A review of contemporary Indigenous cultural fire management literature in southeast Australia

Abstract

<p>Indigenous cultural fire management is being recognised and revived across Australia, primarily in the centre and across the north. To explore the benefits of contemporary cultural fire management in southeast Australia and barriers to its revival, we undertook a systematic analysis of the literature. Seventy documented applications of cultural fire management projects were found with the potential for significant upscaling. Over the last decade, eight policies related to Indigenous fire management have been developed by state and territory governments in southeast Australia, with varying levels of implementation. Seventy-eight benefits and 22 barriers were identified in relation to cultural fire management. In the cases where cultural fire management has been successfully reinstated as an ongoing practice, Indigenous leadership, extraordinary relationships, strong agreements and transformational change were identified as drivers of success. For cultural fire management to grow, more funding, policy implementation, long-term commitment, Indigenous control and decision making, mentoring, training and research are required. Several areas of research could facilitate the expansion of cultural fire management and be applied in similar contexts globally, including Africa and the Americas. While Indigenous voices are increasingly represented in the literature, it is imperative that mutually beneficial and respectful partnerships are developed in the cross-cultural interface of landscape fire management.</p>

Co‐producing a fire and seasons calendar to support renewed Indigenous cultural fire management

“…However, recently political and academic attention has focussed on the use of Indigenous fire management as an alternative (Robinson et al 2016;Maclean et al 2018;Eloy et al 2019;Nikolakis & Roberts 2020). Many Indigenous communities, particularly in southeast Australia, are in the process of reinvigorating cultural fire management (Maclean et al 2018;Smith et al 2018;Ngurra et al 2019;Neale et al 2019;Weir & Freeman 2019;Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation 2020;McKemey et al 2020b). 'Cultural burning' is a term mostly used in southeast Australia regarding the application of fire, defined as 'burning practices developed by Aboriginal people to enhance the health of the land and its people' (Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation 2019).…”

“…'Cultural burning' is a term mostly used in southeast Australia regarding the application of fire, defined as 'burning practices developed by Aboriginal people to enhance the health of the land and its people' (Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation 2019). 'Cultural fire management' encompasses broader cultural practices, values, heritage and land management activities, including the spatial or temporal exclusion of fire (Office of Environment & Heritage 2016;McKemey et al 2020b). Public interest in cultural burning in Australia increased significantly following the 'Black Summer' bushfires in 2019(McKemey et al 2020b) and subsequent bushfire inquiries, which recommended that governments increase engagement and application of Indigenous cultural fire and land management (Binskin et al 2020;Owens & O'Kane 2020).…”

Catastrophic Bushfires, Indigenous Fire Knowledge and Reframing Science in Southeast Australia

“…The assertion of Indigenous fire management as a landscape management practice that can mitigate catastrophic bushfire in Southeast Australia is based on the enormous reservoirs of traditional fire knowledge in Indigenous communities [21,70], abundant ethnohistorical information depicting radically different landscapes under Indigenous management [23,66,69] and sound, albeit scant, empirical data that demonstrate how Indigenous fire management both mitigates large climate-driven bushfires and increases ecosystem health [58][59][60][61][71][72][73]. Despite the abundance of Indigenous voices advocating for the return of Indigenous fire management to both heal Country and heal its people [74][75][76][77], there are many barriers to the effective return of Indigenous fire management in Southeast Australian forests [78]; among these are the following: (1) the power of the nature-culture binary in mainstream society that sees the perpetuation of the myth of "wilderness" and its influence over public perceptions, land management decisions and confirmation bias in science [79]; (2) uncertainty about the degree to which Indigenous people actually managed these high biomass and extremely flammable forests prior to the British Invasion; (3) heavy reliance that non-Indigenous land managers place on empirical data derived from scientific observation and experimentation for decision-making; and (4) policy and legal barriers that prevent Indigenous people from managing landscapes according to their customary laws. These examples are interconnected, creating strong biases against the potential for Indigenous knowledge and practice to contribute to, guide and lead management (2) areas unmaintained by settlers becoming shrub-rich, dense woodlands [13]; (b) simplified process diagram demonstrating the pre-British Invasion, when under Indigenous land management current open landscapes (i.e., agricultural/pastoral land) were already dominated by grassy/herbaceous vegetation, and since the British Invasion, areas outside European-style land use (e.g., unmanaged Eucalyptus forests) have become shrub-dense, which in turn, has directly fueled an increase in the frequency and intensity of fires with other contributing factors (e.g., climate change and population/urban growth).…”

Indigenous Knowledge, Aspiration, and Potential Application in Contemporary Fire Mitigation in Southwest Australia

“…Within a broader movement of contemporary recognition and inclusion of Indigenous land management practices, the reintroduction of Indigenous fire knowledge (IFK) and practice for bushfire mitigation has entered the colonial public consciousness (Bennet & Edwards, 2021;Kimmerer & Lake, 2001;Robinson et al, 2021). Spatially displaced Indigenous peoples who have been excluded from land management during the colonial era are increasingly gaining access to portions of traditional lands, reinvigorating bio-cultural knowledge, and advocating for better land management practices, especially the use of fire (Cavanagh, 2020;Hoffman et al, 2021;Lake & Christianson, 2020;McKemey et al, 2020;Robinson et al, 2021).…”

“…IFK is a subset of Indigenous bio-cultural knowledge, defined as "fire-related knowledge, beliefs, and practices that have been developed and applied on specific landscapes for specific purposes by long time inhabitants" (Huffman, 2013). IFK is embedded in socio-cultural systems and forms part of the inextricable spiritual-environmental practice of Indigenous peoples (Ens et al, 2015;Gadgil et al, 1993;Kimmerer & Lake, 2001;McKemey et al, 2020;Pyne, 2016). Despite warnings, (e.g., Agrawal, 2002) against distilling bio-cultural knowledge into transferable, non-contextual classifications, universal knowledge elements contribute to preliminary engagement and exploration of IFK systems to bridge gaps between contemporary land agencies and traditional Indigenous managers (Huffman, 2013).…”