Good Fire Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

This episode of Good Fire was recorded in front of a live audience of 300 people at the Fire and Ice Symposium during the 2025 Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival, on Treaty 7 territory. Host Dr. Amy Cardinal Christianson (Métis, Treaty 8) is joined by Alvin First Rider of the Blood Tribe (Blackfoot Confederacy), along with visual storyteller Jordan Melograna from the Indigenous Leadership Initiative. Together, they reflect on Indigenous fire stewardship as a living practice—one rooted in sovereignty, cultural continuity, and care for future generations. What unfolds is not just a conversation about fire, but a gathering of stories—about land, memory, responsibility, and the work of rebuilding relationships that were deliberately broken.

Takeaways

Host Dr. Amy Cardinal Christianson (Métis, Treaty 8) is joined by Alvin First Rider of the Blood Tribe (Blackfoot Confederacy), along with visual storyteller Jordan Melograna from the Indigenous Leadership Initiative. Together, they reflect on Indigenous fire stewardship as a living practice—one rooted in sovereignty, cultural continuity, and care for future generations.

Listeners are invited into a deeper understanding of good fire: fire as a gift, a teacher, and a tool for healing. Alvin shares how fire and bison have always shaped Blackfoot grasslands, and how restoring these relationships is both ecological work and an expression of Indigenous self-determination. From Fire Guardian programs on the Blood Reserve to community-led wildfire training in the North, the episode highlights how Indigenous Nations are reclaiming fire on their own terms—despite legal, financial, and colonial barriers that remain firmly in place.

The conversation also explores how fire stewardship is year-round work. It includes winter planning, community education, youth training, and storytelling—long before flames ever touch the ground. Through lived examples, the episode challenges dominant narratives that frame fire only as disaster, replacing fear with knowledge, preparedness, and respect.

A powerful thread throughout the episode is storytelling itself. Jordan reflects on the responsibility of documenting cultural fire in ways that are accountable to community, emphasizing co-authorship, consent, and long-term relationships over extraction. These stories—shared freely—are meant to shift public understanding, counter misinformation, and make visible the calm, collective, and deeply intentional nature of cultural burning.

At its heart, this episode is about hope. While there is grief for the landscapes altered by fire exclusion and climate change, there is also determination and possibility. Indigenous fire stewardship is not a relic of the past—it is happening now, led by communities who know their lands intimately and are working every day to restore balance.

Fire does not have to be something we fear. When practiced with care, knowledge, and respect, it can help heal the land—and our relationships with it.

Resources

Video from this episode: Reignition: Bringing Good Fire Back to the Land

Alvin First Rider

Jordan Melograna

Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival

Blood Tribe Land Management

Block by Block Creative

Kainai Nation ignites the first Indigenous fire guardians program in Canada

Reigniting Cultural Burning with the Blood Tribe Fire Guardians

If you liked this episode, please rate and review Good Fire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

In this episode of the Good Fire Podcast, hosts Amy Cardinal Christianson and Matthew Kristoff sit down with Elizabeth Azzuz and Margo Robbins to talk about restoring cultural fire in their tribal territory and across the world.

Quotes

05.06 - 5.27: “Fire has an amazing effect on not just the land and the health of the land and the resources that it produces but it is in fact a way to bring health back to our communities.”

05.57 - 06.07: “Fire is one of the ways to reconnect us to the land around us and our ancestors and our cultural lifeways.”

19.00 - 19.05: “It seems like, oftentimes, women are the movers and shakers in the community.”

Takeaways

Meet Elizabeth Azzuz (1.45)

Elizabeth Azzuz is a Yurok Tribe member, a descendent of the Karuk Tribe and has ties to the Metis Nation as well. She began burning at age 4 when her grandfather decided to teach her after watching her play with matches. She’s always loved what fire can do to restore the environment and provide food, medicine and basket materials. She takes great joy in training younger generations to carry this knowledge forward.

