Frameworks to support Indigenous managers: the key to fire futures

Abstract

[Extract] Supporting Indigenous peoples in Australia to engage effectively in fire management is vital to the development of ecologically and socially sustainable fire policy in our future. Indigenous people now own some 15 percent of Australia and have native title rights and interests that coexist alongside those of pastoralists, protected areas managers, and other government agencies across a far larger area. Native title laws may provide legal protection to Indigenous fire practices in many places. The Indigenous reassertion of rights over country in Australia is part of a global shift in land management orientation occurring throughout post-colonial nation-states. The dominant paradigm of the colonial era, industrial and scientific land management, which overlaid the pre-existing Indigenous communal management, is giving way to a new paradigm where partnerships between rural communities, government managers, NGO staff, Indigenous peoples and scientists are emerging as an important direction.