Cultural fire

Many First Nations communities now have dedicated staff delivering cultural burning. Traditional Owners conduct cultural burning for a range of reasons associated with caring for Country – including promoting revegetation, producing food and game and maintaining spiritual connection with Country. Acknowledging Indigenous ecological knowledge and intellectual property rights is practised across Victoria.

Traditional Owners and Victorian land and fire management agencies are working together to reintroduce cultural burning across Victoria, allowing for healing and caring for Country.

Cultural burning is carried out on both private and public land with the involvement of the landowner and/or manager. FFMVic and CFA support Traditional Owners to develop objectives and outcomes that assist the planning and delivery of burns on public and private land. FFMVic and CFA tailor support to each Traditional Owner Group’s (TOG) cultural fire aspirations and capacity.

Many of Victoria’s Traditional Owner Groups took part in the development of The Victorian Traditional Owner Cultural Fire Strategy, released in 2020. The Strategy provides key principles to guide how FFMVic and CFA can support Traditional Owners in a culturally appropriate way. For more information or to read the full strategy, visit Victorian Traditional Owner Fire Strategy (PDF, 1.2 MB).

This includes providing opportunities for the Traditional Owner Groups to secure funding through the Victorian Government’s Traditional Owner Grants program. Funding secured through this initiative is supporting many TOGs to train and equip more groups to increase their ability to deliver cultural burning and, in some cases, work with FFMVic and CFA to reduce bushfire risk and respond to bushfire emergencies. For more information and details on how to apply, visit: Cultural Fire Grants.

Cultural Burn Officers are now located in all six DEECA regions. They link DEECA, CFA and Traditional Owner Groups on matters including self-determination, culturally safe workplaces, relationships, training and navigating processes. Many Cultural Burn Officers being First Peoples Cultural Fire Knowledge Holders themselves are assisting greatly in growing and sharing cultural fire knowledge among the Traditional Owner Groups.