Cultural burns are small, slow and controlled

December 27, 2023 4:37 PM

Cultural burns are small, slow and controlled, and they're in high demand on private properties. Four years after the devastating Black Summer bushfires, Aboriginal fire practitioners say they're struggling to keep up with demand for cultural burns from private landholders, and they want more support.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (14 comments total)

I misread the headline and first part of the FPP as being about small, private property versions of Burning Man. The actual article and subject are so much better!

I really like the term "cultural burns." I don't believe I've seen that used here in the US in the media, but a quick google search shows that it is in use by at least some public agencies, so it just seems like it hasn't made it into the broader fire/landscape discussion here. Living in a place with a dry, fire-driven landscape, I'd love to see the previous, culturally-based fire ecology restored.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:01 PM on December 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

Dip Flash, another term you see used in Australia (not sure if used in the US) is "mosaic burns" - controlled burning of quite small squares of bush/forest at a time, deliberately leaving unburned areas very closeby for wildlife to flee to.

This is opposed to "line burning" which is the more common form of burning done by government agencies - line burning kills A LOT more birds/mammals/lizards/frogs etc than mosaic burning does.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 7:48 PM on December 27, 2023 [6 favorites]

I would love to be able to do small cool burns on my property at the end of the monsoon season, to avoid the large hot ones later on in the year when it is completely dry and the winds are strong, and to help regenerate the native forest. But the local fire authorities don't like it and getting a permit is nigh on impossible.

I get it, they just don't have anywhere near the resources to oversee it all properly, and if they issue a permit then they are (at least partly) culpable if it goes wrong, and people are often idiots when it comes to responsible use of fire, and the timing and manner of the burn is critical and not amenable to neat bureaucratic timetables and procedures and legalities, and the apparently unstoppable spread of invasive introduced weeds is making the fire hazard much worse with longer and hotter burns than the native flora & fauna are adapted to, and....

Hence no permits.
posted by Pouteria at 8:15 PM on December 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Indigenous Australian experts have been brought over to Canada a few times over the past few years to help revive the practise here. There's a long history of the practise being criminalized, as the resources produced by cultural burning - diverse food sources to support local populations - conflicted with the monocrop focus of the timber industry.
posted by clawsoon at 8:21 PM on December 27, 2023 [4 favorites]

The increasing weaving together of 'modern western science' and indigenous knowledge systems is the focus of the context of my dissertation. Indigenous scholars such as Tyson Yunkaporta has crafted schema - the 5 Minds - to facilitate our introduction to indigenous ways of knowing, for example. This OP is an example of blending knowledges into sustainability practices.
posted by infini at 2:20 AM on December 28, 2023 [8 favorites]

Unfortunately, where I live, the indigenous people were moved across the continent to a different biome 150 years ago, so their knowledge of appropriate local land management has been largely lost.
posted by hydropsyche at 7:14 AM on December 28, 2023 [2 favorites]

Just a technicality that it can be considered interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary work depending on whether the researcher representing the participating stakeholders recognizes indigenous knowledge keepers as experts and peers of "scientists" with "PhDs".

You need cognitive justice.
posted by infini at 8:50 AM on December 28, 2023

Now, to expand that into 15000 words or so.
posted by infini at 8:51 AM on December 28, 2023 [1 favorite]

recognizes indigenous knowledge keepers as experts and peers of "scientists" with "PhDs"

In almost all cases the indigenous knowledge keepers are going to be far better informed than university-trained fire scientists, many of whom seem to have been overly influenced by one-size-fits-all "fuel load" modelling out of Texas.

Decolonising Australia's fire science - Big Ideas, ABC Radio National, 54m16s, first broadcast 10 Oct 2023. Speakers: Philip Zylstra, fire behavioural scientist, adjunct associate professor at Curtin University; Uncle Dave Wandin, Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Elder and Cultural Practices Manager (Fire and Water) at the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation; Robert Gell AM, President, Royal Society of Victoria
posted by flabdablet at 9:32 AM on December 28, 2023 [3 favorites]

I misread the headline and first part of the FPP as being about small, private property versions of Burning Man. The actual article and subject are so much better!

I was expecting something about social media and culture wars myself and was thinking "slow? controlled? am I on a different internet?". This is so much nicer!
posted by srboisvert at 1:53 PM on December 28, 2023

The increasing weaving together of 'modern western science' and indigenous knowledge systems is the focus of the context of my dissertation.

Huzzah! More of this.

I’m an ignorant colonist, but reading Dark Emu made me so curious about how to actually live with the land in Australia, rather than against it.
posted by pompomtom at 3:18 AM on December 29, 2023

First step is convincing our largely urban population to want to.
posted by flabdablet at 5:10 AM on December 29, 2023

Huzzah! More of this.

Its the hottest thing to hit academia since the 70s and 80s when the big computer-human product development and design trends were introduced.

Nature Journal had three pieces that were promoted this year alone.

Here's some open to all non-paywalled stuff that maybe interesting for anyone at all looking to get involved in knowledge weaving for sustainability sciences of our real world future (not the mythical one crafted as a Cartesian vision for the academy which erased indigenous knowledge systems by calling them primitive and superstition).

Chapman, J. M., & Schott, S. (2020). Knowledge coevolution: generating new understanding through bridging and strengthening distinct knowledge systems and empowering local knowledge holders. Sustainability Science, 15(3), 931-943.

this isn't open but here's a snippet from their abstract

We argue it is the moral and ethical responsibility of Western scientists working in and with Indigenous communities to make a concerted effort to collectively create mutually advantageous new knowledge while strengthening traditional knowledge and considering the normative impacts of Western science methods.

Son, H. N., Chi, D. T. L., & Kingsbury, A. (2019). Indigenous knowledge and climate change adaptation of ethnic minorities in the mountainous regions of Vietnam: A case study of the Yao people in Bac Kan Province. Agricultural Systems, 176, 102683.

This is open and very pertinent to a paper I'm co-authoring on indigenous knowledge and disaster preparedness among the Merapi people in Java, Indonesia.

This study focuses on the accumulated indigenous knowledge of the Yao ethnic minority in Bac Kan Province of Vietnam. Through centuries of observation and experimentation, the Yao people have developed complex farming systems, cultural practices, and a knowledge base well-suited to their environments. Data for this study was collected through surveys, interviews, and focus group discussions to gather indigenous knowledge on native crop varieties and animal breeds, weather forecasting, and the timing and location of cultivation practices. In so doing, this study documents unique examples of how indigenous knowledge is being used alone and blended with scientific knowledge to make accurate decisions and help local communities adapt to climate change. The case of the Yao people in northern Vietnam supports the argument that if indigenous knowledge were better integrated into adaptation planning and policies, its conservation and application would enhance resiliency to climate change in indigenous communities and beyond
posted by infini at 5:19 AM on December 29, 2023 [3 favorites]

We argue it is the moral and ethical responsibility of Western scientists working in and with Indigenous communities to make a concerted effort to collectively create mutually advantageous new knowledge while strengthening traditional knowledge and considering the normative impacts of Western science methods.

...plus, you know, you might learn something useful.
posted by pompomtom at 8:09 PM on January 2