In Conversation with Uncle Lewis: Bushfires,weather-makers,collective management

Abstract

Indigenous knowledge in relation to bushfires has been largely overlooked in Australia. In this paper Uncle Lewis O'Brien, Kaurna elder and Chief Investigator of the Australian Research Council (ARC) project Indigenous Knowledge: Water Sustainability and Wild Fire Mitigation, is “yarning” or in conversation with Irene Watson. The ARC project is working towards positioning an Indigenous philosophical standpoint that will bring a greater focus to Indigenous understandings of our natural world and the relationship between humans and the natural world, particularly in an era of climate change. In this conversation Uncle Lewis O'Brien points to the limitations of Western understandings of environmental management—and in particular the prevention of bushfires—from an Indigenous knowledges standpoint. It is a conversation about the philosophical positions Indigenous peoples have also deployed in our struggle to outlive colonialism, while also remaining open to sharing Indigenous knowledges that have been shared amongst First Nations for thousands of years.