Fire as a Friend, a Regenerative Power: Indigenous Fire Knowledge as applied with the leadership of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre. Traditional Custodians know what to burn, when and how it’s helps other plants and animals. Lutruwita/Tasmania, 2019 © Alan McFetridge
Fire as an Ally: Lutruwita/Tasmania.
Fire as an ally, 2019 Lutruwita/Tasmania, Australia is further development of the ongoing project on landscape fire.
I want to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which these pictures are made. 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.
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.
Thanks to Common Ground who have shared learning resources that have helped guide our work around acknowledging and naming First Nations people across Australia.
Title: Good Fire, 2019. 100cm x 125cm. © Alan McFetridge
Healers, 2019. Archival waxed inkjet Print 100cm x 200cm. © Alan McFetridge
A triad of ecological stakeholders convenes after a patch burn in Ross, Lutruwita/Tasmania. Indigenous Fire Knowledge has been applied with leadership from Andry Sculthorpe from the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre. The successful burn forms part of a scientific experiment led by David Bowman and Ben French to observe herbivores’ activity pre and post-fire on the farmland of Julian von Bibra to explore ways to regenerate the ailing biota. The sickness in the land is evident by the skeleton frames of a deceased Eucalyptus Tree, stressed from compounding negative environmental changes overwhelming them.
The men stand over a smouldering log surrounded by fields brushed with flame telling stories. That evening, the glowing log is reused to prepare a meal of herbivore meat hunted the previous evening. Small fires such as this example transform, jolt and regenerate biota. They are soft and occur as a dynamic of an efficient society from a non-industrialised human world.
This sociality amidst catastrophe alludes to the picturesque style of British-born artists such as John Glover (1767–1849), creating atmospheric paintings in the ‘Aftermath of frontier violence of the 1830s and the dispossession of Tasmania’s first peoples from their homeland’ (Lum, J. 2018). Here, the picturesque of Lutruwita aligns with ‘How can we live anywhere but under this one tree.’ (Zbzignew, H)
Skeleton Tree, 2019. © Alan McFetridge.
Tree of Life, 2019. © Alan McFetridge
Fire in Australia | Exhibition Feature: Wonder & Dread
12 Dec 30 Jan 2021 at Shoalhaven Regional Gallery, NSW, Australia
Alan McFetridge (1971 - )
The River Derwent and Hobart Town, Lutruwita (c1831- 2019)
Pigment ink print
Diptych: 32.6 × 86 - Edition of 6 + 2AP
First Printed by Alan McFetridge in 2020
Left: John Glover (1767 - 1849)
The River Derwent and Hobart Town c1831
oil
51.5 x 71.5
Purchased with funds provided by the Art Foundation of Tasmania, the Sir James Plimsoll Bequest, Sir John Cameron, Mrs G F Davies, Mr C H Grant, Mr Roderick O’Connor, Coles Myer Ltd, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Foundation Ten, the Friends of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, anonymous benefactors and public donations, 1990.Collection: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery AG5458
Printed from a digital file courtesy of Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.
pigment ink print
32.6 × 45.5
Printed by Alan McFetridge in 2020
Right: Alan McFetridge (1971 - )
The River Derwent and Hobart Town , Lutruwita c2019
Pigment ink print
First printed by Alan McFetridge in 2020
The Centre for Ecological Philosophy
You can read more about the centre and what we are doing to question how the climate will change, fires will intensify and adaptation necessary and what we can do about it in a blog post here.
For further information on this project please contact the Studio
All images © Alan McFetridge