Oliver Costello

Oliver Costello, from Bundjalung Jagun country, NSW, is the co-founder and CEO of Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation, an Indigenous led network which aims to re-invigorate the use of cultural burning by facilitating cultural learning pathways to fire and land management. Costello believes strongly in the role of Aboriginal culture as a keystone to maintaining livelihoods, supporting identity, connecting to country and enabling healthy and regenerative communities to do the same.

For the world to see the imagery of the fires, it's a wake up call. The fires were just a really intense physical expression of the environment saying, ‘if you don't look after country, there's more of this to come,’ but with government around, how do we build community empowerment so that people that are affected by the impacts are actually in a position to make change?

My name is Oliver Costello. I'm from Bundjalung country. I was born in Byron Bay and I grew up in the Northern Rivers in New South Wales. I’m currently the CEO of the Firesticks Alliance and a Founding Director of the Firesticks Community of Practice, which has really been pivotal in raising awareness around cultural fire management in South-Eastern Australia.

The fires had quite a profound impact on me for lots of different reasons and lots of people that I'm connected to across communities. Aboriginal values, lives, and property have been impacted. Elders and community members lost homes that burned down. What makes it harder is that they have knowledge. They know that fire is not being looked after properly in the landscape and they have a cultural responsibility and connection. So it's not just sadness about the impact, there's also frustration around colonization, dispossession, marginalization. There's so much impact on us through colonization as a stark reminder that we are not empowered to manage our country.

We are seeing the impact on us where Aboriginal communities are the most disadvantaged. A lot of the Aboriginal communities were segregated through assimilation and colonization practices so that we were in camps nearby. Because you weren't allowed to live in town and they're often in the bush, highly susceptible to fire.