Aboriginal land management knowledge in mitigating Australia’s bushfire disasters

Conversation with Associate Professor Michael Shawn Fletcher about some of the root causes of the recent bushfires and how their effects can be mitigated using Aboriginal knowledge.

Associate Professor Michael-Shawn Fletcher (University of Melbourne) Source: NITV Radio

This conversation was recorded in the sidelines of the bushfires that devastated large swathes of the country at the end of 2019 early 2020.

We discussed how Aboriginal knowledge and land management practices have protected this country over thousands of years. Tapping in this wealth of wisdom and practice can help prevent future devastations.

Bushfire damages (Getty Images) Source: Getty

Professor Fletcher has been studying long term climate change, long-term evolution of landscapes, long-term changes of ecosystems due climate change or human activity right across the southern hemisphere.

More recently he has been looking at Aboriginal occupation of the land and what happened after the invasion.

Professor Fletcher says, through colonisation Aboriginal management of the land was halted brutally.

Research shows that the recent landscape devastations could have been averted if Aboriginal land management practices had been applied.