Fires in GunaiKurnai Country : Landscape Fires and their Impacts on Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Places and Artefacts in Southeastern Australia /
ISBN: 9781803274829
Platform/Publisher: Knowledge Unlatched / Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: unlimited; Download: unlimited

Anthropogenic climate change has become a reality, and in Australia this means longer wildfire seasons with more intense fires across a wider area. The GunaiKurnai people of southeastern Victoria saw a large proportion of their Country decimated by the Gippsland Fires of 'Black Summer' (2019-2020), prompting questions about the management of Country and its heritage places and artefacts, and of the role that traditional ('cultural') burning could play. This volume, written at the request of the GunaiKurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation (GKLaWAC), seeks to investigate these twin issues. Bringing together a multi-disciplinary team of Aboriginal Elders, archaeologists, environmental scientists, ecologists, historians and art historians, it considers the histories of GunaiKurnai and European settler burning-based landscape management practices, the impacts of fire on specific classes of cultural materials, and the broader impact of changing wildfire patterns on cultural sites in the landscape. This is a truly collaborative venture that sees GunaiKurnai and academic expertise brought to bear in the service of common and pressing issues.


Jessie Buettel (School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Australia) researches ecological and anthropogenic change in plant and animal communities to provide insights into complex ecosystems. Through ecological modelling and the analysis of spatio-temporal patterns, she investigates issues of conservation, biodiversity and forestry management.

Bruno David (Monash Indigenous Studies Centre, Monash University, Australia) is an archaeologist and Chief Investigator with the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage. He undertakes partnership research on the (hi)story of cultural places with First Nations communities. He has published 17 books and around 300 articles on various dimensions of landscape archaeology.

Elder Uncle Russell Mullett is the Registered Aboriginal Party Manager for the GunaiKurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation (GKLaWAC). He oversees cultural research on GunaiKurnai lands and waters for GKLaWAC, including archaeological and palaeoecological investigations. He currently sits on the board of the Aboriginal Heritage Council, which provides advice to the Victorian State government on all cultural heritage matters.

Joanna Fresløv has focussed on the landscape archaeology of the coast and High Country for over thirty years. Since 2003 she has carried out a number of extensive post-wildfire investigations on the effects of fire on Aboriginal cultural heritage in the Grampians (Gariwerd) National Park (Victoria), Tasmania (Upper Florentine Valley World Heritage Area), Alpine National Park (Victoria) and most recently the whole of Victoria following the 2019-2920 wildfires, for State and Federal government agencies.

Katherine Szabó (Pre-Construct Archaeology, UK) is an archaeologist and shell specialist who has worked across the Asia-Pacific region for over twenty years. She has undertaken, and published widely upon, experimental and fundamental research around the use of shell as a raw material, as well as taphonomic processes acting upon shell. She is now based in the UK working primarily in commercial archaeology.

GunaiKurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation (GKLaWAC) is the Registered Aboriginal Party that represents the GunaiKurnai people - the Traditional Owners of GunaiKurnai Country in southeastern Victoria, Australia. Led by the GKLaWAC Board, they advocate, manage and care for the GunaiKurnai people and Country. The research presented in this volume was commissioned by, and produced in partnership with, GKLaWAC.
hidden image for function call