Victor Steffensen is an Indigenous writer, filmmaker, musician and consultant applying traditional knowledge values in a contemporary context through creative, practical and artistic projects.
He is a descendant of the Tagalaka people from the Gulf Country of North Queensland and holds a Doctorate of Environmental Science. Much of his work over the past thirty years has been based on the arts and reviving traditional knowledge for community and environmental challenges. - particularly Aboriginal fire management, through mentoring, leadership, and on-ground training with Aboriginal and non-indigenous communities both nationally and internationally.
Current Work
He is the co-founder of Firesticks, which works with communities across Australia.
Victor has published a best-selling book called Fire Country which has been a major reference to his work.
He has also published the children's book Looking After Country With Fire. He has also published songs, "Cool Burning" and "Great Land" through his music label Mulong.
Talking Points
Healing People with Country
When we look at the urgent need to revive our cultures before they are lost, heal our landscapes with better fire management, or protect our rivers and waters. It all boils down to one important word that outlines where we are all at in this moment in time, Healing. When we look at the holistic way of viewing the world through the Aboriginal lens, everything is connected to the well-being of others. What ever we focus our attention on what needs healing in the landscape, seems to be a reflection on what we need to be healing within ourselves. It may seem like a simplistic repetitive concept of healthy country means healthy people, but it delves much deeper than that in a way that underpins us all, it may mean important changes right across the board for all of us.
Healing People with Country
Great messages for today's world. We were very impressed that Victor was able to get teenagers to stand up and join in a dance to one of his songs. ... keep reading CUC Balonne LTD
We really enjoyed the session with Victor and received such fantastic feedback from our staff. Victor was engaging and insightful and his style of storytelling really resonated with our team. His innate connection to Country was evident and we ended the call with a real appreciation for the complex and interconnected ecosystem of the Australian natural environment.
We loved Victor's presentation! Victor was very engaging with our audience who said they learnt a lot about how cultural burning works and the multiple benefits of regenerating indigenous vegetation. A very inspiring talk.
