Smoke rose over Gumbaynggirr Country on Tuesday morning as Traditional Owners and the Rural Fire Service carried out the first demonstration cultural burn at Scotts Head Reserve, with the community watching on.
The burn, delivered by the Yurruungga Aboriginal Corporation, forms part of Reflections Holidays’ second Reconciliation Action Plan, which commits the Crown land manager to working with Traditional Owners to heal Country within the reserves it cares for. Reflections manages 40 holiday parks and 45 public reserves spanning more than 10,000 hectares across NSW.
Reflections CEO Nick Baker said the organisation operated on 12 First Nations, and the first cultural burn on Country at Scotts Head was significant as it sought to take meaningful action toward reconciliation.
“As a Crown Land manager we regularly partner with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to share and celebrate their culture with our guests to build awareness and respect that moves us towards our vision for reconciliation,” Mr Baker said.
“Among the actions in our second Innovate RAP is to identify and seek to partner with Traditional Custodians to develop plans to protect and manage Country within our reserves, and we are seeing this take place at Scotts Head, thanks to the hard work of our Aboriginal Engagement Officer, our staff and the Yurruungga Aboriginal Corporation.”
Yurruungga Aboriginal Corporation CEO Dean Kelly said the burn was significant, and it was the first time the community had been able to watch the process unfold.
“Scotts Head is a very significant area to us because it connects to our Creation stories. We haven’t seen this area burnt in a long time, and to put fire back on Country is not just about nurturing the biodiversity and ecosystem, it’s about honouring our cultural connections,” Mr Kelly said.
“During the cultural exchange, we are burning along our songlines, which starts at Guyra at Wattle Ridge, and we are finishing at Scotts Head, where our Creation story comes in.”
Mr Kelly said the burning honoured traditions thousands of years old, connected at Scotts Head to the Creation story of the Dungiirr brothers, or the Koala Brothers, taking in nearby mountain ranges, seas, headland and inland country.
“The cultural burn is more than just about putting in fire on Country, it’s a combined method of cool burning methodologies and indigenous traditional ecological knowledge. By using these knowledge systems of Traditional Owners, we can use fire to help revitalise and rejuvenate Country types at appropriate times via appropriate use of fire,” he said.
He said the practice carried modern benefits alongside the traditional ones. “We are not just burning, it allows us to connect with Country and release stress with our self and emotionally detach from other things that are going on in our world.”
Mr Kelly thanked partners including Reflections Holidays, the NSW RFS and Nambucca Shire Council for their support.
Mr Baker said the Scotts Head burn would inform future cultural burns at other Reflections parks across NSW.
“Reflections will continue to support Aboriginal-owned and led organisations to deliver programs on Country that will nurture the skills of Reflections staff in traditional land management practices,” he said.
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