Cultural Burn, Tuthangga, Adelaide Parklands 14th May 2021
The culmination of meetings between the City of Adelaide, the Kaurna community and the Department for Environment and Water (DEW) was a bio-cultural burn in a small area of the Adelaide Park Lands. This project is to incorporate Kaurna knowledge into the management of the Park Lands.
Lilli, Della and Mum, Nikki and I joined other interested people in the Southern Parklands on Friday 14th May. The morning started with official speeches from a range of people from interested groups. As the guests organised themselves, an Elder and a younger man used a wooden dish to hold coals and green leaves to make smoke. This smoke is an important part of any Aboriginal ceremony and was present during the whole ceremony. The smoke is believed to cleanse and rid the area of bad spirits and help protect people and their well-being.
After the opening ceremony we all followed Victor Steffensen to the area of the burn. Victor is well known for using his filmmaking, writing and musician skills as a way of sharing his traditional knowledge to improve our Country both culturally and environmentally. Today it was his skill as an Indigenous Fire Practitioner.
Victor told us how a seasonal cool burn meant vegetation, insects and animals all benefited. The time of the year for the burn was very important. Victor explained that the traditional Aboriginal people lived off the land. The Country and its vegetation supplied shelter, food and medicine as well as tools. Over thousands of years the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders learnt how to look after their Country. Many of our native vegetation need to be burnt to germinate their seeds. The cool burn helps reinvigorate the vegetation and does not damage soil. Birds know to search amongst clumps of burnt grasses to find seeds.
We watched as Victor and a group of Kaurna and Aboriginals from other groups joined him with green branches to keep the fire under control. Victor checked the wind and then used coals from the smoking bowl to encourage the fire to burn in a circle. Because there was a tinge of green grass already growing, the fire did not race.
As the fire moved over the Parklands, we followed and looked with amazement at the green shoots still there after the burn.
It was an amazing experience. We learnt that the traditional burn is not something that happens singularly, it is part of looking after our whole ecosystem.
Wendy Nicolle
