Wildfires in the Aboriginal Worldview: Cultural Practices, Folklore, and Human–Environment Relations in Indigenous Australia

ЮГО-ВОСТОЧНАЯ АЗИЯ: АКТУАЛЬНЫЕ ПРОБЛЕМЫ РАЗВИТИЯ, 2026, №1(70), 298-307

 
Annotation: This paper examines the place of fire in the worldview of Australian Aboriginal communities, focusing on its representations in folklore, traditional ecological knowledge, and contemporary cultural practices. Drawing on ethnographic materials, field observations, and interviews with Indigenous rangers and cultural practitioners, the study explores how fire is conceptualised not merely as a destructive natural force, but as a regulated, meaningful, and socially embedded element of the environment. Special attention is paid to traditional practices of controlled burning (cultural burning), which function as a system of ecological management, landscape maintenance, and intergenerational knowledge transmission. The analysis demonstrates that Aboriginal understandings of fire are embedded in broader cosmological and moral frameworks, where fire is associated with renewal, balance, and responsibility rather than with uncontrolled destruction. These representations are reflected both in mythological narratives and in contemporary Indigenous discourses on land care and environmental stewardship. The work also addresses the historical disruption of traditional fire management practices during the colonial period and the long-term ecological consequences of fire suppression policies introduced by European settlers. By combining ethnographic narrative, folklore analysis, and ecological perspectives, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of Indigenous environmental knowledge systems and their relevance for contemporary debates on sustainable land management, climate change adaptation, and intercultural approaches to environmental governance in Australia.

Keywords: Indigenous Australians, cultural burnings, ethnoecology, bushfire, mythology, traditional land management