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

Abstract

The catastrophic 2019/2020 Black Summer bushfires were the worst fire season in the recorded history of Southeast Australia. These bushfires were one of several recent global conflagrations across landscapes that are homelands of Indigenous peoples, homelands that were invaded and colonised by European nations over recent centuries. The subsequent suppression and cessation of Indigenous landscape management has had profound social and environmental impacts. The Black Summer bushfires have brought Indigenous cultural burning practices to the forefront as a potential management tool for mitigating climate-driven catastrophic bushfires in Australia. Here, we highlight new research that clearly demonstrates that Indigenous fire management in Southeast Australia produced radically different landscapes and fire regimes than what is presently considered “natural”. We highlight some barriers to the return of Indigenous fire management to Southeast Australian landscapes. We argue that to adequately address the potential for Indigenous fire management to inform policy and practice in managing Southeast Australian forest landscapes, scientific approaches must be decolonized and shift from post-hoc engagement with Indigenous people and perspectives to one of collaboration between Indigenous communities and scientists.

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“…Diener et al 2003) or the potential realisation of the individual through growth and development (eudaimonic well-being; see Ryan and Deci 2001). Instead, well-being in Pacific atolls is aligned with a more holistic worldview that promotes relatedness as well as duties of care for others and for the land, in line with similar conceptualisations by Indigenous peoples elsewhere (Fletcher et al 2021).…”

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