“Banana Women” Fight Fires, Build PrideIn a small, historic settlement on the far south coast of Australia, a fire brigade created by women provides far more than fire protection. It serves as a focal point for community spirit and self-esteem, and has begun to create a bridge across a deep cultural divide. This past July, its first-ever fire station was officially opened.
The Lake Tyers Aboriginal Volunteer Bushfire Brigade began as the only all-women’s fire brigade in Australia. It is still the only Koori fire brigade in existence, and is still run primarily by women. (“Koori” refers to the Aboriginal people of southeastern Australia.)
Lake Tyers, properly known as Bung Yardna, is located on the coast of the southern Australian state of Victoria. The culture of the land’s traditional owners, the Gunai/Kurnai people, was disrupted by white settlement and by the founding of a mission at Lake Tyers in 1861. (Missions were established by churches with the approval of the government, in tacit support of the missions’ role in socializing Aborigines – particularly the children – into white culture.) The missions were later taken over by the government and converted into reserves (similar to Native American reservations in the U.S.), which it subsequently began to close down, in the expectation that the Koori were dying out. Lake Tyers Reserve remained open, and Koori from many other parts of Victoria were forced to move there.
In 1970, under the state’s new Aboriginal Lands Act, 4000 acres of land along Lake Tyers was returned to the Koori people. Bung Yardna was the first indigenous community in Australia ever to be granted an unconditional freehold title to its own land. Many community members believed, and still believe, the Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust was expected to fail: that whites did not think the Koori capable of managing a viable community.
Thirty years later, Bung Yardna was still alive and well, and home to some 200 people. One of its members, a woman named Charmaine Sellings, grew concerned over the threat of wildfire to her community. Located on an isolated, exposed peninsula, the settlement has just one road in and out, and could easily be cut off by fire. Two-thirds of the land is heavily vegetated with brush and old-growth trees, and dissected by creeks and gullies.
About six years ago, arson began to increase the fire risk. As Sellings put it, “some local boys got a bit bored” and started setting fires in the bush. With the closest fire station fifteen to twenty minutes away, the fires easily spread beyond Bung Yardna’s borders, causing friction with the white landowners as well as straining relations with the Country Fire Authority crews.
SIDEBAR[Country Fire Authority, or CFA, is one of the largest volunteer-based fire agencies in the world, with some 58,000 volunteer members, 400+ career firefighters, and more than 700 career support and administrative staff. More than 1100 CFA brigades across Victoria protect the lives, property, and environment of 2.5 million people.]
As Sellings described it, “The CFA in Lakes Entrance and Toorloo Arm was complaining about it, because they were coming out all night. The last major fire we had through drunks walking along the road, it cost close to $15,000 for damages.”
Sellings approached one of the community’s leaders, Margie Mobourne, and convinced her that Bung Yardna needed its own fire brigade. Together, starting with nothing but a need and an idea, Mobourne and Sellings created the Lake Tyers brigade. Mobourne lobbied community members for their buy-in, while Sellings approached CFA authorities at the local headquarters in Bairnsdale for their approval and support. Sellings said, “We had no shovels. We had no rakes. Bairnsdale donated a lot... CFA provided not only shovels and rakes, but also two slip-on pumps, protective gear, and training.”
By late 2001, eight women had been recruited to the new brigade; no men were interested. The brigade consisted of Mobourne, Sellings (who became its captain), Rhonda Thorpe, Kylie and Janie Proctor, Nina Mullett, and two Donna Mobournes (mother and daughter). Within six months, all of them had completed their minimum skills training, which allowed them to participate in active firefighting. Since then, they have fought fires on their own land and on a mutual-aid basis, as well as participating in training with other agencies as far away as Melbourne.
The positive effects of the brigade go well beyond its fire protection and fire prevention work. The brigade has enhanced self-esteem among its members. It has shown how a community effort can succeed in creating something of value to itself and its neighbors. It has made Koori women visible in doing work that is typically associated with white men. And it is seen as true example of reconciliation in a country and region that continues to struggle with racial tensions.
Mobourne said, “When we finally got our crew together... blokes were having a go at us because it was just women... They were calling us ‘banana women’ because we were all dressed up in the (yellow) outfits. But that's fine. We kept saying to them, ‘Well, don't criticize us. Join us.’ So now we're starting to get more people on, because they are seeing a need for it, for the protection of their bush, their land and our land. And it's for our generations.”
Donna Kennedy, a newer member of the brigade, said of her participation, “I feel good! Like, you know, go, women! There's no men on it. Like, they’re not in control for the first time. It's finally us women that get to... you know, we’re the banana girls, you know, that get to go and put them fires out.”
On July 26, 2006, five years after it was founded, the Lake Tyers brigade got its fire station. Police & Emergency Services Minister Tim Holding attended the dedication of the new building, and said, “Members of the Lake Tyers Trust Fire Brigade have shown dedication to their own, as well as surrounding, communities over the past five years by providing fire education, prevention and suppression services... On behalf of the government, I congratulate all involved for their commitment and enthusiasm.”
Sellings observed, “Before we started the CFA crew, there was a lot of racism, a lot of animosity. It wasn’t only a problem with them. It was from us, too. We had no self-esteem. We had no confidence. Now... we've got the self-esteem, we know how to talk up. We don't have the problems with racism. It's been fantastic in a lot of ways.”
Reconciliation is a movement that aims at building respectful, positive relationships between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. It focuses on recognition, justice, and healing: recognition of Aboriginal traditions and respect for their cultures; justice to remedy the legacy of disadvantage created in the past; and healing by promoting improved relationships and communication between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. More information is available at www.reconciliation.org.au.
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