Good Fire Podcast by Amy Cardinal Christianson and Matthew Kristoff
Stories of Indigenous fire stewardship, cultural and social empowerment, and environmental integrity
Episode highlight
In this episode, Russell Myers Ross and William Nikolakis speak about the work of the Gathering Voices Society on revitalizing traditional fire management in Tsilhqot’in Territory and the potential around carbon offsets adapting Australia’s Indigenous land and fire management practices to the Canadian landscape.
Resources
The North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance Ltd (NAILSMA)
The right to burn: barriers and opportunities for Indigenous-led fire stewardship in Canada
Wildfire governance in a changing world: Insights for policy learning and policy transfer
Goal setting and Indigenous fire management: a holistic perspective
Sponsors
The Canadian Partnership for Wildland Fire Science
Support from:
● California Indian Water Commission
● Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation
Takeaways
Reclaiming agency (4.11)
Will is the Executive Director at the Gathering Voices Society, a charitable foundation based in Vancouver that works with communities all across BC to take back a stewardship role, including fire stewardship of their lands so they can be active participants in managing forests and fire. He is also a faculty member at UBC’s Faculty of Forestry’s Bachelor of Indigenous Land Stewardship, a 4-year degree program. He champions Indigenous land stewardship and works to bring those perspectives into land management to pursue land goals holistically.
Following the Indigenous example (06.05)
Will began his career at 20 working for an Indigenous community that was protesting a Uranium mine proposed on their lands. Seeing cultural burning there and observing the success of fire management programs in Australia to support the environment and the communities, made him rethink land management approaches. He is now working to apply the values of being physically active, mentally connected and culturally empowered in land stewardship in Canada, and is actively measuring those.
Valuing Indigenous knowledge and experience (7.59)
Will moved away from his previous law career because he wanted to be the one making a difference in the community instead of waiting for the court. He came across the Gathering Voices Society, which was looking to be refurbished as an organization, and he came on board to help them shift to “a stewardship model, where First Nations manage the land in ways that are consistent with their values for their own goals and their own ways”. Their vision is to see every community have a stewardship program across Canada.
Practical action (10.54)
Will shares that many rangers don’t see fire as within their ballpark, but as an emergency issue. Their goal is to support the community by employing people for the fire programs, and they are guided by their motto to learn by doing. They have an open policy with fire training in order to have gender parity for all their employees. He recognizes that fire management is cultural and contrary to the western model of heroically putting fires out. However, cultural burning can involve everyone in the community, not just firefighters, to begin seeing fire as a friend.
Learning by doing (14.58)
Will met Russ at a governance conference in 2015. They spoke about fire management in Australia, and about working together to advance fire stewardship for the healing and restoration of lands destroyed by wildfires. Russ was the Chief of Yunesit'in (2012- 2020). They met Victor Steffensen in 2018 for knowledge exchange on different ways of practicing cultural burning which led to them doing their first spring burn in 2019. Russ knows the community has a long way to go, still, but is hopeful about the practical participation of community members.
Balancing benefits, mitigating effects (25.07)
Russ acknowledges that his ancestors left big shoes to fill in caring for the land, but he feels reassured in his efforts to do so. Even though many people hold misconceptions about cultural burning, he knows that the benefits will be visible in due time, and healthy land can be enjoyed by all. There is a lot he is discovering about the land which is deepening his connection to it. The community has been excited about reconnecting to the land and the energy is infectious. Will says they are developing 5-year guidelines for the fire model to inspire global communities.
2017 wildfires (33.52)
The Gathering Voices Society has secured funding to finance the fire stewardship in Russ’ community, to honour the work the members do and as a potential precursor to long-term employment generation in the community. Russ speaks about the aftermath of the 2017 wildfires and the hope for development and education in this space ever since. They have taken the lead in practicing cultural burning to prevent wildfires. Will believes that Indigenous burning is more efficient than other models of prescribed burning.
Changing the world, one fire at a time (42.37)
Will and Russ discuss the different tools used in cultural burning, from drip torches to simple matches, and the different approaches to managing the fire in case fuels are used. Russ notes that fire has always been around in the community - used for food and other activities - and they have a long tradition of fire-keepers. Other communities are looking to him for inspiration on land management today. Will is working towards compiling scientific evidence of the validity and importance of this practice for others to learn from.
Carbon (48.56)
Will talks about working with The North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance Ltd (NAILSMA), where they witnessed the growth of well-documented formal Indigenous fire programs that are groundbreaking in understanding the effect of fire across the landscape and preventing the destruction of biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions from wildfires. He is working on translating the model to Canada to generate employment and income for communities and predict potential emissions. He is also exploring integrating carbon credits in the model to create sustainability over the long term and deliberating its consequences.
Passing on the torch (54.46)
Russ states that piloting the program in the community was important to measure practicality and interest, and they are now planning on how it can be expanded. He is aware of the challenges presented in doing so but is focused on long-term progress. Will adds that this space is still new in Canada and there is a lot to learn from the Australian model, which needs to then be adapted to Canadian ecosystems and fire regimes. Russ envisions this work to be intergenerational, keeping the community immersed in the knowledge, notwithstanding barriers.
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