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This report documents a trip undertaken across southern Western Australia (WA) to exchange knowledge from south eastern Australia about cultural burning with traditional owners and fire authorities in Norseman, Esperance, Nowanup, Albany, Bunbury and Perth. The journey took place in the anticipatory shadow of catastrophic wildfires that can destroy, and have destroyed, much of value in this part of the world.

The key learnings are summarised under the headings: Fire and life, At-risk values, Healing, Cultural burning as a contemporary practice, Volunteer training and fire skills, Relations and repair, and, East-West engagement across southern Australia. We also summarise the presentations by Dean Freeman about the ACT government cultural burning program. Together, these summaries form the substantive content of the report. They are supplemented by anecdotal accounts of each meeting, as well as background information on native title and other key terminology and concepts.

Fundamentally, the Aboriginal people we met with talked about the importance of understanding fire differently, to reposition it as not just something to fear, but as central to the regeneration of life. At the same time, all were concerned about the growth in catastrophic wildfires, and this intensified the focus on anticipatory land management practices.

Within this broader framing, the knowledge exchanged on this trip reflected that:

• Fire management is an intensely regulated space because of the risk that fire presents, and requires much planning, formal training, equipment, and so on. At each meeting, the important collaborative work that this regulatory set up enables was talked about positively in terms of current and future activities. At the same time, regulatory issues were also identified as being unclear and unfamiliar, and thus vulnerable to misinterpretation and incorrect use, including by public sector officials charged with authorising prescribed burning activities. Some of these regulatory matters are detailed in this report.

• Fire management is a dynamic engagement and learning space. Fire brings people together to have very frank conversations about how we live with nature, risk and each other. There is much flux currently about fire management practices, including: the merits of prescribed burning in terms of protecting life and property; the new science about the ecological impacts of hazard reduction burns; and, the role of Indigenous peoples’ burning practices. Misunderstandings can derail important conversations because there are such different conceptual traditions and perspectives involved.

• Fire management is not simply a technical matter but is about values, and thus it is also political. This includes whose risk mitigation priorities matter, and whose fire management is authorised, funded, and taught. In Australia, this is overlayed with fraught histories of engagement between Indigenous and other people, which Indigenous people have to confront daily. Two societal changes are helping to address these fraught histories. First, the cultural and political resurgence of Indigenous peoples, their rights and responsibilities. Second, the changing values within Australian society to be proud of Indigenous culture, and the importance of addressing historic and contemporary wrongs.

As a consequence of significant societal change to recognise and celebrate First Nations peoples in Australia, British derived systems of governance are required to work with Indigenous peoples’ political entities, including partnering on fire management issues. Concomitantly, the public sector and political leadership needs to think closely about what is meant by ‘the public good’ in their policies and programs – that is, who is the public and what do they consider is good? Whilst northern Australia is an emblematic focus of activity by and for Indigenous Australia, the majority of Australia’s Indigenous people live in southern Australia, and with the recognition of native title they are now the largest land holders in southern Australia. The ACT government’s support of cultural burning is one example of how fire management is being refashioned with neither land rights nor native title, but motivated individuals doing the work to make it possible, because it is the right thing to do.

Significantly, fundamental shifts in the nature of land holding in Australia are bringing the public sector into greater exposure with the connected thinking and governing systems that arise out of Indigenous peoples’ relationships with Country. However, throughout Australia there is much more healing that needs to be done for such intercultural engagement to progress and be more meaningful for Indigenous people, including in material terms. The key players are in a good position to invest in the good will and work that is already present and take this forward.