Decolonializing Climate Crisis: Theorizing Australian Black Summer Fires as Posthumanist and Indigenous Convergence

Abstract

The climate crisis is evidence of a disconnect between humanity and Earth. Healing this disconnect requires a fundamental overhaul of the underlying ontologies, epistemologies, and axiologys we (humans) live by. Drawing on the 2019 Australian Black Summer fires and their contribution to exploring fire knowledge assemblages, the article purposes to consider points of mutual confluence between current posthumanism (‘new humanities’) and Indigenous philosophies and ontologies. It considers if a shared set of commonalities between the ‘new humanities’ and Indigenous knowledges can be attentive to the erasure of past histories and recognize colonialization and its ongoing legacies. A posthumanist and Indigenous convergence is considered through three potential commonalities: rejecting anthropocentricism and binary thinking; employing a vitalist ethics of human responsibility towards all life-forms; and embracing relational ontologies as moves towards ecological interconnectedness. Throughout the article Indigenous voices and experiences of fire and cultural burning enact an indigenizing of the climate crisis.