Fighting Fire with Fire

On the subject of Indigenous knowledge, time and time again it comes up that those who have for centuries been stewards of a territory unsurprisingly know how best to protect and manage it sustainably. On my recent travels across the US, I carried out some yet-to-be-published reporting in New Mexico as it suffers the largest wildfire in its history, burning over 300,000 acres – more than 10 times the size of Paris. Yet what’s been overlooked is how using controlled fire as a form of fire management, as paradoxical as that may sound, has been used by Indigenous people all over the world, including the tribes of Australia’s Arnhem Land that are written about in this National Geographic article. Fire was used for hunting, for regeneration, for ceremony, it explains; after a burn, they believe that the land is reborn.