An Aboriginal corporation has partnered with the largest holiday park group in New South Wales to conduct a demonstration cultural burn at Scotts Head on the state's Mid North Coast.
The partnership between Yurruungga Aboriginal Corporation, Reflections Holidays and the Rural Fire Service is part of Reflections' second Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), which outlines the organisation's commitment to building opportunities to heal Country within the Crown land reserves in its care alongside Traditional Owners.
Yurruungga Aboriginal Corporation CEO Dean Kelly said the cultural burn on Gumbaynggirr Country was "significant", being the first time the community was able to watch proceedings.
"Scotts Head is a very significant area to us because it connects to our Creation stories," Mr Kelley said.
"We haven't seen this area burnt in a long time and to put fire back on Country is not just about nurturing the biodiversity and ecosystem, it's about honouring our cultural connections.
"During the cultural exchange, we are burning along our songlines, which starts at Guyra at Wattle Ridge, and we are finishing at Scotts Head, where our Creation story comes in."
Mr Kelly said cultural burning honours traditions that were thousands of years old. The location is connected to the Creation story of the Dungiirr brothers, or the Koala Brothers, which touches upon nearby mountain ranges, seas, headland, and area inland.
"The cultural burn is more than just about putting in fire on Country; it's a combined method of cool burning methodologies and indigenous traditional ecological knowledge," he said.
"By using these knowledge systems of Traditional Owners, we can use fire to help revitalise and rejuvenate Country types at appropriate times via appropriate use of fire."
He said the cultural burn provided traditional benefits to Country, as well as modern benefits.
"We are not just burning; it allows us to connect with Country and release stress with our self and emotionally detach from other things that are going on in our world," Mr Kelly said.
Reflections Holidays is a Category One Crown Land Manager which manages 40 holiday parks in New South Wales and cares for 45 community reserves.
The largest holiday park group in NSW, Reflections is a certified social enterprise and reinvests profit back into the holiday parks and reserves in its care.
Reflections CEO Nick Baker said the organisation operated on the land of 12 First Nations peoples. He said the first cultural burn on Country at Scotts Head was significant as Reflections sought to take meaningful action toward reconciliation.
"Reflections manages 40 holiday parks and cares for 45 public reserves spanning more than 10,000 hectares and as a Crown Land manager we regularly partner with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to share and celebrate their culture with our guests to build awareness and respect that moves us towards our vision for reconciliation," Mr Baker said.
"Among the actions in our second Innovate RAP is to identify and seek to partner with Traditional Custodians to develop plans to protect and manage Country within our reserves, and we are seeing this take place at Scotts Head, thanks to the hard work of our Aboriginal Engagement Officer, our staff and the Yurruungga Aboriginal Corporation."
Mr Baker said the Scotts Head cultural burn would inform future cultural burns in some of Reflections other parks across NSW.
"Reflections will continue to support Aboriginal-owned and led organisations to deliver programs on Country that will nurture the skills of Reflections staff in traditional land management practices," he said.
