Tabetha and Estella
Nadjamerrek, who are
cousins, fling heavy-
duty matches, igniting
small brush fires that
will burn out on their
own. Comfortable
with fire, Aboriginal
people use it in many
aspects of their culture,
including hunting and
traditional ceremonies.early November, near a place
called Deaf Adder Gorge on the western edge
of the Warddeken Indigenous Protected Area.
Northern Australia’s tropical heat pummels
Arijay Nabarlambarl as he jumps out of a helicop-
ter and strides toward a fire. Low and snaking,
the flames have scorched the bone-dry wetlands,
leaving singed earth and black-socked paperbark
trees. The 25-year-old falls in behind two other
rangers, and a symphony of leaf blowers drowns
out the crackle of fire. The trio methodically
walks the perimeter, blasting leaf litter from the
edges back onto the fire to keep it from spreading.
They’re one of three groups of Indigenous
rangers in this remote pocket of Arnhem Land,
about 160 miles east of Darwin, fighting a
late-season wildfire, triggered by lightning, that
has fingered off in several directions. In some
patches the flames leap in tall spinifex grasses;
in others they creep shin-high into the crevices
of sandstone formations.
Nabarlambarl pauses to assess his section of
the blaze. He’s been a ranger since he finished
high school; the job gave him a chance to move
from the town where he was educated back to
his ancestral land. In the eight years since, he’s
learned the fire stories from his elders, stories
that span the tens of thousands of years his
people have inhabited the land. He kicks at
smoldering bark from the bottom of a tree, pre-
venting the fire from gripping it. “It’s looking
good because of the early burn and the creek
nearby,” he explains. Nabarlambarl wipes his
brow and gazes through the smoke. The land
is home to a host of endemic and threatened
species, including the black wallaroo, the north-
ern quoll, and the white-throated grasswren. It
brims with stunning waterfalls, rock formations,IT’S
FIRST
LIGHT,
80 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC