Cultural burning practices return to Yuwibara Country for first time since colonisation
The first Yuwi Cultural Healing Burn since colonisation was an emotional experience. (Supplied: Aunty Deb Clark)
In short:
A practice that has helped care for land for more than 60,000 years has returned to Yuwibara Country in north Queensland.
The Yuwi people have conducted their first Cultural Healing Burn since before colonisation, after they were formally recognised as the traditional owners of the land in the Mackay region six years ago.
What's next?
Indigenous elders and Queensland Parks and Wildlife hope Yuwi techniques and knowledge will be used to heal more land throughout the region.
Famous for its beach-hopping kangaroos at sunrise, Cape Hillsborough in north Queensland is home to more than just the perfect tourist photo opportunity.
More than 850 species of plants and animals call the national park, 40 minutes' drive north of Mackay, home, and its thousand-hectare range includes endangered and threatened species of birds and bats.
Cape Hillsborough is famous among tourists for its beach-hopping kangaroos. (ABC Tropical North: Tara Cassidy)
For the Yuwi people, the mix of ecosystems, from the ocean to the beaches and mangroves, is special.
Shoreline rainforest and volcanic headlands covered in hoop pines give way to open, drier eucalyptus forest.
Aunty Deb Clark understands each of these "special" landscapes as distinct countries that provide their own food, medicines and materials that sustain cultural ways of living.
In turn, the Yuwi people, whose Country spans from Cape Palmerston in the south to the O'Connell River in the north, would care for the landscape that provided for them.
"We can still feel the spirits of our old people here," she said.
"We are intertwined; we are not two separate entities."
Cape Hillsborough National Park is home to hundreds of species of plants and animals. (Supplied: Sophie Kesteven)
Cultural burning
In February, the Yuwi people reached a major milestone with the first Cultural Healing Burn on their Country in living memory, attended by about 40 people aged between eight weeks and 81 years.
The low-intensity burns promote healthy plant growth by clearing ground scrub and invasive species to prevent wildfires and make room for animals to move and plants to grow.
Aunty Deb Clark feels a lot of responsibility gathering "sleeping" Yuwi knowledge for future generations. (ABC Tropical North: Liam McNally)
Ms Clark said elders lit the scrub in small sections and allowed the fire to "trickle" its way through the 2-hectare space.
She said unhealthy Country is identified as being "upside down" with thick scrub and thin trees rather than thick canopies and open forest floors.
Timing is everything, and cues are taken from the land to know when the moment is right, from soil moisture levels to what flowers are blooming and where.
Aunty Deb Clark says the land feels like it can breath after a burn. (ABC Tropical North: Liam McNally)
"It's really important that you use all your senses to read Country … and Country will talk to you," Ms Clark said.
"It was emotional … seeing our young rangers smile, seeing them stand that bit taller, seeing them having a better understanding … and an understanding that they are going to be the knowledge holders that are going to be carrying this forward.
"We saw our Country breathe … It was healing for the people as well."
Indigenous cultural burning practices allow for healthy regrowth. (ABC Tropical North: Liam McNally)
Healing land and people
Within a 25-minute drive of Cape Hillsborough, there are two massacre sites where a total of 150 Indigenous people were killed, according to the University of Newcastle.
Ms Clark said that, after white settlement, Aboriginal people were removed from their Country, including Cape Hillsborough, and not allowed to practise cultural land care.
Knowledge of how to care for Country has had to be regathered — through stories passed down, recorded history, neighbouring clans' knowledge, and the help of Firestick Alliance, an Indigenous organisation that helps different communities care for Country by strengthening their capacity to apply traditional knowledge.
Aboriginal people in Australia have been using fire to care for Country for tens of thousands of years. (Supplied: Aunty Pam Young)
"A lot of [cultural knowledge] has been sleeping until we've been able to regain our cultural practice ways," she said.
Yuwi Aboriginal Corporation project manager Madeline Jones said the Native Title determination in 2020 paved the way for the co-designing of cultural practices on Country.
"Native Title isn't just a legal process; it's emotional, exhausting and deeply personal for families," Ms Jones said.
"It took many years, and required elders and families to repeatedly prove what they already knew — that this is their Country.
"It gives an opportunity to sit at the table, to be a part of the decision-making process … being native title holders, that allowed us to co-design and co-facilitate our own burn on our own country, our way."
Yuwi Aboriginal Corporation senior ranger Aunty Pam Young and directors Aunty Deb Clark and Madeline Jones were proud to see traditional practices return to Cape Hillsborough. (ABC Tropical North: Liam McNally)
Joining knowledge
Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) said it had been special to share knowledge with the Yuwi people.
"We're seeing really good outcomes here … all the indicator species for a good burn are there," ranger Daniel Burndred said.
"Working with these guys gives us more purpose.
"We're learning what's important to Yuwi when we do those burns … keeping that spiritual connection going and learning from that — it's golden."
Daniel Burndred worked with Yuwi people to prepare for and conduct the burn. (ABC Tropical North: Liam McNally)
Ms Clark said the respect went both ways.
"We can learn from Western ways, and they can learn from cultural ways," she said.
"If we do that journey together, listening to each other, then we've got the commonality that what we both want is what's best for the Country here.
"This is just the beginning."
Cultural burning is conducted with a light hand to preserve desirable species. (Provided: Aunty Deb Clark)