Presenters from the Women’s Roles in Cultural Fire session at the Firesticks Virtual Conference 2020.
In December 2020, the Firesticks Alliance held our first virtual conference with support from the WWF-Australia through the Australian Wildlife & Nature Recovery Fund. The purpose of the virtual conference was to keep connection and momentum growing across Cultural Fire practitioner groups who are unable to gather face-to-face due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The virtual conference was also an important opportunity for communities to provide insights and feedback on the Firesticks Alliance’s next steps.
Click here to access a summary of the Conference, view videos and download the Conference report.
Once it became clear that the 2020 National Indigenous Fire Workshop would be postponed, Firesticks decided to explore virtual event options. Soon after, Indigenous event production company Dreamtime Event Productions approached Firesticks with a new digital event technology that they had developed.
This event interface provides a more interactive experience between conference attendees than a standard digital event. Digital events usually only have a chat box for attendees to type into, whereas Dreamtime Productions’ interface would allows attendees to sit at ‘tables’ with each other, where they can have video conversations, document breakout discussions using digital ‘whiteboards’, as well as type questions to panellists and presenters through a standard chatbox.
Firesticks Alliance would like to thank WWF-Australia for their support in delivering this conference. We would also like to thank other supporting partners- the Aboriginal Carbon Foundation, University of Technology Sydney, Aboriginal Affairs NSW and event producers Dreamtime Event Productions and platform creators Virtual Events for helping make this event happen.
