Abstract
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This article explores the potential impact of training and employment with wildfire
management agencies on the retention of Indigenous fire knowledge. It focuses on
the comparative knowledge and experiences of Indigenous Elders, cultural practitioners,
and land stewards in connection with ‘‘modern’’ political constructs of fire
in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia, and California in the United States
of America. This article emphasises the close link between cross-cultural acceptance,
integration of Indigenous and agency fire cultures, and the ways in which knowledge
types are shared or withheld. While agency fire fighting provides an opportunity for
Indigenous people to connect and care for country, it simultaneously allows for the
breaking of traditional rules surrounding what knowledge is shared with whom in the
context of Indigenous cultural burning. By highlighting how privilege intersects with
ethnicity, class, gender and age, this article demonstrates how greater cross-cultural
acceptance could aid ongoing debates on how to coexist with wildfire today.