Awakabal Country | Credit: Saskia Wilson
Footprints
We partner with Traditional Owners, community groups and land holders to restore the health of Country and people through Indigenous land management practices. This collaborative work delivers diverse outcomes, from boosting community resilience and agricultural profitability to creating employment and revitalising koala habitats. It demonstrates what can be achieved when communities determine the way forward. Explore some of the work we’ve achieved with our partners.
Kaurna Caring for Country on the Adelaide Plains
Since 2023, Firesticks has worked alongside
Kaurna Elders and practitioners to re-establish
Cultural Fire on the Adelaide Plains, supporting
the creation of the Kaurna Fire Team and
long-term agreements that protect Kaurna
Intellectual and Cultural Property. Together,
they have delivered on-Country training and
burns, cultural mapping, vegetation and soil
monitoring, and youth engagement activities
that embed Traditional Knowledge in local
land management.
This work is centred on places of deep cultural
significance, including Kauwi-marnirla ‘Place of
Two Good Waters’, where Elders and practitioners
are leading a long-term commitment to restoring
Country through Kaurna-led Fire and Land
Management. Guided by Elders and supported
by the growing Kaurna Fire Team, the work brings
together Traditional Fire Knowledge, ecological monitoring, and language and cultural renewal
to strengthen Community connections and the
health of the landscape.
This year, the Kaurna Fire Team have nurtured
critical partnerships with National Parks and
Wildlife, Green Adelaide and AGL as they work
towards self-autonomy. A key part of this work
is the development of the first Kaurna Cultural
Fire Strategy to guide how fire is used to care
for Country across the Adelaide region.
These initiatives are creating employment
pathways, supporting Kaurna-owned businesses
and land management crews to lead restoration
and fire work on their own terms, and ensuring
cultural authority drives the care and renewal
of Kaurna landscapes.
Image: Uncle Jeffrey Newchurch
on Kaurna Country | Credit: City of Adelaide.
“I look forward to bringing our Old Peoples ways and knowledges of caring for Country back into our landscape to heal and restore Country for a healthier future for us, our children and our children’s children.”
Quahli Newchurch
Kaurna Community Coordinator
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