Dr Michelle McKemey, Melaleuca Environmental Consultancy Services

“We are showing, not even Australia, but worldwide that we are managing our country with the knowledge that has been passed down from generation to generation by our grandfathers and ancestors, and still is. Because we got modern, like using helicopter to burn, all season matches, drip torch, we are still using our same knowledge – when to burn, how to burn… We are doing the burning because our grandfathers did it before. Now they are gone, they taught us and we take note, now we are teaching our children, our future rangers, we are teaching them to take over our ranger program including fire. Fire management in our ranger program is very important because fire brings back life.” 

– Clarry Rogers. 

The SEAL IPA was declared in 2016 covering an area of 19,170 km² on the south western edge of the Gulf of Carpentaria in the Northern Territory and conserving extraordinary natural and cultural values. The Yugul Mangi (meaning ‘all of us’, i.e. the many Indigenous clans of South East Arnhem Land) Rangers were formally established in 2001 and manage the southern region of SEAL IPA in partnership with the Numbulwar Numbirindi rangers who manage the north. Through participatory action research on Country, the Yugul Mangi rangers shared their Indigenous biocultural knowledge, in order to develop the Yugul Mangi Faiya En Sisen Kelenda, the Yugul Mangi Fire and Seasons Calendar (McKemey et al. 2020).

Traditional Owners, Elders and language speakers at Ngukurr Language Centre were engaged to provide specialised knowledge and language expertise. The calendar used both Indigenous and Western knowledge systems to produce information to guide fire management in the SEAL IPA. The calendar was positively received by the SEAL IPA community and aimed to improve the evolving fire management practices of Indigenous land managers, while also providing an effective communication tool to increase awareness of Indigenous savannah burning and transfer intergenerational cultural knowledge (McKemey 2020; McKemey et al. 2022).

Dr Michelle McKemey and the Yugul Mangi Rangers were awarded the 2019 Bush Heritage Australia Right Way Science Award.

McKemey M. (2020) Developing cross-cultural knowledge (‘right way’ science) to support Indigenous cultural fire management In: School of Environmental and Rural Science. University of New England, Armidale.

McKemey M., Ens E., Yugul Mangi Rangers, Costello O. & Reid N. (2020) Indigenous Knowledge and Seasonal Calendar Inform Adaptive Savanna Burning in Northern Australia. Sustainability 12, 995.

McKemey M. B., Banbai Rangers, Yugul Mangi Rangers, Costello O., Hunter J. T. & Ens E. J. (2022) ‘Right-way’ science: reflections on co-developing Indigenous and Western cross-cultural knowledge to support Indigenous cultural fire management. Ecological Management & Restoration 23, 75-82.

This piece has been extracted from an online gallery of images from Indigenous ecological practitioners around Australia. Images in this collection tell the stories of programs continuing, reviving and protecting the ecological practices and knowledge held by First Nations people for millennia – consult the full gallery here.