The closest word to ‘bushfire’ is muttwich, but that refers to fires made by lightning strikes or volcanoes. He knows words for smoke signals and words describing the burning of grass to entrap birds. But to Wright, claims that First Australians intentionally incinerated large tracts of land ‘seem pretty implausible’. In some localities, the ‘absence of words to describe burning bush casts a large question mark’ around whitefella claims about blackfella land management.
