Cultural burning and public sector practice in the Australian Capital Territory

Aboriginal peoples’ fire management practices captured global attention during the Australian 2019–20 ‘Black Summer’, as a possible method to mitigate bushfire risk; however, these ‘cultural burns’ are no straightforward matter for public sector practice. As the slow, retrospective work to address historical and contemporary discrimination is imperfectly underway, we explore a cultural burning program supported by a government agency in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). In this paper, two co-authors share their experiences helping create a cultural burning program as Aboriginal people but not as Traditional Custodians. We document the steps taken to build support, create opportunities and engage Ngunnawal and Ngambri Traditional Custodians, and identify early positive results and challenging matters being generated. We demonstrate that rather than being restricted by public sector bureaucracy, the ACT cultural burning program has leveraged policy and entwined itself around the machinery of government in a way that accesses resources, creates opportunities and is slowly but surely changing public sector practice. Nonetheless, this is a journey of iteratively learning. It remains that more substantive measures are needed to recognise Traditional Custodianship if the current cultural burning program is to become a more substantial expression of Aboriginal peoples’ cultural land management.