No. 54, November/December 2003Fire Ecology I

Women who hunt with fire: Aboriginal resource use and fireregimes in Australia's Western Desert

by Douglas W. Bird, Rebecca Bliege Bird, and Christopher H. Parker

"People haveparticipated in thedynamic mosaic ofAustralia's desert for atleast thirtymillennia...Research fordeveloping fire and landmanagement policiesmust recognize this witha focus on Aboriginalburning and subsistencepractices."

IntroductionMardu AboriginesEthnographic fieldworkMardu hunting and burning strategiesSome broader implicationsAcknowledgementsReferencesAuthor informationAdditional web resources

Introduction

(Back to top)A significant component of Australia's biotic web has been shaped by Aboriginalfiring practices. Moderate, regular burning decreases potential for devastatinglylarge wildfires, increases plant species richness, and has an important effect onfaunal populations (Allan and Southgate 2002; Allan and Barker 1990; Bolton andLatz 1978; Bowman 2000; Bradstock, Williams and Gill 2002; Burrows andChristensen 1990; Griffin 1992; Haydon, Friar and Pianka 2000a, 2000b; Latz1996; Lundie-Jenkins 1993; Southgate et al. 1997). Long periods withoutanthropogenic fire lead to dramatic landscape changes. Between 1953 and 1981, inthe Western Desert's eastern part, Aboriginal occupants began to congregate onmission settlements and pastoral stations at the desert's margins. During this timeregular fire treatment ceased. Burrows et al. (2000) have shown from aerialphotographs covering a 250,000 ha sample of the Western Desert, that in 1953there were 846 measurable fire footprints, while in 1981 there were only 4;moreover, in 1953 the mean burnt patch size was 64 ha compared to 52,644 ha in1981. The desert had been transformed from a high diversity patchwork to a sea ofspinifex grass interspersed with massive burns.

The diverse mosaics resulting from regular fire disturbance in arid Australia oftenattract bustard (Eupodotis australis), emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae), eurokangaroo (Macropus robustus), and plains kangaroo (Macropus rufa). These arefrequently the focus of men's traditional hunting; so, many researchers have arguedthat Aboriginal burning strategies and beliefs are designed to increase men'shunting success (Bowman 1998; Bowman and Robinson 2002; Burbidge et al.1988; Burbidge and McKenzie 1989; Gould 1971; Horton 1982; Jones 1969, 1975,1980; Kimber 1983; Russell-Smith et al. 1997; Yibarbuk et al. 2001). However,

women's roles in using and benefiting from burning have generally remainedunexplored (but see Walsh 1990, Latz and Griffin 1978 for discussion of plant useand fire). Among the Mardu Aborigines of the Western Desert, women huntregularly, but differently from men. Over the last few years we have beeninvestigating these differences and their relationship to Mardu burning practices. Itis now clear that developing effective and pragmatic fire policy for this region willrequire understanding of Aboriginal women's subsistence goals and increasedcollaboration with the desert's traditional owners.

Mardu Aborigines

Link to Fig. 1, ~ 14K

(Back to top)The term Mardu (or Martu in many current orthographies) conventionally refers totraditional owners of estates surrounding Lake Disappointment, the Rudall River,and the Percival Lakes in the northwest section of the Western Desert (Figure 1;Tonkinson 1974, 1991; Walsh 1990). Today, the Mardu (about eight hundredpeople) are primarily speakers of Manyjilyjarra and Kartujarra dialects.

While limited contact between Mardu and Europeans began in the early 1900s,many families, especially from the easternmost Mardu territory, had no such directcontact until the mid-1960s. Throughout the 1960's, prolonged drought andcontinuing depopulation drew the Mardu into Jigalong (an early government depotand mission) and neighboring pastoral stations (Tonkinson 1974). While manyMardu stayed in European settlements, by the mid-1980's many families (mostlythose that were the last to leave the desert) returned permanently to their deserthomeland. By 1986 they had established two permanent "Outstation" camps(Punmu and Parnngurr) in the newly designated Rudall River National Park;another Outstation at Kunawarritji, Well 33 on the Canning Stock Route, soonfollowed (Tonkinson 1991: 174-178).

Especially for the Parnngurr families (a core population of about 100), returning tothe desert meant returning to a hunting and gathering economy (Walsh 1990; Vethand Walsh 1988). While wild foods are somewhat less important today, foragingtrips to "dinner-time camps" within 50 km of Parnngurr occur almost daily, andextended camps to more distant locales are common, especially during the cool-dryseason or Wandajarra (May - August).

Since 2000, our time with the Mardu has been spent mostly in Parnngurr and onextended camps away from the Outstations. Foraging locales are usually accessedby vehicle, then women and children hunt and gather on foot with digging sticks(wana), while men often utilize vehicles and small-gauge rifles. On average, 25 to50% of the total diet comes from bush foods; on foraging days these comprise 80%of the diet per participant (Bliege Bird and Bird, in press).

