Indigenous Fire Practices Have Prevented Bushfires for Thousands of Years

A year on from Australia’s devastating bushfire season, University of Melbourne Associate Professor Michael-Shawn Fletcher sits down with NITV's Science and Technology reporter Rae Johnston at the Science Gallery Melbourne Annual Hugh Williamson Lecture to discuss how Aboriginal people have been maintaining the Australian landscape for over 60,000 years through cultural burning practices.

Professor Fletcher's research sits at the intersection of Indigenous knowledge of Country and more recent ecological data— to suggests that there are more effective land management strategies to prevent catastrophic bushfires.

“When I started thinking about some of the environmental problems the world faces today, particularly within Australian landscapes, I began to understand that a huge part of the problem was the removal of Aboriginal people, and the arrival of a new landscape management paradigm”.

Aboriginal people have used fire as a tool to profoundly shape and manage the landscape for 60,000 years, creating both predictability and security. The removal of Aboriginal people, and subsequent lack of land knowledge and maintenance, has resulted in vast ecological problems.

In his 60-minute presentation, Professor Fletcher discusses the empirical evidence supporting cultural burning practices, and how Aboriginal knowledge and skills are critical to protecting fire-sensitive ecosystems and facilitating connection to country to improve Indigenous livelihoods.