Shannon Arrum Williams

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Aboriginal People have Long been Techniques used for managing fires

for thousands of years, the indigenous People of Australia, they set fire to the Country .

Long before Australia burns was conquered and colonized by the Europeans, fire management Techniques , known as "culture" - were practiced.

The cool burn, the knee-high blazes, which were designed to be done continuously and over the landscape.

The fire burn until fuel such as twigs and leaf-detritus, i.e. a natural Bush fire less to devour.

Since Australia's fire-the crisis began last year, calls for better re-integration of this technology have grown louder. But it should sooner happen, argues an aboriginal expert.

"The Bush must burn," says Shannon Foster.

she is a knowledge keeper in the D-'harawal People - the dissemination of information to their elders and aboriginal knowledge a lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).

Much of the ancestral information that she shares on the Bush, says Ms Foster.

"It is the concept of maintaining the Country 's Central for everything we do as Aboriginal People . It's about what we can give back to the Country ; not only what we can take from her. "

'Naive' Techniques of today

Country personified in the culture of the Aborigines. "The earth is our mother. It keeps us alive," Ms Foster says. This ratio moves to burn priorities around prevention.

While today's focus on the protection of life and property, Ms Foster says that it "obviously works".

"destroy The current controlled burns everything. It is a naive way to practice fire management, and it is not consulting the Indigenous People who know the Country best.

"in regard to the cultural combustion saves to record The Environment in a holistic way. We are interested in the search for Land, property and assets.

"We can't eat, drink or breathe in assets. Without Land we have Nothing . "

Shannon Foster relay Techniques passed on by her D-'harawal oldest your great-grandfather Tom (left) and grandfather Fred (third from left) give lessons in the 1940s

the Indigenous cultural burning work in the rhythms of The Environment , draws marsupials and mammals, the Aborigines could hunt.

"Cool burning fills the earth and improves the Biodiversity of the ash-fertilized and potassium promotes flowering. It is a complex circuit, based on cultural, spiritual and scientific knowledge. "

You create says a mosaic of ecology, Ms Foster, and this can lead to positive micro-climate zones.

"Soft combustion promotes rain - it warms The Environment to a particular atmospheric level, and as soon as the warm and cool meet, to mitigate condensation - rain - occurs, helps fires. "

their aboriginal elders in Sydney were the assessment of the overgrown Bush, and extremely Dry brushwood for some time, warning that a huge fire comes: "she compares him with a child with tousled hair, saying it needs food. "

But the local authorities have banned, You will not be asked from a cultural burn, if You have permission.

cultural burn used

There is no one-size-fits-all " approach, as a precaution, to burn, because the Australian landscape is so diverse from place to place.

Nevertheless, some States-cultural burn with other strategies to do, according to Dr Richard Thornton, CEO of the bushfire and natural hazards Cooperative Research Centre.

"There is a stark difference in the North of Australia, where the Indigenous culture is done to burn, significantly. In the southern States, it is sometimes according to the needs and wishes of the local communities. "

the bushfire crisis in Australia has been devastated since September

Since Australia was settled in 1788, cultural burning was slowly eradicated. But in the last few years have seen moves to clean it for re.

Associate Prof Noel Preece, a former national Park ranger, wrote The First fire-manual for Central Australian park reserves.

He says, cultural burning is still today in parts of Melbourne, but largely stopped, in South-Eastern Australia, because the vegetation is in a "precarious areas" where the "cool" burns that don't work.

"That is to say, the Indigenous population had extremely detailed knowledge of the 'Dirty Country ', the need of a good burn," says Associate Prof Preece, now the James Cook University.

disadvantages of the old practice,

Cultural burn, Prof Preece says, can fuel be reduced on the ground of 10 tons to 1 ton. But it is the only effective protection for moderate fires, so it needs to be done in connection with hazard-reduction burns.

Even then, it only reduces risks: "With the recent catastrophic conditions of moisture and wind, Nothing could stop the fires this. "

"aboriginal People were removed, their Country , so there is a re-learning process is very useful and important. But it is still early days and by itself, it is not enough," he says.

experts agree that cultural burning restrictions, partly because of the colonization led to the development and the man-made Climate Change , presents us with a very different landscape now to hundreds of years.

Prof Preece has been in the areas in which day-to-day were not the conditions for the cooler, cultural, burn the right.

"It would be too wet, too cold, too hot, too Dry - they have a narrow window. And with many of the firefighters in Australia, the volunteers who work during the week, and You could go four Saturdays until the conditions are met. "

For thicker shrub, to tree canopies, he says, a hot burn is required because You are not cool get rid of burns, such as layers of fuel.

In addition, Dr. Thornton says each of the Indigenous burns, have special agencies such as fire sticks, absolutely have their place, but they need to fit in with the community's expectations, if on a larger scale, by others.

"We need to make sure that the fire will escape and burn someone's property. It would undermine the community's views of the whole practice, so we need to make sure that we are working with a security framework is in order. "

The way forward

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has promised a "comprehensive" investigation of the current bushfire crisis, which killed 27 People and burnt More Than 10 million hectares.

If it Goes Ahead , Dr. Thornton emphasized the need to "speak with Indigenous elders in any other area, and hear".

But he says a single Indigenous person sits on the Board of The National bushfire research centre, he creates it.

Shannon Foster is interested in, together with the government, but she worries about the extension of the development: "It scares me that so much land has been decimated, the developers could move in and say, we could also have this property here; The Land is cleared. "

"aboriginal People have looked After This place for so Long , now destroyed, because no one has allowed us to provide for You , is devastating," she adds.

"It's not that You say so. "

australia climate, australia fires, australia, indigenous australians, australian aboriginal culture

Source of news: bbc.com