The air shimmers with heat, the sky turns blood-red. A kangaroo leaps in panic across smoking ground, a house blazing behind it – this image shocked the world. Matthew Abbott’s award-winning photograph from Australia’s Black Summer is more than a snapshot: it’s an omen of climate catastrophe and a call to heed ancient wisdom.

Caption: A kangaroo rushes past a burning house in Lake Conjola. Thousands of locals and holidaymakers were stranded in coastal towns without power, reception, food, or water for days.
Lake Conjola NSW, Australia. Tuesday, 31st December 2019. (Photo courtesy of La Gacilly Baden Foto Festival, all rights reserved by the photographer.)

The Black Summer – An Apocalyptic Fire Season

From 2019 to 2020, Australia burned like never before. 24.3 million hectares of land turned to ash – an area larger than the entire United Kingdom. The toll: over 3,000 homes destroyed, 34 lives lost, and nearly 3 billion animals killed. Koalas clinging to charred trees, kangaroos with scorched paws – the images horrified the world. Yet while scientists clearly linked the fires to climate change, Australia’s government stubbornly denied it. A 2021 Nature study confirmed: climate change doesn’t just increase fires—it makes them more unpredictable.

The Kangaroo and the Burning House – A Symbol with Political Power

Abbott’s World Press Photo-winning image is more than a fleeing animal. It captures a nation torn between climate denial and Indigenous knowledge. While politicians debated, Aboriginal communities already had an answer: controlled fire.

The Firesticks Alliance: Indigenous Knowledge as Salvation

From the ashes of disaster emerged a movement: the Firesticks Alliance, a network of Indigenous firekeepers, scientists, and land managers reviving Cultural Burning. Their philosophy? “Fire is a tool, not just a threat.”

• Preserving Knowledge, Building Bridges: The Alliance documents ancient fire practices and even trains modern firefighters. Their goal? An Australia that relies not just on water bombers, but on prevention through smart fire management.
• Healing Ecosystems and Communities: Many Aboriginal people were once displaced from their lands. Through Cultural Burning, they reclaim not just ecological stewardship—but cultural identity.
• The Proof: In Arnhem Land, areas using Cultural Burning see 80% less intense wildfires, studies show.

Yet progress is slow. Bureaucracy and underfunding still hinder widespread adoption—even as record-breaking fires erupt yearly.

Abbott’s Photography as a Wake-Up Call

Matthew Abbott documents both destruction and resistance. His images show Aboriginal practitioners conducting Cultural Burns, smoke drifting over gently charred land—a counterpoint to the Black Summer’s apocalypse.

His message? The solutions exist. We only need to use them.

What do you think? Should we listen more to Indigenous practices? And why do we resist them? ✍️🔥 #ClimateCrisis #IndigenousKnowledge #LaGacillyBaden

Kurt Lhotzky

(PS: Learn more about the Firesticks Alliance’s project “Right Fire, Right Time, Right Way”—or follow Victor Steffensen, the Indigenous fire activist reviving Cultural Burning in Australia.)