Meet Margo Robbins (02.57)

Margo Robbins is the executive director of Cultural Fire Management Council (CFMC) and is a member of the Yurok Tribe. As a basket weaver, she saw the tradition dying out because of regulations preventing cultural burning on their land, which is required to reproduce new single shoots of hazel needed for weaving the frames of baskets. She was about to become a grandmother and wanted her grandchildren to be carried in traditional baskets. So, she conveyed this to The California Endowment.

Loss of cultural identity (04.32)

As a CFMC cofounder, Margo realized that many young Indigenous people are losing their connection to their identity as Yurok people, which manifests in unhealthy behaviours like using drugs and alcohol. She emphasizes that working with fire is in their DNA as a people and their true calling. Before working in fire, she worked in the school system and used to include information on fire in her lessons as well. Now her focus is on restoring the land and helping other tribal people reclaim their fire traditions as well.

“We didn’t take no for an answer” (07.44)

Margo marvels at how the fire-creation stories of many different tribes have a lot in common. Margo had just finished her first burn in CFMC when she met Elizabeth who also expressed interest in joining. She narrates the story of how CFMC came to be, and how they have worked to make cultural burning possible now. They knew the dangers of fuel buildup and so recruited volunteers, developed a partnership with Nature Conservancy and conducted community training sessions to be allowed to burn.

Dual win (12.45)

After several years of burning on a volunteer basis, CFMC finally received a million-dollar wildfire prevention grant through CAL FIRE in 2019. With limited burn windows and specific burn schedules, they also did home protection and roadside clearance to provide full-time jobs to the employees. They chose places rich in cultural resources to burn so that they could provide “important cultural resources for the community while also providing wildfire protection in an area that is rated as extremely high fire risk”.

“A place that will be ours” (15.00)

Elizabeth shares that they recently purchased 140 acres for CFMC, a unit they have burned on a few times before, which is also close to Margo’s home. She is excited about the possibility of the first Indigenous fire training facility in California. Having their own space means they don’t have to borrow Tribal facilities, and they can bring on more staff. The two buildings that the property comes with have been assigned for training and parking fire engines, respectively.

Comfort in their territory (17.56)

Elizabeth believes the longevity and stability of the organization come from the women in the tribal community, evident in the common thought processes shared in the board meeting conversations. Margo quips about how they have had to shift gears many times to bring the training center dream to fruition. They built CFMC based on learnings from other organizations but created partnerships and terminology to cater to the needs and sensibilities of the Yurok people specifically.

“Happy and joyful” (23.23)

It makes Elizabeth happy to see the organization grow and expand in a natural way. Margo explains how they balance the needs of the government along with those of the tribes in doing a cultural burn. CFMC has created a seat at the decision-making table on prescribed fire, so they can share the cultural and ecological importance of burning. Margo ensures that the protocols and lines of command for safety don’t diminish their joy in working together with fire.

Putting medicine on the ground (26.58)

Margo points out that neither CALFIRE nor the US Forest Service lead their burns, and CFMC upholds the culture of the tribes in conducting the burn. Elizabeth adds that when they do a test fire, they open up their training with a prayer, asking permission from the land, animals, people, and the environment to restore their land, which sets the tone for the burn. Margo finishes the prayer with a song, which moves many people to tears.

Passing on the torch (30.14)

Elizabeth talks about CFMC’s Our Family Burns Program, which helps “Elders, single families, and community members create a space for themselves”. They teach the families to clear around their homes, create piles, and burn safely. Elizabeth finds it heartwarming to hear young people wanting to learn this to protect their family’s property. Including young students in their training is important to teach them to care for their environment and be safe.

Playing with fire (33.33)

Margo recalls when a wildfire started across her house many years ago, which traumatized her grandchildren. However, not wanting her grandchildren to be afraid of fire, she asked if they would like to burn with her. They went out into her yard, and she taught them about how fire works and how to burn safely using a little briar patch. They now have participated in 5-6 burns. She finds that since kids play with fire anyway, “it’s important for them to learn the responsible use of fire”.

