S8 Ep266: INDIGENOUS FIRE MANAGEMENT AND THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN WILDFIRES Colleague Danielle Clode. In this interview, Danielle Clode discusses the historical context of Australian wildfires, noting that early European explorers like Captain Cook frequently obse

INDIGENOUS FIRE MANAGEMENT AND THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN WILDFIRES Colleague Danielle Clode. In this interview, Danielle Clode discusses the historical context of Australian wildfires, noting that early European explorers like Captain Cook frequently observed fires along the coast, which they often viewed merely as signs of habitation. Clode explains that Indigenous Australians practiced "fire stick farming" for over 60,000 years, using fire as a sophisticated tool for hunting, signaling, and vegetation management—a nuance missed by early settlers who used fire indiscriminately to clear land. The segment highlights the difference between indigenous land management, which created park-like forests, and the catastrophic fires that have occurred since colonization, such as the "Black Thursday" fires of 1851. NUMBER 1