The Aboriginal Landscape After The Australian Wildfires

Australian wildfires are not uncommon and the Australian summer holds an annual and expected fire season. The naturally hot and dry climate is prone to fires either by an accidental spark or lightning strike. The recent wildfires however, having started in September 2019 and still burning, have proved themselves to be of greater devastation and exceeding magnitude than normal. They have burned over six million hectares of land, generating smoke that shrouds cities and is causing health concerns. It is estimated that one billion animals  have been killed, and habitats destroyed leaving survivors facing dehydration. Over twenty-five people have been killed and countless homes destroyed. It is an understatement to say that the fires have devastated the land.

In terms of what caused such catastrophic fires, Australia had suffered a long period of drought after seeing a year of record temperatures. Climate change is generally accepted to have played a part in the wildfires, due to the rising global and thus Australia’s temperatures, from unnatural CO2 levels in the atmosphere. This sadly therefore indicates that fires are set to get worse and more intense in future years.

The Indigenous cultures of Australia, who have a deep and profound relationship with the land, saw great swathes of their homes, loved landscapes and sacred spaces swallowed up by flames. In one example, the Yuin people, predominately living in areas of New South Wales are concerned that several sites of cultural importance have been wiped out completely particularly between Mumbulla mountain and Gulaga.

As the fires ravaged through national parks and other areas, many important Aboriginal sites have been affected. In an article from nature.com, it is indicated that archaeologists and Aboriginal people alike are concerned for these areas but the devastation has not yet been assessed. Even if the fires have not destroyed cultural sites or homes completely, the consequences of by-products such as smoke may have affected stone paintings and sacred natural sites may have been damaged.

In some areas the wildfires have revealed new areas of interest, such as previously unknown sections to an ancient aquatic system over 6000 years old, dating back further than the pyramids and Stonehenge, created by the Gunditjmara people. The fires may have also opened up areas that previously were unavailable for human access, allowing the investigation of new sites. Many Aboriginal areas that are feared to be damaged are relatively new to archaeological knowledge, but nonetheless remain of significant and current value to Indigenous peoples.

In light of the wildfires, many have begun to look to Aboriginal culture for solutions, some Indigenous spokespersons speaking out to re-establish the Aboriginal technique of “cultural burning” which was previously used by Indigenous people to tend to, care for, and protect the land and its inhabitants from such fires.

Stemming from the profound, unique, and deep understanding of the land that Aboriginal culture has cultivated over hundreds of years, the practice of “cultural burning” is a technique that involves setting controlled fires in areas of excessive debris at the right time of year to prevent larger fires in hotter periods. The exercise, over thousands of years old and perfected by Indigenous cultures, aims to nourish the land, taking into consideration the habitats of animals among other elements.

Oliver Costello of the national Indigenous Firesticks Alliance, was quoted in The Guardian as it being “important for the health and regeneration of particular plants and animals. It retains balance and allows destructive elements to be prevented or destroyed. Animals are able to safely react to the smaller fires and it keeps their habitat safe.”

Before Australia was colonized and its land unfairly taken from the Aboriginal people, the practice of “cultural burning” was regularly undertaken. The practice was skilled and frequent, the nuances of which were arguably lost on the colonizers. Many Aboriginal people today, believe there is a need to return to cultural burning in order to preserve and nurture the land. Local authorities however, have banned it, opting for their own “controlled burns” which Shannon Foster, a knowledge keeper for the D’harawal people, commented to the BBC:

“The current controlled burns destroy everything. It’s a naive way to practice fire management, and it isn’t hearing the Indigenous people who know the land best.”

When sought, authorities have denied previously permissions for cultural burns, despite Aboriginal elders being concerned about the risk of out of control fires for some time. Perhaps though, it is now time to work with and value the ideas of Aboriginal cultures. Utilizing their deep and unique understanding of the land is one way of preserving and nourishing Australia’s beautiful landscape and culture. After all, it is their land too.