“Unbalanced fir tree domination” (39.29)

Margo highlights that Douglas fir is native to their homelands and has a spiritual significance in ceremonies and dances. However, the ban on cultural burning and logging companies replanting fir trees densely caused a proliferation of fir trees and unbalanced the ecosystem. She uses fire to maintain that balance and to keep the grass healthy for human and non-human animals. Elizabeth laments that large logging industries use chemicals that poison water bodies and affect the health of the people.

Fighting on the planet’s side (43.21)

Elizabeth observes that Indigenous peoples who live in rural areas notice more in the environment than those in the cities and are more driven to fight the organizations destroying what they need to survive. Margo celebrates that using medical records of the cancerous effects of aerial sprays and providing alternatives to the toxins was successful in stopping them. They are in the process of negotiating air quality permits to allow them to increase the pace and scale of cultural burns to combat wildfires.

We’re all in this together (49.18)

Elizabeth discovered what is needed to get everyone on board with culture burning when developing her relationship with Humboldt County’s Air Quality division. Informing them of when they will burn, for how long and how much helps people become comfortable with the smoke. Even though tribal entities have sovereign rights and don’t have to comply with district policies, building those bridges and networks allows people to prepare, like turning on air purifiers in Elders’ homes.

Normalizing cultural burning smoke (53.36)

Margo shares that an ‘exceptional events’ accommodation can be applied to cultural fire smoke, but it is an in-depth process, so they are still advocating for the smoke to be considered baseline by the California Air Resources Board. She notes that the American Lung Association is part of one of the beneficial fire policy groups she is part of, and they support prescribed burns smoke. Elizabeth mentions information comparing prescribed burning smoke to wildfire smoke.

Reintroducing elk to the territory (56.50)

Elizabeth tells the story of how one of the previous board members had a dream of reintroducing elk onto the land for his grandchildren. With the burns they have been doing, historic pathways have opened up for elk to travel from the coast into the Karuk territory. The Elders are excited to see elk there again and to be able to find ruminating deer who have become healthy after fire has created healthy food for them.

Inviting porcupines (59.35)

Margo is looking forward to bringing back porcupines onto the land since their quills were used as the yellow in their baskets and as regalia. They were killed by the forest service because they were eating fir. Elizabeth remembers collecting their quills in her childhood, and it was frightening for her to see them disappearing. However, many species are coming back to the territory due to cultural burning, and it helps them plan more burns based on the patterns of returning species.

Fire programs that encompass cultural burning (01.04.00)

The Indigenous Peoples Burning Network was initiated by The Nature Conservancy, who met cultural fire practitioners from the Yurok, Karuk, and Hoopa Tribes to ask if they wanted to reclaim their traditional burn practices. While they had been burning for a while, it had not been in true traditional ways, so they decided to create a Yurok Karuk Hoopa Healthy Country Plan. Basket weavers from each tribe participated and proved the success of the burn by how much hazel they could gather after.

Smoke signals (1.09.56)

Margo knows about burning on her territory, but tribes from flat grasslands burn differently and adapt the process to fit their homeplace and their needs. When Elizabeth and Margo began doing online presentations on the benefits and necessity of reclaiming fire, they became extremely popular amongst tribes from all over. That exposure brought support from six different philanthropic groups and foundations, securing their financial basis to continue to do this work.

Spreading the word (1.16.01)

Elizabeth was invited to speak on a podcast and then received an email from the State Department asking her to speak on cultural fire in Greece, where it’s illegal to burn but the government overlooks it because farmers refuse to stop burning, so they can protect their farms. The audience there was happy to hear her speak about loving fire and its benefits when others are afraid of fire. She believes it will take “the entire population of the world to make this happen and for us to be able to restore the environment”.

Resources

Cultural Fire Management Council

Elizabeth Azzuz

Margo Robbins

The California Endowment: Building Healthy Communities

Indigenous Peoples Burning Network

Elemental Film

“Firelighters: Fire is Medicine” movie

Sponsors

Canada Wildfire

Indigenous Leadership Initiative

If you liked this episode, please rate and review Good Fire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

S‍eason 3 Teaser 2 | Good Fire Podcast

Title: Learning Fire with Charity Battise

Charity Battise is a young Indigenous Fire Steward learning their craft. Amy and Charity met at the Indigenous Peoples Burning Network Event and they talked about Charity’s work with her Nation. Charity is a part of the Alabama Coushatta Tribe of Texas and part of the Nature Conservancies Indigenous Peoples Burning Network.

