Rekindling a tradition of cultural burns
Wildfire Resilient Landscapes Network project in Australia reignites Indigenous tradition
An important practice for many Indigenous nations, cultural burning – also known as ‘cool burning’ – involves lighting small, controlled fires to remove undergrowth and prevent more destructive fires, while encouraging native seeds to propagate. While cool fires offer carbon to nurture the soil, hot fires burn the soil and devastate future plant life, upon which the animals are dependent.
With climate change anticipated to increase the number and severity of bushfires in Australia, there is growing interest in the revival of cultural burning and other Indigenous forms of caring for Ngurra/Country.
A project led by CBA Affiliate Member Macquarie University is exploring how Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing can inform and co-exist with contemporary land management practices within colonised Country to drive sustainable outcomes.
Dharug women rekindle tradition of cultural burns
Six Dharug women reignited an Indigenous tradition within Lane Cove National Park with the first women’s-led cultural burn in the area since 1788.
The cultural burn activation took place over four days in April 2024 at Brown’s Waterhole, Lane Cove River – known to Dharug as the Durumbura River. The site was selected for its historic significance as a meeting place, a place of storytelling, and a place of ancestry for some of the women who performed the burn. The initiative signified the return of Dharug presence and their cultural relationship with Country in the area.
Watch: The Cultural Burn Activation at Brown’s Waterhole, April 2024
Preparations for the cultural burn began in 2020, with the Dharug women receiving funding from the Department of Planning and Environment’s Cultural Fire Management Unit to coordinate and carry out the burn alongside Macquarie University researchers. Further collaborations occurred with Ryde City Council and NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) to carry out the activation.
In May 2023, the six Dharug women camped near Brown’s Waterhole for the first time since colonisation, joined by allies including two Dharug men as camp managers, NPWS park rangers, and Macquarie academics. Over the course of three days, the women connected with the site, sharing traditional Dharug knowledge and practices with the group.
Dr Jo Rey and fellow Dharug women during a camp at Brown’s Waterhole in May 2023.
The camp began with a smoking ceremony, using ochre from the Blue Mountains, before a series of activities to help build a knowledge base of the area. These included the development of an animal and plant database to understand the living creatures that occupy the area, training in the use of key NPWS equipment for the cultural burn, bush medicine and art workshops to continue the transfer of knowledge and a clean-up of the site. The camp closed with a smoking ceremony using ochre from Wallumatta.
A Cultural Burn Prepping Workshop was then held in March 2024, hosted by the Dharug Women’s and Allies Cultural Fire Alliance in preparation for the official burn in April.
A story of nature and community
The cultural burn activation at Brown’s Waterhole was the culmination of a three-year postdoctoral project led by Dr Jo Anne Rey, a proud Dharug woman and Research Fellow in the Centre of Critical Indigenous Studies at Macquarie University.
“Through the research, and alliances with others who are caring for the wellbeing of the river and its biodiversities, Brown’s Waterhole is now a site of regeneration – for Dharug biocultural knowledges and practices, and of cultural fires as a mitigation approach against the likelihood of mega fires in urban environments,” says Dr Rey.
More information
The global Wildfire Resilient Landscapes Network, a joint initiative between the CBA and the Commonwealth Secretariat aims to connect and share unique Indigenous and community knowledge and experience in wildfire management with scientific knowledge and tools.
The project represents a priority research stream within the recently established Australian Harmony Centre for Ecosystem Futures (‘Harmony Centre’), through which Macquarie and its surrounds act as a ‘living lab’ for nature-based solutions with tangible impact on both a national and global scale.
