Australians learn Indigenous ways to manage fire risk

STORY: "Our Indigenous people have burned for years, didn’t they, they keep control of fires and stopped all the fires. But now a lot of people said we got a lot of landowners we don't want to burn anymore, and that's where we’ve got a problem in these fire seasons.”

As the El Nino weather pattern raises the stakes for this year’s fire season, meet the Australians who are learning from Indigenous people the ancient way of fighting fire …with fire.

Here in the woods of northern New South Wales, residents are keeping an eye on what’s called a “cultural fire”.

Cultural burning is an indigenous practice that involves setting deliberate and planned fires on landscapes.

Done correctly, it generates far less heat than standard hazard reduction burning.

It tackles small patches of vegetation at a time, allowing animals and birds to move away from the heat.

Care is also taken to protect trees, in particular very old "scar trees" that have stood for hundreds of years.

“Protecting the trees is really important and Aboriginal people consider the canopy, the top of the trees sacred so we don't want any fire in the top of the canopy because what that does is takes out all the potentially, old trees, lets all the light in and we get this really bad regrowth so we're trying to break that cycle.”

That's Richard Geddes, a program manager for Jagun Alliance Aboriginal Corporation, which is helping Australians learn to use the generations-old land management technique.

“It’s part of life, part of the Australian bush, it burns and you’ve got to be on top of it.”

Michael Smith reached out to Jagun for help, after losing nearly three quarters of his property in the so-called “Black Summer” deadly bushfires of 2019-2020.

"Our Indigenous people have burned for years, didn’t they, they keep control of fires and stopped all the fires."

Cultural burning was lost after the British colonised Australia in 1788 and indigenous people were dispossessed of their lands.

It’s been seeing a revival, as more residents feel the need to future proof their properties.

“One of the keys that was missing I think, for a lot of people, was cultural burning.”

Anastasia Guise, who manages the landcare of her community, is also among those learning how to prevent another Black Summer.

“I didn't expect to feel this comfortable, but I just feel like it's really right, it’s being done gently, there’s a whole lot of crew on the ground and I feel absolutely comfortable with it."

With the indigenous belief in custodianship – rather than claiming ownership – of land,

Jagun teaches about so-called "good fire" in a country where most have a fear-based relationship with blazes.

The initiative also creates opportunities for Aboriginal people to gain practical skills while maintaining their ancient methods of caring for the land.

Jagun executive director Oliver Costello says, it's about listening to the land and paying attention.

“That's why it's so important that we get people back on the Country and learning how we can heal the land, bring the fire back, bring the trees back...

Not only will they be better for us, cleaner water and air and safer places, but also be more resilient to changes in the climate which we're going to have more you know, we're seeing big changes.”