126-Good Fire in Parks with Amy Cardinal Christianson and Pierre Martel

Cultural Fire is something we have discussed quite a lot on this podcast. Today, we get to hear from some folks in Parks Canada about how they will be opening up the door to cultural fire. Some really open minded and thoughtful people at Parks have made it possible for Indigenous voices to be heard and for real change to be made. Getting Good Fire back on the land, in a place that is synonymous with “wilderness”, is a huge step in the right direction for understanding our relationship to land. ResourcesA Time For Burning by Henry LewisUnited Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous PeoplesSponsorsWest FraserGreenLink Forestry Inc.Forest ProudQuotes27.02 - 27.08: “If we look at cultural burning just from a fire perspective, you are missing the whole picture about… mental health and other things.”TakeawaysCultural burning differences (11.02)Each Indigenous community burns for different reasons, using different techniques. Impact of colonization (12.26)Cultural burning was carried out till settlers brought in fire exclusion policies. Truth and reconciliation (13.30)Parks Canada is honest about its history of removing people from the landscape. Relearning cultural burning (15.30)Amy began learning the importance of fire on the landscape from Métis Elders.Creating more fire-keepers (19.18)There is a need to train more Indigenous peoples to become fire-keepers. Prescribed vs. cultural burning (21.54)Amy points out that prescribed and cultural burning are not the same.  Using cultural practices on the land (25.33)It can only be up to Indigenous peoples to define cultural burning and come into Parks Canada to do that. Making meaningful strides with reconciliation (33.18)Pierre’s ex-wife is Miꞌkmaq and he is inspired to bring back their cultural practices, like burning, to the land to maintain ecological integrity for his 2 daughters.Indigenous ways of knowing (41.34)Indigenous peoples feel frustrated by fire policies that were created by non-Indigenous people who had no connection to cultural burning. Long road ahead (45.05) Some challenges in bringing Indigenous knowledge into the mainstream are official processes, oral records, cultural appropriation and multiple land claims.Enabling Indigenous collaboration (47.25)Amy has been brought in as a dedicated resource to help fire managers remove barriers to Indigenous participation with Parks Canada.Programs, people, personalities (52.21)Amy is working on a cultural burn program, a series of workshops, associated field trips, and coordinating with the Métis nation on re-writing fire policy and conducting workshops.Removing barriers (1.01.00)Amy assessed the barriers to managing fire and claims there is work to be done to remove those. Knowledge keeping (1.06.00)Involving Indigenous communities and Elders keeps the knowledge protected so they can burn with support from Parks Canada. Looking ahead (1.14.00)Recent fires have made people nervous to put fire back on the ground, but researchers have affirmed its need. Be a good ally (1.18.18)Being a good ally is “using your power to make space for Indigenous peoples”.