Ethnographic fieldwork

(Back to top)Thus far our analysis covers 422 forager-days in the cool-dry season. Duringextended camps we conducted daily, detailed, focal-individual foraging follows:each researcher asked permission to accompany a camp member throughout the

day and recorded the time a forager spent traveling to and from a foraging locale,searching for a range of potential resources, tracking a particular prey item,capturing a particular item, and field processing. We then recorded the weight ofeach animal captured, the parcel harvested, and the total weight of the day's catchby resource type. A total of 252 adult focal follows (165 women, 87 men,consisting of 33 different individuals) are used in the analysis below (for children'sforaging see Bird and Bliege Bird, in press). Energy values are from publishedsources analyzing Aboriginal food composition (Miller, James and Maggiore1993). As used below, foraging efficiency (kcal/foraging-hr) is measured as thegross edible energy gained per focal individual follow, divided by total time spentin search, tracking, and capture.

Burning regimes and habitat mosaic

Mardu landscapes unburned for longer than about five years are dominated by(>80%) old growth spinifex grass (Trodia spp.) with characteristic "donut" shapedhummocks (Latz 1996:10). Mardu systematically fire older growth spinifex,especially during Wandajarra season. Following a fire, the proportion of visiblespinifex is reduced to nearly zero; any subsequent rain dramatically increases plantdiversity (e.g. Solanum, Eragostis, Dysphania, Trichodesma, and Evolvulus). Tocharacterize habitat mosaics and burn regimes we chose a straight two-km transectin a random direction from each camp. A researcher walked the transect, notinghow often they passed from one patch of regrowth to another. Fine-grainedmosaics around camps are those in which a researcher passed into three or moretypes of regrowth patches on a single transect. Such mosaics result from moderate,regular anthropogenic burns. Medium-grained mosaics around camps are those inwhich a researcher passed into two patches of regrowth on a transect. Thesemosaics result from larger fires (some greater than 20 km2), usually at intervals >5years but <10 years. Coarse-grained mosaics around camps are dominated by asingle patch: either old-growth spinifex (>5 years old) over a very large area, or arecent very large burn (>50 km2) (Haydon et al. 2000a), where researchers nevercrossed into another stage of regrowth over a two-km transect.

Mardu hunting and burning strategies

(Back to top)Especially in fine-grained mosaics, Mardu often encounter and collect a wide arrayof fruits (especially Solanum spp.), roots and tubers (Vigna lanceolata and Cyperusbulbosus), larvae (Cossid spp.), nectar (primarily Grevillea eriostachya), and grass,shrub, and tree seeds (especially Eragrostis eriopoda and Acacia spp.) (Tonkinson1991; Veth and Walsh 1988; Walsh 1990). Analyses of these other aspects ofMardu foraging are currently underway. So far our focus is on differences betweenthe major Wandajarra "hunt types": wana hunting for burrowed game and gunhunting for large game.

Wana hunting

Mardu hunt for burrowed game on foot with a wana (a wooden or iron diggingstick) exclusively in sandplains and dunes. During Wandajarra season these huntsalmost always incorporate burning of spinifex savanna to clear the overburden andfacilitate the lengthy search for tracks and dens. Wana hunters search mostly for

sand goanna lizards (Veranus gouldii), but also python (Aspidites spp), skink(Tiliqua multifasciata), ridge tailed goanna (Veranus acanthurus) and feral cat(Felis silvestris) (Bliege Bird and Bird, in press). Burning is highly systematic: thesize of the fire line and resulting burned patch (nyurnma) depend on wind velocity,accumulated fuels, and surrounding firebreaks (primarily neighboring patchesburned within the last 2-3 years). Hunters ignite a line of dry spinifex by flickingmatches or dabbing a fire-stick into hummocks as they walk along. Upon ignitionof a fire line, a hunter immediately begins searching for tracks and fresh denswithin the nyurnma, often following along just behind the advancing flames.Ideally these nyurnma are about 5 km2. Generally each hunter will light his or herown line and search independently, although hunters often signal each other inmanaging their burns and cooperate to extract burrowed prey. Such huntingrequires tremendous skill: highly specialized cues are used to determine thefreshness of tracks and detailed knowledge is require to detect and probe for anoccupied den.

