The Theory/Practice of Disaster Justice: Learning from Indigenous Peoples’ Fire Management

Abstract

Globally, Indigenous peoples have fire management practices which are not necessarily supported by the centralised land management and natural hazard institutions of nation states. This is changing in Australia with the proliferation of engagements between government authorities and Aboriginal fire management leaders. These engagements raise a series of justice issues that critique the separation of environmental and socio-political matters, and the discriminatory positioning of Indigenous peoples and their interests as local. In this chapter, we share the experiences of Aboriginal people that have been shared with us in three places: Central Arnhem Land, the Western Desert and the Australian Capital Territory. The theory/practice of Disaster Justice offers new opportunities to ensure these socio-natural engagements are ‘just’, which requires careful attention to whose values matter, whose knowledge is important and whose political-legal rights and entities are recognised and resourced.