“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, across Australia, Aboriginal people could access their Country, reconnect with the cultural landscapes that are important to them and resume maintaining them?”
It’s a timely question as Australians grapple with a proposed Voice to Parliament and First Nations treaties – and one that speaks to the professional and personal proclivities of UNE alumna and ecologist Michelle McKemey.
“I never speak on behalf of Aboriginal people; they have their own voice, but I do try to play a supporting role,” she says. “That’s how I see myself – partnering with Indigenous groups to work together to look after Country and culture, especially through the reintroduction of cultural burning practices.”
Michelle had established her consultancy Melaleuca Environmental long before completing her PhD in Indigenous fire management and biodiversity at UNE (in 2020), but she’s never been busier. Across the country, a growing number of land managers are partnering with Aboriginal people to ensure the conservation of natural and cultural resources, inspiring a resurgence in cultural burning.
Some are looking to Michelle and the results of her collaborative research with members of the Banbai nation (NSW) and Yugul Mangi Rangers (in the Northern Territory) for guidance.
“The bushfires of 2019-20 were a big wake-up call that we needed to explore the role of traditional fire practices”
“The bushfires of 2019-20 were a big wake-up call that we needed to explore the role of traditional fire practices,” Michelle says. “We are now seeing a resurgence in cultural burning. Over the past year or two, we have put in about 14 cultural burns across different Aboriginal nations in the New England and North West of NSW, alone. Many represent the first cultural burns in 60 years, since the Elders were kids, so that’s pretty special.
Cultural burn - Photo: Barry Higgins
“In NSW, the Rural Fire Service has become more supportive, and non-Indigenous landholders and Landcare groups are now approaching Aboriginal groups to conduct cultural burns and manage cultural heritage. Cultural burning is seen as both a cultural practice and a way to manage natural resources. Times are changing.”
Earlier this year The Wall Street Journal showcased the Banbai research and the part that cultural burning plays in reducing the intensity of wildfires, supporting biodiversity and re-establishing Indigenous connections. The environmental monitoring that Michelle and her collaborators conduct before and repeatedly after burns provides the scientific evidence, but the social repercussions are equally important.
“Like our scientific papers, the WSJ article has been shared around the world,” Michelle says. “It’s not just the Banbai rangers out here in the bush lighting a fire or two. It’s helping to build knowledge and acceptance internationally of Indigenous cultural practices, their deep connection to Country, their long-term, intimate understanding of ecosystems and how being able to burn makes them feel.”
Cultural burning typically involves lighting small, cool, slow-burning fires that reduce fuel loads and therefore the severity of wildfires, promote plant regeneration, manage food supplies and improve access to cultural sites.
“And it’s the tip of the iceberg,” Michelle says. “There is so much more that Aboriginal people could be involved in, Caring for Country and looking after their cultural heritage. People can no longer be ignorant about what Australia needs in terms of reconciliation, of how we can work together and use Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of doing things for a better outcome.”
This is powerfully demonstrated in northern Australia, where Indigenous rangers manage extensive savannah burning programs, earning an income from carbon credits that is supporting community empowerment and development.
“They are now considered world leaders and travel to places like Botswana and Canada to teach other Indigenous groups,” Michelle says. “Just about every mob I talk to in NSW wants to do cultural burning and it could be expanded. I am very lucky to work with the Banbai rangers, who have reconnected with their fire management and are now teaching others.”
Since producing two seasonal calendars as part of her PhD – which rely on bio-cultural indicators to chart the changing seasons – Michelle has co-developed 10 more with other Indigenous communities. “They are different for every mob and every Country,” she says. “For instance, in some places winter is the time to collect witchetty grubs and you wait until after the first storms of summer to harvest and eat the freshwater turtles. I love going to different parts of the country and getting to know the people maintaining this Indigenous knowledge for future generations. It’s absolutely fascinating.”
Michelle received the UNE Chancellor’s Doctoral Research Medal in 2021. She’s just as proud to have contributed to the state’s Indigenous-led cultural fire management policy and to see dozens of Indigenous people now employed in fire crews.
“In my work, every day is an amazing day”
“In my work, every day is an amazing day,” she says. “I remain grateful to UNE for enabling me to do my PhD and my supervisors* will always have a special place in my heart.”
*Michelle’s supervisors were Bundjalung cultural fire practitioner Oliver Costello, Professor Nick Reid, Professor John Hunter, Dr Mal Ridges and Dr Emilie Ens.