Gun hunting

While spears and spear-throwers are still ritually important (and occasionallyemployed during hunts), Mardu now commonly use small-gauge rifles. Gunhunting focuses on larger, more mobile game, typically incorporating long-rangesearch (by vehicle and foot) across widely varying habitats for larger prey,especially bustard (Eupodotis australis), euro kangaroo (Macropus robustus), plainskangaroo (Macropus rufa), emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae), and perenti lizards(Veranus giganteus) (Bliege Bird and Bird in press). Feral cats, although small, arealso typical targets because of their mobility. Tracking often involves pursuing ananimal over long distances, sometimes for several days. Some larger animals areattracted to recent burns or the new vegetation that follows, but burning is notgenerally used for gun hunting: it can reduce cover and increase the probability ofhunters being detected. Mardu do sometimes burn during these hunts, but usuallyto flush game or simply "clean up the country."

During the cool-dry Wandajarra of this study, women and men spent equalamounts of time hunting (i.e. searching, tracking, and capturing game animals) butallocated their time quite differently to different types of hunting. On average,women spent 180 minutes per forager-day wana hunting, and only 10 minutes gunhunting. Conversely, men spent an average of 108 minutes per forager-day gunhunting, and only 83 minutes wana hunting.

Burning and hunting efficiency

Much discussion about Aboriginal fire use has focused on its benefits in men'shunting, but gun hunters did not significantly increase their foraging efficiency byburning. On average they obtained about 2300 kcal/foraging-hr whether or not theyburned. However, firing the spinifex savanna immediately and significantlyimproved women's wana hunting efficiency: with burning, wana hunting produced575 kcal/foraging-hr, while without burning it produced only 409 kcal/hr. Also,while gun hunting is associated with higher average efficiency, gun hunters failedto capture prey on 68% of the focal follows; wana hunters failed on only 3% of thefollows. Thus, on any given day wana hunting is more predictably efficient thangun hunting.

Habitat mosaic and hunting efficiency

If the vegetative mosaic that results from regular burning influences the predictabledistribution and abundance of indigenous animals, it should also affect huntingefficiency (Yibarbuk et al. 2001). However, our results do not show mosaic grainsignificantly affecting gun hunting efficiency: gun hunters obtained their lowesthunting returns in fine-grained mosaics (1175 kcal/foraging-hr) and their highestreturns in both medium (2059 kcal/foraging-hr) and coarse-grained mosaics (2701kcal/foraging-hr). The opposite pattern was observed for wana hunting, where ourdata indicate highest returns in fine-grained mosaics (656 kcal/foraging-hr),significantly lower returns in medium-grained mosaics (480 kcal/foraging-hr), andlower returns still in coarse-grained habitats with long fire intervals (246kcal/foraging-hr).

Some broader implications

(Back to top)Our study strongly suggests that moderate, regular burning is important to Marduwomen's hunting success. Women focus on tracking and digging for burrowedgame, an activity immediately facilitated by firing tracts of old-growth spinifexgrass. As such, women failed to burn only when hunting near ritual sites thatproscribe burning or when not within their own estates (Tonkinson 1991). We candetect no such effect on men's gun hunting: given the variability in efficiency,men's return rates while hunting for mobile game did not change with burning.

While the immediate benefits of burning while hunting burrowed game are evident,the long-term relationship between hunting efficiency and habitat mosaic is lessclear. Thus far our measure of habitat mosaicis rough; nevertheless, at the coarse-grained end of the continuum, the results are intriguing. In these habitats huntersspent all of their time in either old-growth spinifex or large-scale recent burns withlittle or no regrowth. There, women experienced significantly lower return ratesthan in fine-grained mosaics. These patterns were not observed for men's hunting.While a 'patchier' environment from moderate burning might tend to attract larger,mobile game more predictably to certain patches at certain times of the year, thepotential benefits of this predictability to men's hunting efficiency are negated bysuch game's ability to traverse numerous patches at will. Thus, the influence ofburning and habitat mosaics on mobile game populations are difficult to detect.

Land management and threatened species

Our study was not specifically designed to test the more general hypothesis thatburning is a land management strategy designed to prevent or mitigate resourcedepletion, species extirpation, or habitat degradation (Smith and Wishnie 2000:501,see also Alvard 1998). Because Mardu burning is often associated with increasingimmediate hunting returns, it is quite possibly not intended as a land managementstrategy at all, and long-term effects are only incidental. However, somecircumstantial evidence suggests that certain aspects of Mardu burning strategiesmight be linked to longer-term goals. We have thus far only measured the long-term benefits gained from hunting: many collected plant foods have very highenergetic return rates, which should peak one to two years after an area has been

burned (Latz and Griffin 1978; Walsh 1990). Thus, hunters may see a small benefitimmediately after burning but even larger, more general benefits in the future. Buthow do individuals solve the collective action problems created by a rather open-access land tenure system that allows those that didn't burn access to a managedlandscape? The immediate economic incentives provided to small-game huntersmay serve to eliminate such problems: free-riding non-burners simply may not beable to find enough burned area to hunt when burns are small and hunters cansearch them entirely. Furthermore, for men especially, burning may provide moresocial than economic capital, as a signal and index of land ownership, an aestheticinterpretation of homeland, and an expression of ritual, linking past and futureevents (Bradley 1994; Bright 1994; Dayani et al. 2002; Gould 1971; Press 1994;Rose 1994, 1995; Yibarbuk et al. 2001).

