Narrator: In the remote bush of northeastern Australia,
these children are learning to light fires.
It's an Aboriginal tradition
that goes back thousands of years:
using fire to stop fire.
And many Indigenous people see it as part of a solution
for devastating blazes like the ones
that have ravaged the country.
- Western knowledge of fire is that they're afraid of it,
whereas traditional burning, and Aboriginal knowledge,
is that we work with it.
Narrator: In Queensland,
the Indigenous organization Firesticks
is hosting workshops for people from across the country
to spread that knowledge.
We traveled there during the Southern Hemisphere winter
in July of 2019 to witness the traditional burning
many believed could help save Australia from itself.
- We always hear about the big fires down south,
people losing their family,
and you hear how they're burning down there,
and it's all wrong.
They're doing it all wrong.
Nobody seemed to kind of figure it out.
We're trying to learn a different way how to stop it.
We got tired of people getting hurt down there.
- Burn it against the wind.
If we would have burned it the wrong way,
it would have took everything out.
But because the fire is trickling,
we're leaving behind grasses that are there
for certain birds that need that grass,
or it won't burn everything, you know?
So it just trickles through all day like this.
Like that.
Lovely, eh?
- The fire would actually just crawl along the ground
and not leap up into the trees and up into the canopies.
And I guess that's traditional burning.
- This is a healthy event.
The trees are untouched.
The white smoke from the grasses,
feeding the trees to germinate
and the shade all through the country after the fires,
it'll be nice and cool in here,
even after the fire,
because we haven't harmed any of the trees and the canopies,
but yet we've completely cleaned the floor.
- So where we are now, this is what we call Corromp,
which is a boxwood community.
So this has been done by a central burn
and dropping the bombs on the country.
What happened, they came in on the wind side
with the wind and they dropped multiple fires in here
and she came through and rode through
and now this whole place is sad.
No flowers, no shade, no food.
And all of this comes from the wrong ignition
and the wrong way of looking at country.
- It just tears your heart out.
It just makes you want to sit down and cry.
After seeing all that country we did
and feeling proud of it, but then to get out there
and see something what the park just did, it shatters you.
Makes you really sad inside
to see something like that.
- When you do a lot of the airdropping,
you can't tell what's on there and what kind of trees
and what animals are there
and it doesn't give enough time
for the animals as well, to get away.
- So he's actually a director.
- But honestly, do you think this is a healthy burn?
- No, I don't.
It's just the resources to look at
on such a big national park.
That's where the limitations come on board.
And also you will look at the environment
the way you guys do culturally.
And there's also our environment as well,
so we need to make sure those two interact together.
- Yes.
There's been massive damage to this area.
And like I said, it affects the people
spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally.
There's a lot of emotions going on because
a lot of hard work we've put into this country.
- Only reality, if we get wildfires coming through
later in the year, it's going to look
10 times worse than this.
- We've got, like Rod's saying,
we've got people ready to go.
- We've been doing this with no money for all those years.
- That's right.
- We never had no money.
- So if you guys want to come along
and voice your opinions, I'd love you to come along.
- There's no excuses.
There's no excuses.
No matter what anyone says, we don't do that.
We're not here to hang anyone or get wild at Parks.
We're here to work with Parks and for them to chest up
and to say, well, come on, let's make this better.
We got an opportunity here.
- Consultation, when it comes to burning country,
is the key, and good communication.
Building that rapport with Aboriginal communities.
- I'd like the welcome you all to our country.
Happy country.
- We're trying to introduce traditional burning
back onto country where Aboriginal people
can burn their own country.
- A lot of ecosystems in Australia are dependent on fire,
and we need to look after them.
Our knowledge of reading landscape and understanding
how fire fits on there comes from thousands of years.
And when we look at the bush now, it's unhealthy.
You know, there's weeds and there's, you know,
invasive natives, it's unbalanced.
And so we need to make the country healthy again.
And fire is a big part of that.
The right fire does everything.
Firstly, it's burning spiritually,
and it's a spiritual connection to the country.
The second component of it is looking after all the trees
and the animals in here and making sure
they're not getting all burned.
So we're looking out for our biodiversity.
And finally, what our burns are
is to protect our country from wildfires.
No wildfire will get through here after this, for this year.
- When the land is healthy, the people are healthy.
And mentally we feel a lot better because our country
is looking strong and that also affects our children,
and our women, and our men, and we feel stronger inside
because we know that we're doing the right thing
by caring for our country.
It's all about sharing knowledge and sharing with each other
because we've got to share this country.
- We have an amazing amount of knowledge
that could really show them the right way forward.
People can burn the incorrect way and it's simply
because they don't know the land.
- As we're all getting older, the next generation
has to take on these roles,
caring for our country and making sure
it's maintained and healthy.
- Now everybody got to watch the fire.
Stop it from burning the camp down.
So you burn it off, look it's going to die down slightly.
Going to stop burning.
Now, you have to watch down here.
Look, see it's going to come back down this way.
It's going to go right through now.
Go away down the airstrip.
You can't keep going that way.
- It's very important that our younger ones
get out on country with us.
Light that first match, smell that first burn.
And see their country back the way it is.