Reconnecting Fire Culture of Aboriginal Communities with Contemporary Wildfire Risk Management

This paper aims to provide a better understanding of the transition towards a new paradigm of wildfire risk management in Victoria that incorporates Aboriginal fire knowledge. We show the suitability of cultural burning in the transformed landscapes, and the challenges associated with its reintroduc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inFire (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 6; no. 8; p. 296
Main Authors Atkinson, Amos, Montiel-Molina, Cristina
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.08.2023
Subjects
Australia
Burning
Case studies
Climate change
Collaboration
Colonization
cultural burning
Cultural heritage
Culture
Environmental history
Environmental risk
Geography
Government agencies
Land management
Land use planning
Landscape
landscape change
Native peoples
Reintroduction
resilience
Risk management
Risk reduction
Social aspects
social justice
Wildfires
Australia
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Summary:This paper aims to provide a better understanding of the transition towards a new paradigm of wildfire risk management in Victoria that incorporates Aboriginal fire knowledge. We show the suitability of cultural burning in the transformed landscapes, and the challenges associated with its reintroduction for land management and bushfire risk reduction after the traumatic disruption of invasion and colonization. Methods of Environmental History and Regional Geography were combined with Traditional Ecological Knowledge to unravel the connections between past, present and future fire and land management practices. Our study area consists of Dja Dja Wurrung and Bangarang/Yorta Yorta Country in north-central Victoria. The results show (i) the ongoing socio-political process for building a renewed integrated fire and land management approach including cultural burning, and (ii) the opportunities of Aboriginal fire culture for restoring landscape resilience to wildfires. We conclude that both wildfire risk management and cultural burning need to change together to adapt to the new environmental context and collaborate for mutual and common benefit.
ISSN:2571-6255
2571-6255
DOI:10.3390/fire6080296