How Indigenous fire management practices could protect bushland | Australian Story

Summary

This Australian Story episode explores how Indigenous fire management practices, which have been utilized for thousands of years, could be integral in mitigating bushfire risks in Australia. The episode highlights the experiences and knowledge of cultural fire practitioner Victor Steffensen, who learned from elders and now shares his expertise across Australia. It discusses the difference between cultural burns and contemporary hazard reduction methods, emphasizing the ecological and community benefits of traditional practices. The narrative underscores the pressing need for integrating Indigenous knowledge into current fire management strategies, especially in light of climate change and increasing fire emergencies.

Highlights

• Indigenous fire management offers a sustainable solution to bushfires 🌿
• Victor Steffensen carries forward the traditional knowledge of fire burning 🌳
• Cultural burns focus on careful, ecosystem-friendly fire applications 🍃
• Traditional burning supports biodiversity and reduces wildfire fuel loads 🔥
• Incorporating Indigenous practices could aid in climate change adaptation 🌍

Key Takeaways

• Indigenous fire techniques can revitalize ecosystems and prevent wildfires 🌿🔥
• Cultural fire practitioner Victor Steffensen learned ancient techniques from elders 🌳
• Traditional burns differ from modern methods, focusing on ecosystem health 🍃
• Integration of Indigenous practices could be key in combating climate change 🌏
• Empowering Indigenous voices is crucial to sustainable land management 🗣️

Overview

In a landscape marred by devastating bushfires, Australia's Indigenous communities offer ancient wisdom to combat these threats. The story delves into how traditional fire practices, finely tuned over millennia, offer a sustainable approach to fire management. These practices involve setting gentle, low-intensity fires that clear debris without damaging the ecosystem, helping to maintain balance and promote biodiversity.

Victor Steffensen, a cultural fire practitioner, learned the art of traditional fire management from revered elders. These practices are not just about controlling fire but nurturing the land. They reveal how reading the landscape and understanding seasonal cues leads to effective and safer fire management. These insights provide a compelling argument for integrating Indigenous knowledge with modern fire management efforts.

Despite the proven benefits, widespread adoption of traditional fire practices faces hurdles, chiefly due to a shortage of trained practitioners and policy challenges. Yet, the urgency of climate change and increased fire threats make a strong case for embracing Indigenous methods on a broader scale. Empowering Indigenous communities to lead these efforts marks a path towards sustainable land stewardship.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Indigenous Fire Practices The chapter introduces the concept of indigenous fire practices, metaphorically comparing fire to water and highlighting its beneficial role in protecting ecosystems, promoting biodiversity, and encouraging new life.
• 00:30 - 02:30: Significance of Fire in Indigenous Culture The chapter discusses the significance of fire in indigenous culture, highlighting its role in managing landscapes by removing rubbish and supporting animal life. Fire is portrayed as an integral part of the environment, crucial for maintaining balance. Issues arise when people become disconnected from fire and the landscape, leading to emergencies such as bushfires. The chapter may touch upon current bushfire emergencies, pointing out the destruction they cause, like the burning of houses.
• 02:30 - 06:30: Victor's Journey into Cultural Fire Management The chapter titled "Victor's Journey into Cultural Fire Management" provides a deep insight into the emotional and environmental impact of wildfires. Victor shares his experiences and frustrations as he witnesses the destructive power of uncontrolled fires. He expresses a sense of sadness seeing the land he cherishes being consumed so quickly. The narrative highlights a moment of reflection as Victor gazes at a specific tree that marks the intensity of the fire, reinforcing the overwhelming and unbelievable power of nature's blaze.
• 06:30 - 09:00: Learning from Elders about Controlled Burns The chapter titled 'Learning from Elders about Controlled Burns' discusses the importance of consulting Aboriginal experts who possess traditional knowledge and skills in conducting controlled burns. It emphasizes seeking their help and guidance, as they have been entrusted with this responsibility by their communities. The narrative underscores the commitment of these experts to fulfill their roles, despite it being a demanding task.
• 09:00 - 15:00: Challenges and Triumphs in Fire Management Chapter 1: Challenges and Triumphs in Fire Management Victor, a cultural fire practitioner, travels around Australia to visit both indigenous and non-indigenous communities interested in fire management. The interest is significant due to the occurrence of catastrophic fires, prompting many to reach out to him for advice and assistance.
• 15:00 - 18:30: Recognition and Academic Collaboration The chapter 'Recognition and Academic Collaboration' discusses the involvement in establishing an Aboriginal fire management program. It highlights the complexity and extensive knowledge required for such management, focusing on the benefits of 'cool burns,' which are low-intensity fires. The discussion contrasts these beneficial burns with the harmful effects of 'hot fires' often seen in wildfires and hazard reduction burning. These intense fires are detrimental to the environment, particularly in terms of food availability for animals post-burning.
• 18:30 - 23:00: Contemporary Applications and Benefits This chapter explores the importance of timing in cultural burning practices, highlighting the difference between burning at the wrong time (resulting in food scarcity for six months) and at the right time (leading to food availability in six days). It emphasizes the goal of burning to promote native grasses rather than to eliminate weeds. The narrative underscores a shift from traditional practices and acknowledges the realization of past mistakes in burning techniques. The chapter also covers the passing of knowledge through generations, reinforcing cultural burning as a vital resource.
• 23:00 - 28:00: Integrating Traditional and Modern Knowledge The chapter explores the importance of sharing and integrating traditional and modern knowledge. It opens with a reflection on storytelling and knowledge sharing as crucial elements of cultural preservation. The narrative introduces the practical aspects of cultural practices, such as making a fire and fishing, showcasing their relevance in daily life. The narrator shares a personal connection to these practices, having grown up in a small town named Carranza, not far from Cannes. A personal heritage story is woven through the narrative, highlighting the challenges faced by the narrator's family. Despite their indigenous roots tracing back to the mother's side, there is an acknowledgement of the lost heritage due to displacement. The narrator's mother could not relay much knowledge because her parents were removed from their country and scattered, losing connection with their culture. This underlines the impact of such historical disruptions on indigenous knowledge transmission and emphasizes the need for its reintegration into modern life.
• 28:00 - 33:30: Climate Change and the Future of Fire Management Growing up, engagement with language and culture became important around the age of 13, especially when camping with friends and discussing indigenous culture and heritage. Being out in the country and bush provided essential insights into personal and cultural identity.

