 I'd like to begin by acknowledging the Wurundjeri people as the traditional custodians of the land in which we stand and pay my respects to their elders both past and present. I'd also like to acknowledge our special guest, our distinguished guest, Uncle Colin Hunter, Wurundjeri tribe land council member. My name's John Haynes. For those who don't know me, I'm the executive director of volunteers and strategy. I'd like now to introduce to everyone our CEO, Paul Smith, who will be saying some words on CFO's behalf. Thanks Paul. Thanks John. I'd firstly like to also acknowledge that we meet today on Wurundjeri country to pay my respects to elders past and present. Uncle Colin Hunter, thank you for coming today. I'd like to acknowledge you and pay my respects to you and your people. Steve and John, thanks for coming along today and everyone here. So CFA headquarters stands on Wurundjeri country and we should never forget that fact. It's a really important thing for us when we come to work just to acknowledge the space in which we come and meet as CFA people. Today we gather to take part in a smoking ceremony. This is a traditional ceremony. It's the first time we've had it for our people, our CFA people here in headquarters territory. So I just want to make sure today everyone sort of gets to grips with this being the first time we've done this and it's a really special occasion. Let's see it not only as a way of reflecting on the past but also thinking about how exciting our future together can be. It's a more inclusive future. It's one that's more accountable and one that sees CFA people taking responsibility for themselves and their organisation as we move forward. We need to make sure we always respect the people who we work with and we always respect the organisation that we work for and that's CFA and the values that CFA has. We're stronger as a group when we get together at ceremonies like this. I'd very much like you to reflect on the significance of this ceremony because it really does represent a lot to the traditional custodians. This is my opportunity to welcome here Uncle Colin Hunter who's got a long, a steep tradition of passing on his understanding and and as does his family. So I've got a bio here for you Uncle Colin and Uncle Colin is a proud Wurundjeri man. I don't know if you've read this but you might learn a bit about yourself here. Let's see for how up-to-date this is. Whose traditional lands, and listen to this, extended from inner city Melbourne, south to the Mordialic Creek, west to the Werribee River and east to Mount Boer Boer. That's a fair bit of dirt you look at. Absolutely. So that's a fair bit of traditional land. So Uncle Colin Hunter is the first traditional owner in Victoria to be employed on country, in local government and he worked at the Yarra City Council managing the Aboriginal Partnership Policy for the past seven years. Nine years. I knew this would be out of date. Uncle Colin is a Wurundjeri elder people. We are in the presence of a Wurundjeri elder and has been so, and I'm tipping these numbers are wrong too, and has been so for almost nine years. Since I was 45, just like ten years. Ten years. He has sat on the Wurundjeri Council's Committee of Management about the same length of time and Uncle Colin is also an emerging artist with a couple of commissions worked by his name. So that would be, I would love to see that. Let's talk a little bit about today. So what a privilege it is here and how lucky we are to have Uncle Colin and to be part of this ceremony. And it's often said that we can't understand our present without understanding our past. So let's just consider for a second. Aboriginal culture, as the CEO said, is the oldest living culture in the world. And the people have used fire for thousands of years and it wasn't an enemy or something to be afraid of. It was a tool that played a special role in daily and cultural life. It was used to shape the landscape and to hunt in a practice known as fire stick farming. And CFA has started a journey to learn from Aboriginal people about using fire to prevent bushfires. Today is an opportunity for us to learn about and engage in local Wurundjeri culture and also encourage you to touch base with our Aboriginal members and to get to know them more. This is how we can help build an inclusive and diverse fire. Yeah, thank you. Look, I want to start off by acknowledging that this afternoon we are meeting on the lands of my ancestors, the Wurundjeri people. And I want to take this opportunity to pay my respects to my elders, both past, present and future. Elders from all nations. But I want to pay my respects to everyone gathered here, especially. But I always like to acknowledge if any Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander people joining us, I'd like to acknowledge them. Woman Jekka, welcome. Wurundjeri bullock. The Wurundjeri people welcome everyone to land today. Wurundjeri, no, no, foreign war, Wurundjeri people Wurundjeri people want to look after protect the land as they've long before. Wurundjeri country extends from the inner city of Melbourne to across the mountains of the Great Dividing Range, west to the Wurubi River, south to the Moiseate Creek and east to Mount Borbore. And the Wurundjeri people are part of the Cullen Nation and other Wurrung language group. 100 junior or willow, meaning possum. And that can be given to me by my grandmother as a young boy. I'm a proud and passionate 7th generation Warrantory man, and a direct descendant of Bibergine, who is null and getter, or head of the tribe at time at first settlement. And it's through my grandmother, Gumbriar, meaning white dove, or any tiny or nannish she was known to us mob, that I got Aboriginal culture and heritage in my life today. So for that I said thanks, man. My grandmother was one of the last of the Aboriginal people born in the early 1920s, up at Coronary admission in Healsville, before she got pushed up to barren on the river near South Wales. In Aboriginal culture, a great deal of respect is given to the land, the plants and the animals alike. And I've always got my beautiful gum lose down here. I'll get Deb to take him inside somewhere and put him somewhere or we'll leave him here somewhere, and if you get an opportunity as you're moving around this afternoon, take a nice one and put him in the pocket for the afternoon, please. The significance is that it will keep you safe along country and give you the access to the resources while you're on country. And while you're in Warrantory country, you're welcome to the traditional lands and the waterways of the Warrantory people. So woman, Jack, are welcome. Look as blackfellas move around country, as the Warrantory man, I didn't go down to Geelong to Waffa on country or to to Bendigo to George or on country, or even Dallas Springs to Aaron to country and just go on country and access the resources. The only way we could keep it sustainable was have our really clearly defined boundaries, clan boundaries. And part of that welcome ceremony would be the cleansing and the smoke to ensure that when you come on country, you didn't bring bad spirit within your be cleansed when you left country too. I just want to encourage people always to get on that thing they call the internet, you know, that tool. And punching that word Warrantory or punching that word Corin Dirk and see what comes up. Because there's two remarkable stories. The first one of that self-determination at Hillsville, that Corin Dirk. And I said my grandmother was born in there in 21, she was actually the last female baby born on Corin Dirk in 21. So that was quite special. So that's a remarkable story, you know, within a generation they had, you know, award-winning hops that they were taking down to the Melbourne show and winning awards but never receiving their prize money for it. You know, it's quite strange. And it's just a story of self-determination. You know, it's probably one of the most successful missions in the country at the time, you know, because we led the way in Victoria down here. And then also you've got that story of Melbourne and how that was colonised, you know, it's probably one of the fastest colonised cities in the world, especially when they found the gold. You know, but from 1835 when Mr. Batman signed that treaty down on the Mara Creek with the elders, 1865, well under 100 Wurundjeri people left and hardly any Boonawang people. But before I do, I just want to add to what you said there about the fire, you know, we wanted to survive without it, you know, we used it for a lot of things, you know. As he said, we've just started that fire-burning practice. And when they first got here, you know, we didn't have these big bushfires, you know, gum trees are meant to burn as we know, but we didn't have these, we didn't have the fuel on the ground. We made sure that, they also used it for hunting in different areas, they might start a fire and flush the animal out, they'd use it for cooking, they'd use it for lots of things.