After weeks of rain, and a few postponed starts, Batemans Bay High School was finally able to hold a much anticipated cultural burn in its Indigenous garden on Wednesday, May 22.
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Indigenous students, teachers from the Indigenous learning centre and community elders came together for the burn under the guidance of Andrew White from the Local Land Council's Walbunja Rangers.
The Walbunja Rangers have worked with the Indigenous students of the school in the past, with six students achieving their Certificate III in Indigenous Land Management under a program led by Andrew in 2022.
Last term, six boys did work experience with the Walbunja Rangers and this term a group of girls would do the same.
In another local collaboration, elders from Batemans Bay through to Mogo have been visiting the school, on a weekly basis, for interaction and support for the school's Indigenous community since mid-2023.
Some of the elders are grandparents of current students, but for other students it is rare interaction with their cultural elders.
From yoga, to cooking, from designing a shirt to cultural burns, principal Paula Brennan said it was all about building relationships.
"They visit every Wednesday, and every week they do something different," she said.
"The next thing they are going to work on is a literacy through the generations program - so tell a story to the students, who will write it down and then the art class will illustrate it.
"Then they will make it into a book of stories."
Sitting in the dazzling winter sun on the day, the elders watched as a group of boys and Andrew took turns spinning a stick between the palms of their hands to create an ember in the cut out hole of the piece of timber below.
After 15 minutes of concerted effort by the team, the ember was produced and quickly added to a pile of downy wood and then to the fire pit in the yarning circle to create a solid fire.
A welcome to country was performed by Aunty Muriel.
From here an elder and a student lit torches to the first designated burn site. Women were traditionally heavily involved in cultural burns, so appropriately Elder Loretta Parsley and student Jemima Davis undertook this duty.
Andrew explained the process.
"An elder with a young person put the fire on ground - so it's a gesture of knowledge sharing that way from our elders to our youth, transition of knowledge," he said.
"Then we will work in little patches. We'll let one burn and then another."
Starting with a small overgrown area below taller trees, the fire quickly took hold, and despite recent rains, the undergrowth appeared thirsty for the fire.
The students enthusiastically joined in with makeshift fire torches spreading the fire around the bed beneath the trees, igniting the undergrowth and adding bits of debris.
As the first fire bed died out, another was lit and so the burn continued.
Craig Mashman and his team from Batemans Bay Fire and Rescue were on hand with a truck. He said that cultural burns "are another tool in the belt for land management practices".
The Indigenous garden, cleansed and renewed, will serve many purposes for the school. The newly constructed yarning circle will provide an opportunity for all students to enjoy some peace, or interaction away from the hustle of the playground.
It will also serve as an outdoor classroom and learning space.