Season 3 Teaser 1 | Good Fire Podcast

Join Amy Cardinal Christianson and Matthew Kristoff as they give a sneak peek at what to expect in Good Fire’s third season.

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Quotes

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12.20 - 12.35: “We can’t change the weather… and we can’t change the climate at the moment, but there are things that we can do and one of those is changing the fuel that’s available to burn and the vegetation that you can burn… and one of the ways to do that is through good fire.”

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Takeaways

Women are the backbone of good fire (01.36)

‍ Amy wants to focus the third season of the Good Fire podcast on matriarchs. After attending an Indigenous Women’s fire training event in the USA, she was inspired to see 30 women come together from different First Nations to deliberate how fire affects their communities. An Elder shared with her that the women in a community direct the men to go out and burn.

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Burns, burning and burnout (04.56)

‍Amy is a Research Scientist with the Canadian Forest Service but has recently been on secondment with Parks Canada as an Indigenous Fire Specialist. This year has seen unprecedented fires across Canada. Canada has depended on help from other countries, and firefighters are feeling burnt out.

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15.2 million hectares in Canada burnt this year (08.28)

‍Amy hopes that practicing good fire will alleviate the strain on firefighting and reduce their risk on the job. She highlighted that years of fire exclusion have led to runaway wildfires.

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An opportunity for a reset (13.17)

Amy highlights that even though fires were frequent before this land was colonized, tree rings indicate they were not as intense as they are now. Elder Joe Gilchrist shared with Amy that these wildfires are a good opportunity to reset overgrown forests for cultural burning.

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Reducing the requirement of resilience (18.19)

‍Amy praises how the Chief and Council Little Red River Cree Nation and the community of Fox Lake have responded to the fires by building homes and supporting community members. However, she is saddened by the resilience they have had to show and hopes to see progress in external fire management.

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Guest wish list (23.20)

‍Amy hopes to have Vikki Preston on the podcast, but her community is also impacted by the fire. Her podcast, Intentional Fire invites guests from Vikki’s Nation to talk about how they use good fire.

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Indigenous stewardship (24.46)

‍Amy believes that Indigenous knowledge keepers needn’t seek permission to perform cultural burning on their lands. She pushes for policies and regulations to be re-examined so that land can be cared for in a way that is in line with Indigenous knowledge.

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Resources

‍Canada’s record-breaking wildfires in 2023: A fiery wake-up call

‍Intentional Fire Podcast by Vikki Preston

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Sponsors

‍The Canadian Partnership for Wildland Fire Science‍ ‍

S‍eason 2 | Episode 10 | Good Fire Podcast

Title: The Abundance Will Be Forever with Victor Steffensen and Ado Webster

In this final episode of Season 2 of the Good Fire Podcast, hosts Amy Cardinal Christianson and Matthew Kristoff sit down with Victor Steffensen and Ado Webster as they reflect on their experiences as Indigenous fire-keepers.

Quote

10.52 - 10.56: “We’re not governed by anyone but ourselves and by our culture and by our country.”

Takeaways

Rediscovering culture, discovering oneself (3.55)

Ado has recently begun working with Firesticks in the capacity of an employee, and loves working in an Aboriginal cultural environment where “the knowledge is safe, the sharing is safe and people are safe”.

For the landscape and the people (9.00)

Ado thrives on the cultural exchange that takes place between Nations as part of his work now, something colonization deprived his community of. He is passionate about helping children access culture freely.

Work that heals (14.40)

Victor notes that working with the country helps liberate Aboriginal peoples from stereotypes that they are not hardworking. Work that heals the land for the future inspires youth to do the right thing to enhance their connection with the land.

“Climate change is mother nature telling us to change” (19.17)

Victor laments that the negative messaging in the media makes us feel helpless against climate change. He brings attention to the disasters humans have lived through, and that this can also be salvaged by “doing the good work”.

