In this current series, I have moved away from WATER and decided to look at FIRE. In The New Normal PART I, I discussed personal reasons for this redirection. It is important that this website stays relevant to current viewpoints and situations. In part 2, we explore possible options and introduce a couple of Changemakers creating sustainable environments as it relates to FIRE management.
Perspectives on Fire and Land Management
Diversity and inclusivity are tantamount in dealing with most economies in Western culture nowadays. However, these concepts have been an ongoing philosophy of indigenous peoples for time immemorial. Before colonization, trade and land management involved these fundamental aspects to create harmonious exchanges interweaved with environmental stewardship. This was not of primary concern to the colonizing cultures. Trade would be based on extraction only without reference to environmental management.
Certain settlers (alias Colonizers) started recognizing the errors of this ethnocentric mindset back in the late 20th Century when social scientists started to enter new territories with humility. Instead of imposing their will and ideas on the local population, they learned to ask for guidance and instruction. There was recognition and respect of indigenous knowledge for the environment and its management.
However, business and politics would take time to grapple with this humility. These are not natural pillars of practice for either of these branches in western settler culture. Fortunately, in recent years, circumstances have forced an immediate reassessment of these ideologies due to the global pressure from climate change. Living in harmony with the environment is a necessity for survival.
Regenerative Practices
Listening to the CBC August 5th podcast of “What on Earth”, Laura Lynch was interviewing and discussing concepts of regenerative farming practices. These methods help remedy the extreme heat and warming temperatures known to affect crop production seen in current traditional farm practices. Regenerative practices and strategies look at site-specific ecosystems through time to determine how the interaction of all factors interplay to maintain and sustain thriving environments. As stated in “Thriving Beyond Sustainability”, proponents of these practices understand that a local environment requires an interconnected web of relationships such as the ecological, social and economic.
Regenerative practices have been at the center of indigenous teachings from the beginning of time. This interplay of relationships is part of the cultural knowledge and teachings handed down generation after generation. That is why it is imperative that indigenous knowledge keepers be part of the conversations and policy construction involved in land and fire stewardship.
It was a routine indigenous practice to do mindfully navigated burns in spring to stave off runaway wildfires during the summer months. At the same time, these prescribed spring burns regenerated soil fertility and early growth. However, after colonization, a European lens of centralized land management which outlawed localized indigenous practices was imposed. Fire suppression was about increasing timber values for global trade.
From that moment onwards, it brings us to our current situation of runaway wildfires, drought, and nutrient-depleted soils. Currently, governmental fire management agencies are seeking out indigenous fire knowledge keepers to help curtail and reduce wildfires. Yet, the belief that fire is the enemy is still prevalent amongst settler mentality.
Fire as Medicine
Many years ago while watching a TV program, a firefighter discussed that understanding fire is the only way to harness its power. This is a loose interpretation of what was being discussed but the point remains. Indigenous Fire Stewardship has always acknowledged this philosophy in relation to its ecosystems. In an article, by Amy Cardinal Christianson, she writes that “Satellite imagery depicts that Indigenous lands have the lowest incidence of wildfires, which contribute to maintaining carbon stocks and enhancing biodiversity.”
Amy Cardinal Christianson has become a prominent figure for Canada’s Fire Management systems. She is a Métis woman from Treaty 8 territory, currently living in Treaty 6. As well, she is a research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada. Christianson also co-hosts the “Good Fire” podcast, which looks at Indigenous fire use around the world.
In one of the “Good Fire” podcasts, “Fire Ecology and Indigenous Knowledge” from October 28, 2019, Christianson and Matthew Kristoff, interviewed Dr. Frank Lake from the US Forest Service. Dr. Lake speaks to the idea of regenerative practices that relate to fire management. He discusses how the use of fire stewardship becomes imperative for biodiversity and fire management. Another important point discussed was the formation of respectful partnerships between indigenous and settler communities. In this partnership, settler communities learn how fire can been seen as cultural medicine as well as recognize the intersection of it between people and place.
In the podcast, Lake discusses how smoke works as a fumigation technique and a cooling effect for salmon streams. He further elaborates on how certain US states are now utilizing prescribed burns for regenerating soil nutrients and the growth of food resources. Also, relearning that fire is not an evil but a necessity for our environments. These ideas become a matter of reframing perspectives to see the fire through a stewardship practice versus a negation perspective. Once Canada recognizes and respects the vast resources in their indigenous knowledge keepers, then it will see changes for the better.
To learn more about this and other ideas on indigenous fire management go to: