Illuminated by Fire

Screen content developed for presentation of Illuminated by Fire at Federation Square, Melbourne, as part of the Light in Winter festival, 29 June - 3 July 2011.

Lennie Hayes relates the dreamtime story of how the fire finch first brought fire to the Kurnai / Gunai people of Gippsland in eastern Victoria.

Kevin Tolhurst has spent thirty years studying the role, impact and management of fire in the Victorian environment. In the Wombat Forest, 100 kms north-west of Melbourne, he reflects on the need to appreciate fire as a defining force and presence and to develop a stronger knowledge of the environments in which we live.

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Lance Robilliard is a man who knows how to describe fire. Here, burning off an old tree felled by a storm, he provides a running commentary on the progress and behaviour of the fire as it builds in the wind. (As Lance says, don’t try this in your backyard at home!)

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The small town of Flowerdale, about 80 kms north-east of Melbourne, was decimated by the bushfires that swept through much of Victoria on 7 February 2009. In undertaking the long process of rebuilding and recovery at least eighty Flowerdale residents have been tattooed with the same image of renewal, a blackened tree with one new, green leaf. Here, Flowerdale locals Odette Hunter and Josie Cubley and tattoo artist Olivia Brumen relate this unlikely story of community healing.

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Bruce Baxter is an Aboriginal man of Wiradjuri descent, living near Swan Hill in northern Victoria. For many years Bruce has performed smoking ceremonies intended to cleanse the spirit of people and places. Here, Bruce tells how he came to be a “keeper of the smoke” and explains why he performs these ceremonies.

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Phillip Wierzbowski spent ten years building a house in the bush just outside Healsville, east of Melbourne. In February 2009, while he was away overseas, bushfire destroyed the house and all his possessions. Here, Phillip contemplates the cost of living in a place where fire has always been a part of the natural environment.

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Dianne Simmonds is captain of the Country Fire Authority at Christmas Hills on the outskirts of Melbourne. Like many other locals, she moved to this area attracted by the bush and the semi-rural lifestyle. She understands however that bushfire is an ever-present hazard. Here, she weighs up the risks associated with making a home in this kind of environment.

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Lance Robilliard has lived and worked all his life on a dairy farm near Camperdown in western Victoria. Fire has always been a part of the toolbox he uses to manage things on the farm. Here, he reflects on the knowledge required to work safely with fire and laments the fact that, today, many people seem to have lost this knowledge.

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 Do the cremated ashes of a loved one retain some essence of the departed person? And what are the responsibilities of a bereaved custodian in dealing with these ashes? Here, Mary Smith contemplates the substance and meaning of the ashes of her deceased parents. Is the elaborate vessel she had crafted for her mother’s ashes capable of containing all of the associated spirit and emotions?

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