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E-book Fires in GunaiKurnai Country Landscape Fires and their Impacts on Aboriginal Cultural : Heritage Places and Artefacts in Southeastern Australia

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Penilaian

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Wildfires, often called ‘bushfires’ in Australia, are an annual occurrence in Australia, especially in the southeast. Each year they burn thousands of square kilometres of bushland, blazing everything in their way. Some of the physical infrastructure erected or grown by people, such as fencelines, buildings and crops can be rebuilt and replanted, despite the devastation wildfires leave behind for the communities whose lives are upended by their damage or destruction. But other things cannot. Among these latter are the Aboriginal cultural heritage places that have accumulated in the landscape through the course of history and that often form the only material expressions of thousands of years of culture. How do these wildfires impact on Aboriginal sites? Do some site types, or materials, fare better than others? And how have wildfires contributed to a diminution or erasure of material culture, such as those that would otherwise be seen in the landscape as one went about in everyday life, and that contributes an essential, often subliminal role in cultural education down the generations?With the above concerns in mind, this monograph examines the incidence of landscape fires in relation to the distribution of archaeological sites across one part of southeastern Australia, the lands of the GunaiKurnai Aboriginal clans. In doing so, we review what is known of the region’s fire history through a number of sources: through oral histories, colonial art, and through an examination of government fire records dating back to the early years of the 20th century. The stimulus for this work were particularly severe wildfires that raged across much of southeastern Australia, including GunaiKurnai Country, in the spring and summer of 2019–2020. Our aim is to better understand the impacts of wildfires across GunaiKurnai Country’s varied environments, so as to be in a better position to find some answers for the management of its cultural heritage sites and landscapes. November 2019 was a particularly hot and dry month across many parts of southern Australia. Over a four-day period, 18–21 November, temperatures reached record highs. On 21 November, 150 wildfires covering 326,000 hectares were recorded across Victoria; 60 of these fires were still burning by the end of the day, three of the largest in East Gippsland, much of which lies in GunaiKurnai Country. The Bruthen and Gelantipy fires in particular continued to grow over the coming days.

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

628 DAV f

Penerbit

London : Archaeopress Publishing., 2023

Deskripsi Fisik

234 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9781803274829

Klasifikasi

628

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

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Subjek

Environmental Protection Engineering

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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