[New post] Future Fire, Future Farming: A Book Review
Hasmukh Chand posted: " Late last year, I was lucky enough to attend a climate justice retreat organised for people of colour in the climate movement. In my ten year long career, this was the first time something like this had been organised. Suffice to say, the two days I " Conservation, Environment, Climate Change and Sustainable Development
Late last year, I was lucky enough to attend a climate justice retreat organised for people of colour in the climate movement. In my ten year long career, this was the first time something like this had been organised. Suffice to say, the two days I spent surrounded by some of the most amazing climate justice warriors has had a deep and lasting impact on me. In spending time with such tenacious leaders, I realised the glaring gap in my knowledge when it comes to climate and environmental justice. In an effort to fill my cup, I have decided that books I read this year will be primarily those authored by First Nations people and or eco-feminists.
The first book I picked up for 2023 is called Future Fire, Future Farming by Bill Gammage and Bruce Pascoe (edited by Margo Neale). Future Fire, Future Farming is the third book in the "First Knowledges Series". The focus of this particular book is on the farming and fire practices of Aboriginal people over millennia and the profound impacts both had in shaping culture and landscapes. Gammage's sections cover fire while Pascoe's are about farming.
The authors draw on how colonialism, capitalism and the male ego has led to genocide and environmental destruction in Australia (and the world over). The book challenges the long-standing doctrine of terra-nullius (or the 'pristine myth') that has been applied to the ongoing dispossession Aboriginal land for over two hundred years in Australia. Aboriginal people were not just 'hunter-gatherers' as the first white settlers thought they were but rather had developed a sophisticated society over thousands of years.
"Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people did hunt and did gather and still do today, but we also tilled, harvested, manipulated water flow across the land and stored food" (pg. 32)
There is plenty of archeological evidence across Australia that shows the level of sophistication and development that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had achieved over their 80,000 year long presence on this continent. Take for example;
"Grinding stones in Kakadu have been examined recently and show that flour production was well established 65,000 years ago. This is long before any other society was known to make bread. So Aboriginal Australians were the world's first bakers" (pg. 60)
The authors also speak of the forced removal of Aboriginal people from their land and the ongoing spiritual and cultural trauma this has caused and which continues to this day. This dispossession goes to the heart of climate / environmental justice as it severs the connection and therefore the deep responsibility that First Nations people have to the land, to each other and the plants and animals.
"Every tiny part of land, sea and sky, every totem, is part of at least one Songline" (pg.85)
This same spirituality is extended to fire which has long served as a tool for Aboriginal people. Indeed fire was seen as an integral part of responsible management of the landscape and was used in different ways to promote the growth of certain food sources, attract game and maintain ecological health. According to Gammage and Pascoe, columns of smoke were a daily sight across Australia prior to the arrival of white settlers. Burning was never done randomly or by accident but rather, fire was treated like a totem itself.
"You sing the Country before you burn it. In your mind you see the fire, you know where it is going, and you know where it will stop. Only then do you light the fire" (pg. 107)
By contrast, white settlers have always feared fire. The authors argue that this has led to the excessive buildup of fuel loads in the landscape which is leading to the catastrophic fire conditions we witnessed in the summer of 2019 and 2020. To help address the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss, the authors point out the importance of harnessing the many thousands of years of knowledge that Aboriginal people have when it comes to stewarding the landscape, including the use of fire as a way to encourage plant and animal diversity as well as disaster preparedness. And that by allowing for the landscape to heal, that some of the trauma experienced by First Nations communities can also be healed.
Future Fire, Future Farming is an insightful book that needs to be essential reading in the Australian education system. Overall, I am very happy that I started 2023 with this wonderful read and looking forward to crossing off a number of books by First Nations authors that have been recommended to me. If you get the chance, you should definitely grab a copy of Future Fire, Future Farming or any of the other books from the First Knowledges Series.
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