DJAARA wants more cultural burns to “heal country” with a 10-year strategy launched at Dingee last week.
Leaders of the Bendigo-based Aboriginal corporation told more than 100 people at Tan Tan Swamp they wanted to conduct burns in a “more culturally productive way”.
Corporation members and government department and agency representatives were told the burns were a continuation of Aboriginal culture but there remained challenges ahead.
DJAARA chair Rebecca Phillips launched the Djandak Wi (country fire) strategy.
CEO Rodney Carter said: “Djandak Wi is about using the right fire in the right place at the right time.”
“Dja Dja Wurrung people have been using fire to actively shape and manage the landscape for tens of thousands of years. Country has evolved over millennia to depend on Djandak Wi.
“But for several generations, this cultural practice was interrupted as Dja Dja Wurrung people were unable to access and carry out cultural practices on many parts of Dja Dja Wurrung Country because of colonisation,” he said.
“For us, Djandak Wi is important on many different levels: it’s a spiritual practice, it’s a social practice, we use it for ceremony – and it’s important in caring for  country, which in turn cares for us.”
DJAARA and its enterprise DJANDAK have been re-introducing Djandak Wi to Djandak since 2017, supported by Forest Fire Management Victoria. 
DJAARA’s season of cultural burns is about to end with several in the Dingee district over the past week.