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https://theconversation.com/cultural-burning-isnt-just-important-to-indigenous-culture-its-essential-to-australias-disaster-management-241269>
"Last month, Australia’s newly appointed minister for emergency management,
Senator Jenny McAllister, and Senator Tony Sheldon, special envoy for disaster
recovery, took part in a cultural burn outside Lismore in New South Wales, as
part of the National Gathering on Indigenous Disaster Resilience.
It was significant to see members of the federal government listening to and
taking direction from a cultural burn expert, Oliver Costello of Jagun
Alliance, before undertaking a burn.
It represented a hopeful sign that cultural burning might be increasingly used
as a tool for disaster mitigation. After all, McAllister isn’t the minister for
Indigenous affairs or the environment – her role is emergency management. At
last month’s meeting, Indigenous peoples spoke of their desire and inherent
right to be involved in disaster management.
Cultural burning is, of course, vitally important to culture. But these gentle,
regular burns were one of the main ways Indigenous groups managed land. They
created mosaics of burned and unburned land, reducing the chance of megafires
by burning fuel loads and creating safe havens in dangerous times.
Networks of Indigenous groups have begun using fire to once again care for
Country all around Australia. These are positive signs. But there is more to do
to dismantle remaining barriers to mainstreaming cultural burning – and making
it possible to use these ancient techniques to reduce, or avoid, disasters."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
