Tuesday Curatorial: NAIDOC Week - The outlawing of Cultural Burning on Menang Boodja

Learn about the impact of historical regulations on Menang cultural burning practices

Archaeologist and Fire Specialist Dr Sean Winter takes a closer look at the Western Australian Regulations that were passed as early as 1847 to limit Noongar cultural burning practices. These regulations were intended to curb the spread of uncontrolled wildfires, but they ultimately had the opposite effect. 

European legislators did not understand that controlled burns managed the vegetation and minimised damaging bushfires—fires that have occurred annually across Australia since European settlement in 1788. Dr Winter urges a return to the acceptance of controlled cultural burning to mitigate the increasing threat of fires in our region.