August 9, 2005
Indigenous knowledge is crucial for managing northern
Australia’s biggest issue of fire, and is an important part
of a new $1.9 million Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) project for
northern Australia.
“This recognises that Indigenous people are major
occupiers, owners, users and managers of land in northern
Australia,” said Joe Morrison, coordinator of the North
Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance
(NAILSMA).
“The pattern and extent of fires have changed since
European settlement, affecting human, animal and plant populations,
however intimate Indigenous knowledge is crucial for understanding
how to manage fire across northern Australia.”
Seventy percent of the land affected by bushfires every year in
Australia is in the north and NHT funding will help the Tropical
Savannas Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) to develop, implement
and monitor guidelines for best managing fire across northern
Australia.
The new project will develop the capacity of Aboriginal,
pastoral and conservation land managers to manage fires across
northern Australia, said CRC Project Leader, Jeremy Russell-Smith,
from the Northern Territory Bushfires Council.
“Fires are creaming our landscape up north,” he
said. “We need to get Traditional Owners involved in working
along side pastoralists to collaboratively tackle fire management
issues.
“Up until last year there was no money for Indigenous
communities to manage fire. Now the NT government is funding the
Arnhem Land Bushfire Committee to directly manage fire, meaning
Aboriginal people can assert management of their own
country.”
Mr Morrison said the new project would not be looking to
integrate western and Indigenous knowledge.
“It’s more about respecting and valuing each
other’s knowledge and working out when it’s best to
apply Indigenous fire management techniques and when it’s
best to take a more western approach,” he said. “It is
also up to Traditional Owners on when to apply information and who
uses it, so that the right knowledge ends up being used by the
right people”.
“One of the good things about this project is that it will
mean Indigenous people from one region, like the Kimberley, can
share their knowledge with Indigenous people from another region,
like Arnhem Land, Cape York and the southern gulf.”
NAILSMA has appointed a project officer to promote
collaborations and sharing of knowledge amongst Indigenous people
and between Indigenous groups and regional and local fire
management programs.
The new project will convene an annual Indigenous fire forum
‘on country’ to bring together Indigenous people
involved in dealing with fire management and related issues across
northern Australia. The focus of the meeting will be to exchange
fire information.
