00:00 Scorched bushland is an all too familiar sight for residents on the far south coast of New
00:07 South Wales.
00:08 A recent flare-up in October swept through more than 7,000 hectares near Bermagui.
00:15 Indigenous fire practitioners say the lessons of Black Summer haven't been learnt and a
00:19 Royal Commission recommendation for more cultural burns is sitting idle.
00:24 "There hasn't been any attempt to really incorporate Indigenous land management with Indigenous
00:30 leadership."
00:31 Victor Steffensen and his colleague Dan Morgan say cultural burns are regulated the same
00:35 way as hotter and more intense hazard reduction burns, despite being completely different.
00:42 The Rural Fire Service concedes it isn't a simple process.
00:46 "Obviously there's environmental approvals depending on the land that you're looking
00:51 to burn on, whether it's public or private land.
00:54 There's different legislation that needs to be waded through."
00:58 "We don't have the freedom to manage our lands the way we should, the way our ancestors
01:02 have for thousands of years."
01:04 A cultural burn like this one is conducted cooler and slower than a hazard reduction
01:08 burn.
01:09 The idea is that it won't damage the flora and fauna around us.
01:13 "All they've done since those wildfires is put steroids on what's not working already.
01:19 And it's really frustrating."
01:21 Murrah resident David Dixon lost his home in the Coolagalite Road bushfire.
01:26 He'd been in contact with fire sticks for a cultural burn for months, but they didn't
01:30 have the capacity to do it before the fire hit.
01:33 "It just makes so much sense.
01:36 And that knowledge, that deep knowledge of how country works and how it can be looked
01:41 after much better than has been done so far."
01:44 "A unit has actually been developed within Crown Lands called the Cultural Fire Unit.
01:51 And the NSW Rural Fire Service is working really closely with that Cultural Fire Management
01:56 Unit."
01:57 "I've been to Parliament House countless times and spoken and they're thinking I'm
02:01 going to walk out with some support, but it's always walking out empty handed."
02:06 Despite little to no support, fire sticks say they will continue to pass their knowledge
02:11 onto future generations.
02:13 Re-learning a 60,000 year old tradition.
02:16 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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