What is cultural burning?
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Audience
Secondary school -
Learning stage
Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6 -
Learning area
First Nations, Geography -
Type
Learning resources
On this page...
Cultural burning is a cultural fire practice used by First Nations people to improve the health of Country and its people. It has been used for over 60,000 years to manage land, plants and animals. The dispossession of land and loss of identify has meant that cultural burning has not occurred over large parts of Australia for many generations, but there is increasing awareness of the important role it can play in the mitigating the effects of extreme bush fires caused by climate change.
Watch this video about a cultural burning program started in 2017 by the Bega Local Aboriginal Land Council at Tathra West. Students will learn about the differences between cultural burning and hazard reduction burning, and how the knowledge and practice of cultural burning will help us to manage bushfire risk that is increasing because of climate change.
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