Author Identifier (ORCID)
Abstract
How might belonging to Country guide us toward reciprocity, care and renewal in a time of breached planetary boundaries? Drawing on Noongar knowledge and the environmental humanities, this research paper explores how homes, gardens, farms, energy systems and investments are already entangled within Country, inviting a shift from separation to nurture. We propose that ideas around ownership, social mobility, comfort and growth shape suburban identities (including our own) and inhibit regenerative change. Within high-carbon economies such as Australia, ecological limits are often experienced as external constraints on human flourishing. When people recognise themselves as part of Country, however, limits can be understood as conditions for balance and renewal. Fire is an animate power that heals, gathers people, rehabilitates Country, regenerates cultural practice and shapes lifeways. It can also destroy. When tended in the sacred Noongar way, the spirit of fire enlivens Boodja (Country). Using Noongar knowledge alongside the environmental humanities, we offer a practice-oriented regenerative paradigm that shifts education from controlling fire to tending it socially, materially and ecologically. We call for courageous, community-engaged educators who cultivate place-based practice, attentiveness to the more-than-human world, storytelling, kinship and collective action – starting in the midst of trouble and staying with it.
Keywords
animism, cosmography, country, environmental education, environmental humanities, Indigenous knowledge, SDG 13 climate action
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
1-1-2026
E-ISSN
2049775X
ISSN
08140626
Publication Title
Australian Journal of Environmental Education
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
School
Centre for People, Place and Planet
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
First Page
1
Last Page
19
Recommended Citation
Wooltorton, S., Collard, L., & McGuire, O. (2026). Boodja first, Country first: Kaarl Ngaariny , Right Fire. Australian Journal of Environmental Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1017/aee.2026.10205