'Fire for Food' place-based training fosters healing on Country

Five years on from the 2019-20 Eastern Victorian bushfires we speak to a local business that champions Aboriginal knowledge and expertise. In East Gippsland, Black Duck Foods runs a program that shares traditional knowledge of fire and land management as a part of caring for Country.

Bruce Pascoe is the founder of Black Duck Foods. 'The 2019–20 bushfires went right through this property, right through the whole district. We had a crop that we were about to harvest, and we lost that crop. But once the fires were over it rained, and within 4 weeks we had a great crop of microlaena. We learned to harvest it and we’re still harvesting it today.'

The 'Fire for Food' program employs a team of local Aboriginal community members. Attendees come from all over the country to learn about the region's traditional food crops and land management practices.

Pascoe says, 'The 'Fire for Food' program enabled us to bring Aboriginal people onto the farm because of a grant of money from Emergency Recovery Victoria. To pay for their travel, accommodation, their food, but it was more important just to have people together...When we come here, we can talk about food production, cultural fire but we can also talk about community and how we heal as a people on Country.'

These sessions offer more than training, they also foster community and healing. Encouraging pride in connection to the land, they help young Aboriginal people to see a future where they can work on and make a living from Country.

'This is our heritage and if we can get our young people to understand that these grasses and these tubers are theirs, and that they can make a living off the old people’s knowledge, then that would be fantastic for us.'

Funding for this program comes from our Aboriginal Culture and Healing Bushfire Recovery Grants. This grants program supports Aboriginal heritage priorities, promotes culturally safe recovery initiatives, and invests in projects that deliver on Aboriginal culture and healing outcomes.

The grants program was established to support Victoria's recovery from the 2019–20 Eastern Victoria bushfires.