An Aboriginal-led group has completed a run of workshops in Tasmania, teaching traditional methods of land management using smaller, cooler fires to help regenerate the landscape and reduce fuel loads. The Firesticks group says Western burning practices, though "well-intentioned", have "often contributed to further damage to the country by lighting hazard-reduction fires that are too hot, lit at the wrong time and in the wrong place".
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00:00Portalina, known also as Oyster Cove, is holding a special meeting with its first people who
00:10are gathered here today to burn.
00:12I started to help people nationally, go and visit their country and support them.
00:18Out of that came a network of a number of people that got involved.
00:23We created a fire sticks.
00:27Victor is a fire knowledge holder and travels around Australia holding workshops around
00:32fire management.
00:34Today was spent showing Mob how to walk alongside the fire as one.
00:38And most of the times we just work with the community, I mean, sometimes we'll do workshops
00:44with the public.
00:45It all depends on the region and the community and what's needed in that region.
00:50This is what we call a cool burn, also called a mosaic burn.
00:54By burning country in this way, it gets rid of all the fuel for the fire, as well as rejuvenates
00:59the surrounding area for wildlife and people, allowing the space to be utilised again.
01:05Everything on this planet has a role to play in the relational ecosystems.
01:11The human role has always been to maintain the balance so that all of the other life
01:16is able to live in the normal circumstance of forests being cared for.
01:22Using the workshops provided by fire sticks, Roy has graduated to the level of fire practitioner
01:28with the sole goal of saving country.
01:31One of the big mistakes we make as humans is the fact that we think we're more important
01:36than the bird that's sitting up there on the tree, or we're more important than that little
01:40bit of bush over there, where we're not.
01:45Everything around us is more important than us.
01:47And if everything around us is sick, we're going to be sick.
01:51Killing country, sharing culture, and learning with fire.