When you care for the country, it cares back (28.23)

Ado reassures that cultural burning is safe, which is why many go barefoot for a cultural burn. He feels a sense of oneness with all inhabitants of the land, and disagrees with preferential protective equipment for humans but not for the other animals.

Fire, language and country (33.11)

Ado narrates how Victor demonstrated to Ado’s Nation, his knowledge of the land that applies across different territories. Victor adds that landscapes have many similarities in values, and bringing the country back is the missing piece in reviving cultural knowledge. 

Let us do it our way (38.48)

Ado speaks about the National Indigenous Fire Workshop they conducted for nations across Australia, where they did a cultural burn which lasted 13 days. Not having burned due to colonization has changed the landscape, and is causing sickness in the forests. 

The whole world gets affected (47.33)

Ado says that knowledge opens up minds with the truth but it makes it more difficult to tolerate the wrong things being done. Everyone was impacted by the large bushfires in Australia, and he feels strongly about people experiencing the benefits of cultural burning.

Have comments or want to give feedback? Send it to the hosts of this podcast via email at: amy.christianson@pc.gc.ca or yourforestpodcast@gmail.com.

If you liked this podcast, please check out YourForest podcast too, rate and review it on Instagram and Facebook and tag a friend, and send your feedback and comments to yourforestpodcast@gmail.com.

Resources

Fire Country: How Indigenous Fire Management Could Help Save Australia by Victor Steffensen‍ ‍

Looking After Country with Fire: Aboriginal Burning Knowledge With Uncle Kuu

Great Land by Mulong

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Sponsor

The Canadian Partnership for Wildland Fire Science

Support from

California Indian Water Commission

Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation

S‍eason 2 | Episode 9 | Good Fire Podcast

Title: Celebrating Success with Victor Steffensen and Ado Webster

In this episode of the Good Fire Podcast, hosts Amy Cardinal Christianson and Matthew Kristoff sit down with Victor Steffensen and Ado Webster talk about cultural burning in Australia and the work Firesticks is doing to promote it.

Quote

17.02 - 17.09: “Fear is… one of the biggest problems… in the world today and… a lot of that comes from ignorance.”

Takeaways

Ado and Victor (6.10)

Adrian, known as Ado, was born in Naora (Nowra) and considers himself fortunate to have grown up in his community and culture. Victor, a descendant of the Tagalaka clan from North Queensland, is the Lead Fire Practitioner at Firesticks, a filmmaker, musician and author.

Baby steps to progress (9.14)

Victor wrote a children’s book as a way of getting back to the arts using storytelling to reactivate culture and landscape connections and change society while having fun.

Listen to the country (16.58)

Victor finds it alarming that people fear fire, but takes solace in Indigenous knowledge, which focuses on the right way of doing things and provides a positive solution. Ado’s father realized that forests were deteriorating because Indigenous peoples had not been allowed to manage them.

“Learning not through science, but through spirit” (24.10)

Ado has learnt from his Elders about nature and realizes that this knowledge is only recently being discovered by non-Indigenous people.

“Fire is good for us as people” (33.40)

Victor notes that the insights of the Indigenous cultures are shifting the culture of the country as a whole, evolving into a nature-based one, where people can move from fear of fire to a connection to the land.

Fire and sustainability (39.50)

Victor and his team are working on creating a training model leading to a certified diploma to factor in lived experience for those who can demonstrate and manage the work practically.

“We need to work together” (50.24)

Victor believes that the work they have been doing in education to further cultural, environmental and economic development has been supported by Mother Nature. It has also made the country take notice of the work the Aboriginal peoples are doing, and recognize the need to support this work.

“It’s all about doing the right thing” (54.43)

Victor recommends being inclusive, making people comfortable and respecting them and their place to work together towards sustainability. He urges people to take action towards nature, and not be limited by barriers of time or money.

Have comments or want to give feedback? Send it to the hosts of this podcast via email at: amy.christianson@pc.gc.ca or yourforestpodcast@gmail.com.

If you liked this podcast, please check out YourForest podcast too, rate and review it on Instagram and Facebook and tag a friend, and send your feedback and comments to yourforestpodcast@gmail.com.

