“Right Fire” given back to Goreng Country

Aunty Annette Eades prepares to use a dried bush to spread fire in Nowanup’s grassland. Photo Jim Underwood

“Aunty Eliza said she and Aunty Annette “felt like little girls again — how happy we were, rekindling the old practices that our parents and old people used to do”. These words come from a story by Gondwana Link’s Jim Underwood about being part of a collaborative effort supporting a recent cultural burn at Nowanup. Jim offers intriguing insights into the challenges and opportunities that arise when Noongar people, ecologists and government agencies work together. He describes one yarning circle where “… non-Aboriginal participants had to stop talking and just listen to the Elders again. Uncle Aden Eades articulated the Elders were feeling like their ‘tyres were going flat’ and their presence was tokenistic.” Jim’s full story is in the October 2022 edition of the Southerly Magazine and on our Heartland Journeys website here.

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© Raana Scott - Carnaby cockatoo in flight, flame grevillea