How Indigenous fire management practices could protect bushland | Australian Story Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] fires beautiful it's like water it trickles through the landscape and the right fire protects the trees and it brings food and encourages new life it
• 00:30 - 01:00 takes away all the rubbish that's suppressing the landscape it looks after our animals and even the animals no fire it is something that belongs in this landscape but when people don't know the fire and they disconnect themselves from the landscape then that's when we have trouble yourself whales are in the grips of a bushfire emergency the house behind me is too far gone when I see the fire
• 01:00 - 01:30 out of control and raging it makes me frustrated and really sad for the LAN la supreme time up in the blink of an eye I'm looking at that tree right now that's marking it just was so intense it was just unbelievable it's heartbreaking when you can actually see an alternative and you've walked with fire that is so safe to see what our firefighters have had to deal with is just you know it's terrible this summer shows you that fire
• 01:30 - 02:00 has to be addressed the people most skilled at doing that Aboriginal experts they're willing to help surely we should ask them for that help the old people chose me to do this work this is a responsibility that was thrown upon me and I intend to finish that [Music]
• 02:00 - 02:30 as a cultural fire practitioner Victor travels around Australia visiting communities the interest from communities is huge from indigenous communities and non-indigenous communities when there's catastrophic fires burn off my phone went crazy thousands of people there saying look we
• 02:30 - 03:00 need you to come down and start a program here and there Aboriginal fire management is very complex and it's a lot of layers of knowledge and information but it's all based on the really cool burn which is low and intensity the hot fires that we often see in the wildfires and even the hot fires we often see with hazard reduction burning it's not good for the country there's a difference of the return for food for animals when you burn this at
• 03:00 - 03:30 the wrong time you'll have six months of no food when you burn the right time you get food in six days I've learnt from victories that we're burning to promote native grass we're not burning to kill weeds that's not the way you go you're worried that we've been doing the wrong thing for some time I definitely converted to the idea of cultural burning as a key resource for us Victor learned from elders who learned from elders and he's now
• 03:30 - 04:00 starting to share that knowledge and tell that story and I think that's important so make a fire I don't here go for fish right we'll use the camp radhiya I grew up in a little town called Carranza which is only half hour from Cannes my indigenous heritage is from my mother's side she couldn't tell me much because her parents and mother and families was taking off country and sent to different places and so they lost a
• 04:00 - 04:30 lot of language and culture it would have been around 13 years of age I started to really get into a lot of the culture stuff because going down the river and camping with my friends and we would talk about it all the time [Music] being out in country and being in the bush that gave all of us answers about who we were and what we should know about you know like our indigenous culture and our cultural heritage and
• 04:30 - 05:00 and the knowledge that that's out there fire was always a fascination to me and I think my first fire would have lit the banana patch in the backyard and it's burning and then I go well it's burning a bit too much now and then it's like taking over the banana patch in burning over the top of the chicken pen name my sister was watching me go you're in trouble you know film clip was very hunter on the guitar okay we were both
• 05:00 - 05:30 students of the film and Tully subject at school knowing what cameras could do and what it could capture we made little films and I guess that was a start of Victor's interest in filmmaking that whole journey has given Victor a pathway through his life the rain no flies this black power [Laughter] [Music]
• 05:30 - 06:00 gone through school Laden know what I wanted to do and then what friends come around and go hey we got up to Laura I'm gonna go fishing you want to come all and I said yeah I'm gonna go fishing [Music] there was no real opportunities in around Cranor so we both took off up to the Cape I didn't realize that that fishing trip I wasn't going to come back I ended up in then a little Township
• 06:00 - 06:30 called Laura and it was only a small town little over 100 people lived there Aboriginal community that's when I first met these two special on men George Musgrave and Tommy George and everyone would talk about those old men and because I was interested in learning about knowledge and culture and I would ask people and that say you can't talk to them to all of us there Victor back then was like an