Resources

Fire Country: How Indigenous Fire Management Could Help Save Australia by Victor Steffensen

Looking After Country with Fire: Aboriginal Burning Knowledge With Uncle Kuu by Victor and Sandra Steffensen

Cool Burning

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Sponsor

The Canadian Partnership for Wildland Fire Science

Support from

California Indian Water Commission

Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation

S‍eason 2 | Episode 8 | Good Fire Podcast

Title: Good Fire In Guyana with Kayla de Freitas and Nicolas Cyril

In this episode of the Good Fire Podcast, hosts Amy Cardinal Christianson and Matthew Kristoff sit down with Kayla de Freitas and Nicholas Cyril to talk about the cultural burning practices in Guyana.

Quote

41.54 - 42.04: “So much of that knowledge about fire and fire use and farming, hunting, is learned by doing and by living there and living that life.”

Takeaways

Fire since time immemorial (04.02)

Nicholas has worked for 10 years at SRDC as a part-time researcher. He explains that fire in his territory has always been used and continues to be used for various reasons.

The changing face of fire (10.55)

Kayla’s research focus is the changing practices of Indigenous fire management and local fire governance.

Timeless wisdom, current realities (13.17)

Kayla describes who was interviewed for her research study and the regional fire management plan.

Indigenous land rights (17.17)

Nicholas notes that Indigenous peoples are allowed to burn in the villages. Kayla adds that Indigenous communities can make their own rules concerning resource governance.

Towards the creation of a fire policy (19.35)

The Indigenous communities in South Rupununi are working to create a local fire policy appropriate to their landscape.

Burning season (23.46)

Kayla highlights the seasonal fire calendar that the district council uses and a collection of interview responses on putting fire on the landscape.

Beyond fire (25.53)

Kayla shares how enriching it has been to work with Indigenous communities alongside Nicholas, learning about the landscape, experiencing hospitality and developing connections.

Bringing fire back (33.46)

Nicholas mentions how management of fire is changing in the communities to a direct style where the council makes decisions for the community.

Valuing Indigenous knowledge (35.52)

Nicholas speaks about how people are moving away from the traditional way of life. Kayla comments on how Indigenous knowledge was erased by settlers, but is being reclaimed.

Following in the ancestor’s footsteps (41.40)

Nicholas delineates the process of a burn, when traditional knowledge is relied upon. Kayla laments that the government only pays lip service to Indigenous knowledge and practices. 

The sum of the parts (49.44)

Kayla narrates how fire management plans are being updated in consultation with Indigenous groups, and how opt-in arrangements work for their lands.

Looking ahead (54.25)

Nicholas says the Indigenous communities are mindful of burning in the right seasons and work with nature’s cycles. He describes how burning assists animals in breeding.

Preventing brain drain (1.04.57)

Kayla mentions that the SRDC is creating opportunities for trained Guyanese people to stay in the country and serve the community. Nicholas’ work with SRDC is inspired by the desire to keep Indigenous knowledge alive and affirm Indigenous land rights.

Have comments or want to give feedback? Send it to the hosts of this podcast via email at: amy.christianson@pc.gc.ca or yourforestpodcast@gmail.com.

If you liked this podcast, please check out YourForest podcast too, rate and review it on Instagram and Facebook and tag a friend, and send your feedback and comments to yourforestpodcast@gmail.com.

Resources

SRDC

Kayla De-Freitas

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Sponsor

The Canadian Partnership for Wildland Fire Science

Support from

California Indian Water Commission

Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation

S‍eason 2 | Episode 7 | Good Fire Podcast

Title: Fire Futures with Indigenous Researchers

In this episode of the Good Fire Podcast, hosts Amy Cardinal Christianson and Matthew Kristoff sit down at the International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF) Fire & Climate Conference in Pasadena CA, featuring early career researchers who are re-kindling cultural burning.

Quote

16.25 - 16.29: “Indigenous people don’t need us to speak on their behalf, they can speak on their own behalf.”

