After last summer’s bushfires left Mogo, NSW devastated, Yuin man Keith swung into action, helping set up a relief and recovery hub at the Boomerang centre, run by Aboriginal people providing relief and distribution of goods to help the wider community.
“We had the Islamic community, Red Cross, a number of people come and support us. We couldn’t have done it by ourselves. Thank you to the Red Cross for coming to our assistance, our aid.”
Keith was also able to apply for a Red Cross emergency grant that helped him replace the things he lost in the fires, such as bedding and machinery.
Moving forward, Keith’s hope is that Aboriginal knowledge of country and practices such as cultural burning will stop another catastrophe like this from happening again.
“Cultural burning if it is allowed serves a lot of purposes. Birds, witchetty grubs, kangaroos, possums, bilbies. If we’re allowed to do our cultural burns at the right time, when we see suitable, all those things could be reserved.”