Yorgas kaala katitje is a podcast and short film exploring the fire knowledge of Aboriginal women. Such knowledge has been essential to the survival and cultural practices of Indigenous communities across millennia.
However, it was not within early explorers’ frame of reference to see women as fire managers, and these European understandings have shaped the way we have thought about fire management in this country. Over three centuries later, fire is pivotal to land management across a nation seasonally ravaged by fatal bushfires.
Increasingly, Aboriginal women and men are creating better management by sharing their knowledge through the Bushfire Centre of Excellence in Perth and the Kimberley Land Council’s Nyul Nyul female ranger program based in Beagle Bay on the Dampier Peninsula.
In the short film, we hear Nyungar Elder Irene Stainton AO; Traditional Custodians Barbara Hostalek, Marlene Warrell and Gladys Yarran; Wetlands Centre Elder in Residence Marie Taylor; Nyungar Maaman Neville Collard; and Professor Susan Broomhall, Director of the Gender and Women’s History Research Centre at Australian Catholic University.
The podcast features these voices along with Traditional and Cultural Fire Officer Clifton Bieundurry; Whadjuk Nyungar Ballardong Nyungar and cultural fire practitioner Oral McGuire; the Kimberley Land Council’s Sarah Parriman, Jackie Wemyss and Zaripha Barnes; Nyul Nyul rangers Sharon Cox, Helena Williams and Lilian Lawford; Dutch texts read by Dr Arvi Wattel, The University of Western Australia, and producer Gina Pickering.
Yorgas kaala katitje has recently been donated to the State Library’s West Australian heritage collection and is available online through the catalogue.
Executive produced by Professor Susan Broomhall, supported by Australian Catholic University, and written and produced by Gina Pickering from Latitude Creative Services.
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