1st Edition

The Fire Commons Cultural Burning as Multispecies Practice

By Marcus Baynes-Rock Copyright 2026
184 Pages 16 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

184 Pages 16 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book explores the multispecies dimensions of First Nations burning practices and shows how these integrate with Aboriginal ontologies to resist the ideological and structural violence of colonization. Under the shadow of climate-driven catastrophes, cultural burning is undergoing a resurgence as a tradition-based remedy to contemporary ecological breakdown. However, while colonial states... Read more

1 Re-Storying as Method in Multispecies Studies
2 Digging Mammals and Fire Ecologies in Australian Landscapes
3 Contemporary Cultural Burning Grounded in Tradition
4 Macropods and Lizards Compelling People to Burn
5 A Question of More-than-Human Agency
6 Birds Altering Landscapes beyond the Fire Lines
7 Cultural Burning versus Colonial Unmaking

Biography

Marcus Baynes-Rock is an anthropologist who studies the cultural interfaces of humans and other animals. His first book, Among the Bone Eaters, is a narrative of intersubjectivity with urban hyenas in the town of Harar, Ethiopia. His second book, Crocodile Undone, is a critical examination of the domestication of native animals in Australia. His writing deploys critiques of modernity and capitalism in order to arrest the unmaking of the Earth.