The Mardu data may also be relevant for current debates about causes of localextinctions and population declines in small- to medium-sized marsupialsthroughout Australia's deserts. Mardu hunters say such populations collapsed afterthe human exodus from the desert--whether due to introduced fauna (Morton 1990;Short and Turner 1994) or changes in burning regimes is unknown. But majordeclines in smaller sized marsupial populations seem to be coincident with humans'departure from the desert, not with introductions of nonindigenous species. Giventhe evidence of extreme changes in fire ecology in the Western Desert followingAboriginal exodus (Burrows, Burbidge and Fuller, in press), we might hypothesizethat anthropogenic fire is an important factor in maintaining small- to medium-sized marsupial populations (as defined by Bolton and Latz 1978, Burbidge andMcKenzie 1989), and that this is primarily due to short-term hunting goalsmaintained by burning. If so, formal policies to encourage traditional burningpractices may help protect a host of threatened and endangered marsupials.

The issue of policy development

People have participated in the dynamic mosaic of Australia's desert for at leastthirty millennia (Kershaw et al. 2002; O'Connell and Allen 1998). Research fordeveloping fire and land management policies must recognize this with a focus onAboriginal burning and subsistence practices. Effective fire and land managementin this region will fail along most fronts without incorporating Mardu participationand objectives. This will require a broad anthropological and ecological approach,building from within communities toward a better understanding of the dynamicfactors that influence burning strategies and their consequences. The Mardu datashow that even within a single community, different people face different tradeoffsrelative to their subsistence and burning purposes: women's immediate huntingreturns are closely linked to burning practices. If burning is also related to long-term land management strategy, it is apparently not designed to enhance men'ssuccess hunting large game but instead relates to diversity of key small animal andplant species. Thus, incorporating women's hunting goals into fire policy will becritical for current conservation efforts in the Western Desert. This is more thannecessary for developing operative policy: it will also provide an opportunity forcooperation between land management agencies and remote Aboriginalcommunities that retain their traditional skills and knowledge associated withburning and subsistence.

Acknowledgements

(Back to top)This work has been funded generously by grants from the National ScienceFoundation (BCS-0127681 and BCS-0075289) and the LSB Leakey Foundation.We wish to thank Jim O'Connell, Eric Smith, Doug Bird Sr., Neil Burrows, SueDavenport, Peter Kendrick, Kristen Hawkes, and Debbie Bird Rose for discussionand comments related to Aboriginal burning. We owe special thanks to BobTonkinson and Peter Veth for their help in establishing our Western Desertresearch. Most of all, we are indebted to all of the Mardu from Parnngurr, Punmu,and Kunawarritji for their friendship, tolerance, good humor and tutelage.

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Author information

(Back to top)

Douglas Bird (corresponding author, email: douglas.bird@umit.maine.edu), is a Research AssistantProfessor at the Climate Change Institute and Department of Anthropology, University of Maine; RebeccaBliege Bird is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology, University of Maine. Both can bereached at:Department of AnthropologyUniversity of Maine5773 South Stevens HallOrono ME 04469-5773USA

Christopher H. Parker is a Ph.D. candidate at the Departmant of Anthropology, University of Utah. He canbe reached at:Department of Anthropology207 S. 1400 E.University of UtahSalt Lake City, UT 84112

USA

Additional web resources

(Back to top)Australian Fire Regimes: Contemporary Patterns (April 1998 - March 2000) and Changes SinceEuropean Settlementhttp://www.deh.gov.au/soe/techpapers/fire/index.htmlFrom the Australian government's Department of the Environment and Heritage, this series of technicalpapers (not focused on the Mardu) address three related issues concerning the description and ecologicalimpact of fires and, more pointedly, fire regimes, in Australia: the assessment of contemporary fire patternsat a continental-scale using satellite imagery; the reliability of the continental-scale fire map data; andecological assessment of the impacts of current fire regimes in three broad Australian landscapes.

Fire as an Aboriginal Management Tool in South-Eastern Australiahttp://www.csu.edu.au/special/bushfire99/papers/gott/This paper about traditional Aboriginal fire use in the dry forests of southeastern Australia was delivered atthe Australian Bushfire Conference, 1999. While it focuses on historical observations rather than currentdata, it also supports the notion that traditional Aboriginal fire practices are a potentially important tool forconservation of biodiversity.

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