• 06:30 - 07:00 empty cup and he wanted to be filled up with all this knowledge Laura's a small town and there's not a lot of places to say so he was invited to go and stay with dole LTG we call him Tito and George [Music] so you were born here yeah I born right here best woman would have been for their tribe and for their people there were the last to have that knowledge and
• 07:00 - 07:30 they're also the last speakers of their language that was so hungry to pass on their knowledge that was their dream was just for the young people to learn and to take over that role and that's what they they saw in me actually was just a young person wanting to learn and so they started to teach me to be really
• 07:30 - 08:00 clean I became someone they trusted and someone they could offload that knowledge to in a way that would pass that on to their families and to help with other communities and pass it on to the next generations was the one who
• 08:00 - 08:30 stood up and said well I'll take all that on when they sort of got to know him a bit more I got to know them a bit more they were like he's something they were treating him and looking after him like his son in the knees Victor pulling at this big Cameron and he was filming and all of a sudden he had wonderful I said nandan look all for us I've got this three technology yes a video camera it'll type whatever you see like in
• 08:30 - 09:00 explain it terms that a new world was I didn't know what the video camera was I thought it was a camera like this took still photos then small and white photographer yet until I said no no this is a video camera what I'm gonna do now I'm gonna cut in there yeah they thought the importance of it straightaway that the video camera was the closest
• 09:00 - 09:30 thing to the traditional transfer that's their voice and their recording and that is the most accurate way to record knowledge that all philadelphi that's pretty quick to the camera because everywhere they went they wanted victor to film so they all follows were like walking encyclopedias they were full of knowledge when I saw the footage I was
• 09:30 - 10:00 overwhelmed with the sense of importance in my knowledge about Aboriginal knowledge it had been like archives in museums this was live happening at the moment on country in our contemporary world fire well though people always
• 10:00 - 10:30 talked about fire in applying fire in a way that isn't sync with the seasons and then sync with the breeding tons of the animals the old men would look at indicators in the landscape so if it was time to burn a certain ecosystem there
• 10:30 - 11:00 will be certain flowers that indicate wounded burn what they taught me was how to read a landscape it was just really amazing how those old people could break down each different ecosystem to up having a certain top burn and Dallas was very sophisticated knowledge this area we've been burning for the last three to four years doing traditional bernie and we've shown here that the right burning
• 11:00 - 11:30 has encouraged the grass species can't tell you how many films made the films that played a crucial role for everyone to understand the intentions of indigenous fire management hundreds of Aboriginal tribes made up the continent all speaking different languages but all with one thing in common the responsibilities of traditional fire laws to the country [Music] what the early settlers and explorers
• 11:30 - 12:00 could see was that Aboriginal people were burning constantly cook going along the east coast talks about the frequent little fires and the constant smoke some of the early artists also depicted smoked Aboriginal fire had two basic objectives one of them was to reduce fuel and the other was to provide a
• 12:00 - 12:30 habitat for every species the country was well managed and there was a lot of grasslands and healthy landscapes and that was important because animals depend on the grasses and the grasses are there for seeds and food when the settlers came to Australia had changed immediately by taking fire as a landscape completely and so what was going on for thousands of years of people looking after the land suddenly just stopped when the old people that
• 12:30 - 13:00 they land back through the Native Title claim it was still classified as National Park they weren't really allowed to put fire on the land George and Tommy would be like you know we gotta burn we gotta burn you know in the land some unbalanced and so sick when we drove around on their country they were heartbroken those same weeds and dead grass over the bonnet of the car and you
• 13:00 - 13:30 know they couldn't find places they couldn't recognize their land eventually one day the same thing happen and I said burn it all follow why don't you just burn and then he said alright then let's do it lit the grass and ran tiptoeing back into the truck and closed the door and we looked at the fire just taking off and our hearts were bleeding and we knew
