Fire Money: how Indigenous Land Management is Transforming Arnhem Land
David Hancock, in this in depth exploration for ‘the Guardian’ published 23 May 2021, examines the impact of strategic burning in Arnhem Land - from income to education on country, to protecting biodiversity to taking control of research on rock art. Read the full article here.
““Every year the ranger groups come together to look at the fire scale,” says Terrah Guymula, a senior ranger at Warddeken Land Management Ltd. “We discuss how last year went; if there was any fuel left and maybe trim a little bit here or there to balance the burning.
“There are cultural reasons as well as environmental reasons that we burn. We want to protect small animals like bush rats, quolls and bandicoots because they want to live comfortably, just like us.
“We humans and our native animals have a connection – they play a big role in our ceremony, so we want to protect them and we want them to live forever so our people can see them. Protecting our rock art and anbinik trees is also very important. These are places of sanctuary where our old people used to go and places that tell our stories.”
Burning is strategic and combines modern technology with traditional Aboriginal knowledge. Indigenous rangers spend many hours in helicopters early in the dry season dropping incendiaries, or they walk across country with drip torches creating patches of burned areas that will pull up a wildfire that can start late in the year, when lightning pummels the landscape. What they do is guided by satellite technology and scientific data, as well as local knowledge.””
Photo Credit: The Guardian. Warddeken daluk (female) rangers travel across Arnhem Land with scientist Alys Stevens and Co-ordinator Georgia Vallance.