 so here we are in the river system here animal creek and beautiful beautiful water and these are one of the areas that we don't want to burn and there are many areas that we don't want to put fire rain forest river systems gullies certain ecosystems that belong to certain values and this is one of them and it's really important that people understand that when we do fire management we don't burn all the country next to fire is the water we should be
• 12:30 - 13:00 looking after our rivers should be taking care of our water systems because it's so important to the health of our landscapes and for our ongoing you know sustainability in this country so water more and more we're seeing being used as a commodity but to us it starts with that cultural value and that cultural value defines our identity so the importance of water to that cultural identity and that identity then goes and talks to
• 13:00 - 13:30 the species and biodiversity and the different values within the river um and water is important for our life and our identity and and culture moving forward so when i see the work that we do as indigenous rangers on the ground and then i look at the influence that it has on particular um the younger men and women that i work with and that are involved in in the work that we do
• 13:30 - 14:00 and the sense of pride that i see within those young people wearing that uniform and walking around is is great for their self-worth but also great for their their um the way they're perceived in the community and to be able to demonstrate in some small way that that there's a wealth of knowledge and a wealth of uh views um and with that comes a wealth of opportunities in the messages as well to be able to share and to be able to
• 14:00 - 14:30 come together around those aspects of management because at the end of the day the goals um and what we're trying to achieve is the same it's one of the same there's really no difference it's been a tremendous honor and privilege to be out here with with barry and victor on barry's country and to have him welcome us through his ancestors um invite us to be part of demonstrating fire in the landscape and what a wonderful
• 14:30 - 15:00 opportunity for landcare is to be able to see that through this piece of vision a lot of land carers are already working with first nations people they've already got fantastic partnerships what what we want to see within the land care community i know because i feel it and people talk to me about it is to take the next step and and to reach out and what we've heard from victor and barry today is that invitation to reach out and and i know when when we reach out
• 15:00 - 15:30 and when indigenous communities reach out to us that we're going to learn so much together and it's always the case you achieve so much more together than separately and at the end of the day we're all one australian community and land carers are a big part of it and have a huge role to play you know for me i'm a tucker like a man and i never grew up in my country and traditional knowledge was the most important thing
• 15:30 - 16:00 you know for me i didn't realize it was a practice that was so far gone right across the country in many places and so there's a lot of work to do to bring all that knowledge back and the biggest message for healing country um from me for this for this year is um we can't heal country if we can't work together and so there's a lot of reasons why that's so important for our health um and why this is so important for the health of our young people
• 16:00 - 16:30 for their futures economically health-wise culturally all the above and then it's that's just so important aboriginal people have been a part of this land for thousands of years and atlanta has evolved with people and it's so important that um that people understand that we go with the health of the land and we're part of that healing process and you are too
• 16:30 - 17:00 [Music] [Applause] [Music] you