Dean Yibarbuk is a very long way from home, standing in the snow in Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories of Canada with only his eyes visible through layers of winter gear. It’s -36C.

Yibarbuk is a traditional owner of Djinkarr, near Maningrida in Arnhem Land. He’s a scientist and a senior ranger with Warddeken, the Aboriginal-owned, not-for-profit company looking after country using traditional fire management practices to deal with climate change.

Yibarbuk and his fellow travellers, including David Ross, director of the Central Land Council in Alice Springs, are about to hop on a dogsled, a traditional form of transport for their hosts, the Dene First Nations.

The climate difference they have travelled through is stark: in central Australia, where David Ross lives, temperatures have been over 40C for weeks this summer, and they’ve arrived in the middle of a polar vortex.

“This is like being in the movies,” Ross says through his balaclava. “It’s a whole different world. Hats off to the mob who live this every day.”

Ross, Yibarbuk and senior Gunditjmara man Denis Rose have met with the Dehcho, Sahtu and Lutsel K’e First Nations, as well as the Canadian minister of environment and climate change, Catherine McKenna, to advise them on how to care for country, and why it works.