• 13:30 - 14:00 we were in trouble straightaway we just knew her trouble for doing it [Music] it was the National Park Service and and neighbors were concerned but I think it was a turning point because there was a recognition more broadly from neighbors and the agencies that this was something they were going to do so with or without a permit got more game they wouldn't bid
• 14:00 - 14:30 it again and they kept doing that until the parks and well government and the place they're all sort of fed well these are all scat doing something good here they're not actually just lighting fires for the fun of it once we started doing
• 14:30 - 15:00 the burns over time over a couple of years we started to see weeds disappear it was quite amazing to watch whole landscapes be burnt and seeing how skillfully and tenderly they did that flowering was protected there was a decrease in background there was an increase in diversity of the understory there was a decrease in the skylight there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that it was a positive thing for the
• 15:00 - 15:30 environment I had also a positive thing for people that's when I realized the power of traditional knowledge and there was hope to set things the right way when we've got our first fire permit of national parks we were like it was so happy it was like in the letter from the Queen right about then Peter Stanley
• 15:30 - 16:00 came to us wanted to do a PhD on the fire work and I said to heard that the PhD can only happen if those all follows were properly recognized yeah only made the comprehensive knowledge that those old people held of the country and all the components of it was absolutely phenomenal took a year or so working with James Cook University and
• 16:00 - 16:30 in 2005 they awarded them honorary doctorates so that they could be listed as Co researchers on the PhD thesis so the old people became dr. George Musgrave and dr. Tom and George when they came back from the university thing we're all a little blue hat and better they were the king of the world well there there was a pretty over the moon about it and it was a big thing for me they
• 16:30 - 17:00 helped me so much and they've always said to me keep going keep going boy and yeah you keep doing what you're doing and from there I did it for them it was just to let the world know that Aboriginal knowledge is a valuable knowledge source that we need into our future and we're only just seeing that now people understanding you how much we need that knowledge
• 17:00 - 17:30 when I saw the catastrophic fires happening this summer it was no surprise to me it was a time bomb waiting to go off that math is the amount of fuel loads and the wrong vegetation that's lined up with drought as well [Music] I feel sorry for the firefighters they deserve volunteers and in a throw an errand to allaha war zone into an inferno
• 17:30 - 18:00 out of all the pain and all the loss I just hope that something good comes from this [Music] what goes through my mind when I see this is I just get angry you know and Harper can I'm sad if we had looked after this country would see a different outcome who would see more houses save
• 18:00 - 18:30 would see more bush land saved would see more animals saved it's gonna take a long time before we see this country look under why should be [Music] just imagine if a series of fires like we've just been through had happened in 1788 people could not possibly have outrun them whole communities must have been wiped out but there's no evidence
• 18:30 - 19:00 that that actually happened people prevented fires in those days their skills prevented fires today we're at can genie with as a private property and we're really happy to have our local indigenous people to come along to do fire management on this place in cultural burning the key thing
• 19:00 - 19:30 is that the fire is cooler and it moves underneath the canopy because that canopy is where birds and other animals live it gives those animals a chance to move away but also when that far has been through there that gives them a chance to come back because as green shoots green pickings will come back over almost immediately and you come back in two or three years and their country's alive there's birds everywhere because the insects are back when we burn the right fire in the right ecosystems we enhance our native
• 19:30 - 20:00 vegetation so the fire is an application to get rid of the weeds and the invasive grasses and that's what makes it different to hazard reduction it's really about applying that fire in a way that that is best for the country it's not about oh yeah let's get this done before five o'clock just for the sake of burning off the fuel first time I experienced normal reduction burns by local fire brigades they were actually outright scary and it went into a
