4 Caring for Land Country

There are many aspects of Caring for Country that can be studied such as: construction for living on Country or Keeping Places for knowledge artefacts; governance and management of projects; communication and consultation strategies. This short case study presents an overview and examples of Firestick farming practices and the technologies that support this in Caring for Country.

The history of land care in Australia has been one of ignoring the knowledge of the First Nations, particularly around burning (SBS, 2021), to the peril of those now living near bushland, which is still adapted to regular cool fire burns. These are planned burnoffs during suitable weather and vegetaiton growth, which are low-heat and cause less damage and are done in a varied mosaic across country each year.  This knowledge is starting to be respected by non-First Nations.

From ABC News, 2020 . Licensed for adaption and re-use under (CC-BY) and used with the permission of the ABC.

Cool fires are fires that do not rage uncontrollably over the landscape, and which animals have a chance of fleeing. They can be deliberately lit at times when the ground, plant or air moisture is high to reduce the intensity of the fire and the burning is done in a regular rotation or mosaic pattern across the landscape. This reduces the build up of leaf litter and detritus in any area and ensures the area surrounding any new burn off will have reduced fuel load from burns in previous years. The resulting cool fire will generate less heat, spread less and have less impact on the environment.  This practice was carried out across Australia by clans of Aboriginal people walking around Country carrying firesticks – lengths of wood that were alight or held embers, and could then be used to light grass or other growth.

The practice of fire stick burning is reducing carbon emissions from fire and is now supported by carbon credits. This is a process where other industries, government and organisations put their profits into a fund to pay communities who do this work of regular mosaic fire burning. The practice is seen by community as important for maintaining their Country, and the credits tend to go towards other enterprises, allowing the community to choose what is funded.

However, there is more to fire management than just reducing the fire load. The actions of various animals reduce the fire risk. For instance, kangaroos and other animals that eat low hanging branches reduce the chance a grass fire will climb into the higher branches. Wombats and other animals that dig burrows bring moisture into the ground and reduce the risk of fire through the root system. It is a Whole of Country process to reduce fire and have sustainable land use.

The North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance (NAILSMA) is an organisation dedicated to creating partnerships with business and government to improve sustainability of land and sea management practices while creating jobs for local Indigenous people (https://nailsma.org.au/).