Fire Lines, 2019 © Alan McFetridge. Archival waxed inkjet Print 100cm x 125cm
Indigenous Australians have developed sophisticated relationships with fire over tens of thousands of years.
Click image for more of our study of Landscape Fire in Australia.
Whether by coincidence or planning, my first photographic studies of Landscape Fire took place in regions colonised by Europeans in the 16th &18th Centuries. With North America and Australia currently experiencing record temperatures and severe fires - links between dangerous fire behaviour and the transformation that invasive attitudes have had towards critical infrastructures such as water and biodiversity are drawn on in several articles for The Conversation - an independent source of news analysis and informed comment written by academic experts, working with professional journalists.
Please click the links below to learn more.
I was fortunate to have been invited into several regions by Indigenous stakeholders, Agriculturalists, and Fire Ecologists. The resulting photography is featured in the articles below to illustrate Fire’s dual capacity to regenerate, heal, and make abundant vegetation. This is also known as Indigenous Fire Knowledge, an effective system that has been displaced as have the people. It is time to act differently.
World-first research confirms Australia’s forests became catastrophic fire risk after British invasion
Link here
Our land is burning, and Western science does not have all the answers
Link here
Ilmu modern tidak mampu mengatasi kebakaran lahan; kita perlu belajar pada masyarakat adat
Link here
By Alan McFetridge
I want to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which these pictures are made, where I stood and the pathways of the journey. These are Gadigal, Ngambri, Ngunnawal, Palawa and Larrakia Country. My gratitude goes to the Traditional Custodians for their continued connection to their lands and for caring for Country for thousands of generations. The Country visited includes Grassland, Mixed-Tree, Storm Burn, Gum-Tree, No Fire, and Desert all of which were observed because of their relationship to Fire Country. Across all of this beautiful Country there are many Sacred sites, the ones that were shown to me opened my imagination to the profound possibilities when place is allowed to dominates time. There were many other Sacred sites that I do not know their names or meaning, however, this is something I hope to understand and respect truthfully.
As the project grows a knowledge space has opened because of the sharing and openness of the First Nations people at the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre and Northern Land Council to whom I pay my greatest respect.
Being a visitor, the warmth and understanding that has been shown to me has been overwhelmingly welcoming and gracious of my limited understanding of the customs and traditions that developed in accord with an Ecological Philosophy responsible for the oldest continuous culture on the planet. Each step is made knowing that the First Nations sovereignty was never ceded. This continent always was and always will be Aboriginal land.