Takeaways

“In a good way” (05.02)

Melinda Adams, San Carlos Apache Tribal member, and PhD candidate at UC Davis, shares how agency representatives took a step away from fire suppression in one of the first CalFire cultural fire workshops at Cache Creek Conservancy in Woodland, CA.

The benefits of cultural fire (06.42)

Melinda narrates how the burn was concentrated on restoring tule, an ecologically and culturally significant plant. This highlights how cultural fire is important for long-term carbon storage, water holding potential and cultural reunification.

Collaboration, consultation and consent (07.57)

Melinda hopes for  burning to take place with Indigenous peoples, to undo the impacts of colonialism and unburden future generations from climate change.

Good relations (11.11)

Carly Dominguez is of Indigenous Mexican heritage. Her work with cultural fire is inspired by her desire to improve water health.

Fire has always been good (13.30)

Carly is being trained through the Indigenous Cultural Burn Network.

“Fire has a special place in my heart” (17.41)

Deniss Martinez is a Ph.D. candidate at UC Davis. Learning from local Indigenous communities helped her reconnect with her Indigenous roots and relearn fire.

Getting stuff done (19.54)

William Madrigal Jr., or Will, is associated with Climate Science Alliance, a nonprofit based in San Diego that supports and collaborates with Indigenous tribes in addressing climate change disparities.

Facing climate change (22.19)

Nina Fontana is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Davis in collaboration with the USGS Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center.

Relationships over acres (26.10)

Deniss observes that when relationships are built and in place, more equitable decision-making takes place during a crisis.

Trust takes time (30.57)

Carly suggests approaching practices and policies with openness and Nina advises including the community in all aspects of the project from the beginning.

Researching back to life (35.59)

Melinda notes that Indigenous peoples conducting research helps move their initiatives and collaborations forward. She is excited about young people getting involved in burning and the openness of other researchers to this learning.

“We have to have hope” (40.16)

As a native person whose ancestors survived so much, Melinda believes it is her duty to lead with hope.

“Connection brings me hope” (43.22)

Understanding the traditional way humans can fulfil our responsibilities to the following seven generations gives Will hope for a better future. Nina finds hope in hearing about species coming back to landscapes.

Have comments or want to give feedback? Send it to the hosts of this podcast via email at: amy.christianson@pc.gc.ca or yourforestpodcast@gmail.com.

If you liked this podcast, please check out YourForest podcast too, rate and review it on Instagram and Facebook and tag a friend, and send your feedback and comments to yourforestpodcast@gmail.com.

Resources

International Association of Wildland Fire

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Sponsor

The Canadian Partnership for Wildland Fire Science

Support from

California Indian Water Commission

Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation

S‍eason 2 | Episode 6 | Good Fire Podcast

Title: Cultural Fire in California with Don Hankins

In this episode of the Good Fire Podcast, hosts Amy Cardinal Christianson and Matthew Kristoff sit down with Don Hankins, Plains Miwok from the central valley of California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, to talk about new developments around cultural burning in California and his hopes for the future.

Quote

24.52 - 24.53: “We definitely have to connect culture to fire.”

Takeaways

Cultural torch bearers (01.52)

Don is Plains Miwok from the central valley of California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. He believes that due to the wildfires in California, initiatives are taking place that recognize the place of Indigenous fire.

Revitalizing cultural fire (4.37)

Various policy barriers - access to land and funding and permission to burn using traditional laws - are being addressed through the creation of a tribally chartered non-profit organization to support learning, advance policy efforts and act as a refunding and redistribution entity.

Building and empowering the youth (07.16)

Don looks to the youth to carry Indigenous knowledge of fire into the future and seeks young people from his Nation to mentor. Knowledge holders training the youth to understand the cultural reasons for burning, read the landscape and maintain culture will enable the youth to step into decision-making roles and policy arenas.

Enabling cultural burning (11.49)

Don speaks about California Bill SB 332 which allows certified burn bosses and cultural burners to burn, and that if they meet certain conditions, they shall not be liable for any fire suppression or other costs otherwise recoverable for a burn.

