This painting was created after writing a letter about saving our Koalas and their habitat! The government chose to clear Koala habitat leaving them vulnerable. This is my self expression of the despair of the environmental impact of ignorance!
There is a bushfire that is endangering the koala and he needs suport! Not ignorance! He has no food and the fire is around him! It is our job to support him and his habitat! Not to destroy it!
It has never been more important for institutional bushfire management programs to apply the principles and practices of Indigenous fire management, or “cultural burning”. As the report notes, cultural burning reduces the risk of bushfires, supports habitat and improves Indigenous wellbeing. And yet, the report finds:
with significant funding gaps, tenure impediments and policy barriers, Indigenous cultural burning remains underused – it is currently applied over less than 1% of the land area of Australia’s south‐eastern states and territory.
This recent research in Scientific Reports specifically addressed the question: how do the environmental outcomes from cultural burning compare to mainstream bushfire management practices?
Using the stone country of the Arnhem Land Plateau as a case study, it reveals why institutional fire management is inferior to cultural burning.
The few remaining landscapes where Aboriginal people continue an unbroken tradition of caring for Country are of international importance. They should be nationally recognised, valued and resourced like other protected cultural and historical places..