Billy Griffiths
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
So I think in answer to your question, you know, part of the way we navigated that is by honouring the integrity of each of those knowledge systems.
Look, the examples that immediately come to mind are extraordinary ones like volcanism on the Atherton Tablelands.
One of the things we often forget in Australia, speaking to that long-term environmental change, is that Indigenous people were here with country when volcanoes were erupting.
And not only were they here, the histories of witnessing those volcanic eruptions are preserved in Indigenous oral histories, as are the rising of the seas.
And these aren't isolated incidents.
We have compelling histories of Indigenous ancestors witnessing sea level rise more than 10,000 years ago at dozens of locations around the continent.
These are encoded histories in story and song and in fact they're the oldest oral traditions we know about anywhere in the world.
It's been a great privilege to be out on country with firemasters.
So these are senior knowledge holders who understand that ecology and the effects of fire.
One of the things that really stays with me is how a fire can burn, but so coolly that it doesn't penetrate the earth and kill off the life below the surface.
So a fire can go through and you can literally scrape the surface of the ground and it's cool underneath.
which is not what a lot of people associate with fire.
And in the Western world, we often see fire as destructive, not creative.
And I think when you make that switch to think about that creativity, it's generative and it's an act of care to burn and look after country.
And certainly when I've been on country, I've been instructed to burn country to show my care and my responsibility to country.
And this was another one of the central pillars we decided in the book that we really wanted to highlight other countries and other examples of country that aren't in the public discourses.
You know, and Fishtrap's a good example of those.