麻豆社

In the forests surrounding Biamanga, a sacred mountain for the Yuin people of south-eastern Australia, traditional indigenous fire practitioners are preparing to bring fire back into the landscape.

Not the raging fires that threatened to destroy it in the deadly Black Summer bushfires of 2019, but cool fires that will help protect and revitalise the land and help restore habitat for the elusive population of koalas who have survived in this forest against the toughest of odds.

The practice of cultural burning has been revived in recent decades to help heal the land after wildfire, drought and mismanagement. And we will walk back in time to understand how the long fight for Aboriginal land rights, decades of environmental activism and the discovery of koalas came together to save this forest for future generations.

(Photo: Cultural fire practitioner Dan Morgan watches a burn. Credit: Vanessa Milton)

Shifting Cultures is a 麻豆社 World Service and ABC co-production.