• 20:00 - 20:30 massive big smokestack when you column and I was wondering how many animals died in this these indigenous cultural burns totally different feeling it's so relaxed it's so good that fire doesn't have to be threatening I found in the Queensland real fire service now since 2012 the way that the indigenous burning is conducted is totally different to what we're used to in the fire service we've been putting
• 20:30 - 21:00 in to hotter fire blanketing too far an area not allowing animals to escape Victor is a revelation we don't need to black out the whole country and burn everything in sight you can go out now on a reduction burn and consider the animals so that in the area is at the right time for that sort of vegetation to be burnt is the right time sort of the birds are they safe sunburns all
• 21:00 - 21:30 over country and seen the improvements and landscapes and there are even places where the last while firemen and didn't burn our cultural burn areas a couple of people that their houses say from cultural burns the father's went out and went around them the last Bend that was conducted caught up into the caravan fire that we've just experienced and the area that was culturally reduced fared well
• 21:30 - 22:00 and you will see a visual line on the ground where a flanking fire met with the cultural burn and the fire just petered out so it it worked Victor ran four workshops in this area they explained how things have been done
• 22:00 - 22:30 traditionally I got on board with it straight away because I could see the benefits ideally what I'd like to see is the combination of traditional knowledge and academic knowledge coming together to work out what's beneficial for the countryside so that we can implement successful hazard reduction word I do think that traditional fire knowledge could be part of the solution it's a matter of get the right people sitting down so local traditional owners local
• 22:30 - 23:00 experts from the fire service from other agencies as well and putting all that knowledge together there is thousands of generations of traditional owner knowledge out there all across this country and if we don't tap into it we're absolute fools there's no doubt like with the broader burning landscape we can do more cultural burning we can do more work with local communities and particularly indigenous communities in different areas but the single biggest
• 23:00 - 23:30 impediment to getting more has a reduction burning done cultural burning prescribed burning whatever you want to call it is typically attributed to weather and the limited windows of opportunity to take advantage of those weather conditions to say that this is a panacea I'm hesitant to say it is where it's worked it's it's worked well those areas are small at this stage cultural burning on a broad scale is not achievable at the moment there's not
• 23:30 - 24:00 enough people trained and hopefully that can can be alleviated in the future I call on all members to support the declaration of a climate emergency if we don't take immediate action more boots will burn these catastrophic fires that have just happened has woken this country up it's incredible and I just want all the talk to stop and I was one day action it is to begin I have no doubt of our
• 24:00 - 24:30 mind that indigenous knowledge of fire it's the key to adapting to climate change we now start looking after the land look after your rivers your water burn your country the right way if we see this through the indigenous lens then climate change is an exciting time and opportunity but what I would like to see is indigenous training programs the
• 24:30 - 25:00 young people are keen that's a big reason of why fictive wrote about it the book is to find you know ways of getting that message out to broader people Victor's goal now is to ensure that in what he's been entrusted with my brothers to old people gets out and and as well no one sort of all around the world we lost soul dr. George Musgrave in 2006 and we lost dr. Tommy George and
• 25:00 - 25:30 2016 and if there are live now to see those devastating bush fires there to be terribly disappointed at the mall philosophia I reckon they'd be done at polymerase or somebody under in the hard place is knockin on their doorsteps and look here we need to do this so we get a little stick you can dig him out [Music] I think when the old people passed Sanh
• 25:30 - 26:00 they knew they would still be going and in this work would continue for me it's about getting this done and achieving those dreams for them and getting the fire up came back on the landscape [Music] and I just want to make sure that
• 26:00 - 26:30 there's a thousand practitioners out there once I'm done they listen to us net they believe us that they pick old people to show them how they do try not to cut the trees and not to put a dozer through they bleed wash their blade was averaging we need change we need to do things differently give Aboriginal people a gun for once [Music]
• 26:30 - 27:00 you [Music] you