Spreading like good fire (16.05)

Don also speaks about California Bill AB 642 which primarily codifies the definitions of cultural fire and incentivizes agencies to work with cultural burners to implement plans and enable Indigenous stewardship.

Cultural fire progress (20.21)

Don lists some challenges to advancing cultural fire - the criteria for declaring someone trained and the sensitivities around tribal sovereignty for that declaration. If someone is not exposed to cultural fire training, errors in the process could occur.

Learning from fire (23.42)

Don shares that if you are gentle with fire and approach it in a good way, you can learn from it, or you can learn the lessons the hard way. Thinking about the reasons for burning helps look for learning opportunities in burning. Don’s approach to burning changes according to the requirement, but praying and acknowledging the land is always a part of it.

Have comments or want to give feedback? Send it to the hosts of this podcast via email at: amy.christianson@pc.gc.ca or yourforestpodcast@gmail.com.

If you liked this podcast, please check out YourForest podcast too, rate and review it on Instagram and Facebook and tag a friend, and send your feedback and comments to yourforestpodcast@gmail.com.

Resources

California’s Strategic Plan for Expanding the Use of Beneficial Fire

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Sponsor

The Canadian Partnership for Wildland Fire Science

Support from

California Indian Water Commission

Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation

S‍eason 2 | Episode 4 | Good Fire Podcast

Title: Cultural Safety with Joe Gilchrist and Natasha Caverley

In this episode of the Good Fire Podcast, hosts Amy Cardinal Christianson and Matthew Kristoff sit down with Joe Gilchrist and Natasha Caverley to talk about how Indigenous and Western ways of knowing can come together to bring cultural burning back on the land: a study exploring cultural safety of Indigenous wildland firefighters in Canada.

Takeaways

Sparking passion (04.16)

Joe began firefighting at age 15 and became a squad boss in 1991 in Merritt. He narrates the travels and training they did, and how his experience firefighting and cultural burning for plant health helped him.

Glowing embers (11.55)

Natasha is the President of Turtle Island Consulting and was part of a specialized team funded by the BC Ministry of Forests to work with First Nations that were dealing with the mountain pine beetle infestation.

Two-eyed seeing approach (18.28)

Joe outlines the wages and structure of the crews involved in firefighting, as well as the demanding schedules of firefighters. Natasha’s work has been to formally capture such anecdotes from a national perspective.

Cultural safety (31.37)

Joe wants to share his experience and lessons learned as a firefighter but has always been a doer more than a talker. Natasha realized that Indigenous peoples do not feel safe accessing quality services in wildland firefighting as well.

Systemic racism (41.06)

Joe looks back at the systemic racism he faced as a firefighter and recounts instances when the Indigenous firefighters were tested through difficult tasks and their firefighting style was mocked.

The best way to work is to have fun (50.20)

Joe was diagnosed with PTSD in 1994 from the exhaustion of always having to be available or on standby as a firefighter. He informs that PTSD can affect anyone, can be hard to fight on one’s own, and warrants professional help, as difficult as it is to ask for.

Wildland firefighting as a career choice (01.05.05)

Joe believes knowledge of the land, its inhabitants, the wind patterns on the land, and the way fire burns through it are important requirements to be a firefighter. He is working with some universities to add an Indigenous perspective to the learning.

Cultural burning needs to come back (1.14.30)

Natasha is working with Amy in Saskatchewan to curate promising practices to bring fire back on the land by interviewing Elders and fire-keepers. Joe is inspired to continue making connections with knowledge keepers and Elders and share his knowledge in firefighting with others.

Have comments or want to give feedback? Send it to the hosts of this podcast via email at: amy.christianson@pc.gc.ca or yourforestpodcast@gmail.com.

Resources

Joe Gilchrist describes how fire has changed the landscape‍ ‍

Natasha Caverley of Turtle Island Consulting‍ ‍

Giving Voice to Cultural Safety of Indigenous Wildland Firefighters in Canada‍ ‍

Revitalizing Cultural Burning

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Sponsor

The Canadian Partnership for Wildland Fire Science

Support from

California Indian Water Commission

Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation