{"id":26902,"date":"2024-07-28T21:29:51","date_gmt":"2024-07-28T21:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/?p=26902"},"modified":"2024-07-28T21:29:51","modified_gmt":"2024-07-28T21:29:51","slug":"wildfire-an-indigenous-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/?p=26902","title":{"rendered":"Wildfire: An Indigenous Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Images presented are from Variations on Boreal Smouldering 2024, by Allan Harding MacKay<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fire As an Agent, More Than a Tool<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As alluded to early on, the existing literature suggests that<\/p>\n\n\n\n

historically, Indigenous peoples understood that humans<\/p>\n\n\n\n

were not the only agents of change in the boreal forest [70].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Cree people for example, fire is seen as a being that has<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a spirit. Offerings (like tobacco or sage) are made to the fire<\/p>\n\n\n\n

spirit in ceremony (Phillip Campiou, Cree Elder, personal<\/p>\n\n\n\n

communication).5 Baker [72] has documented a creation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

story from Bigstone Cree Nation Elder Albert Yellowknee<\/p>\n\n\n\n

when she asked about fire use in the boreal forest: \u201c\u2026 the<\/p>\n\n\n\n

creator breathes fire into two poplar trees for them to become<\/p>\n\n\n\n

humans. In this sense, fire is a life-giving force. He reminded<\/p>\n\n\n\n

me that everything is interconnected, fire included.\u201d For<\/p>\n\n\n\n

many, this understanding of sacred fire persists. More than<\/p>\n\n\n\n

simply a form of combustion, landscape fires are understood<\/p>\n\n\n\n

as being connected to a wider set of human-land relationships<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and, in some cases, agents of change with profound<\/p>\n\n\n\n

implications for those that interact with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Anishinaabe of Pikangikum First Nation Elders, located<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in what is now northwestern Ontario, described fire in<\/p>\n\n\n\n

relation to a larger cosmological reality, conferring agency<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to beings like beenaysee eshkotay or thunderbirds, and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the process of burning itself. Miller and Davidson-Hunt<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[47] explored how Elders perceived forest fires as beings<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cwhich [possess] agency and who intentionally create order<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in landscapes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Elders also discussed fire as an expression<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of agency, a process capable of growth, travel, and both<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a source of destruction and renewal. Resting at night and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

active in the day, fire is understood as a living component of<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the landscape. While fire destroys and takes life, it is also a<\/p>\n\n\n\n

source of life. Burned areas are rapidly recolonized by plants<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and animals and provide new growth and increased food<\/p>\n\n\n\n

opportunity for both humans and relations [47], and have<\/p>\n\n\n\n

other impacts on forest renewal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For Shoal Lake Anishnaabe, as described by Berkes and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Davidson-Hunt [9: p. 42]:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Anishinaabe perspective, the Creator placed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the people in Iskatewizaagegan (Shoal Lake) and provided<\/p>\n\n\n\n

everything that they would need for their survival<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in that place. In return, the Anishinaabe hold<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the responsibility to maintain these gifts. Practices<\/p>\n\n\n\n

that harm these gifts can lead to consequences for an<\/p>\n\n\n\n

individual or the individual\u2019s family. At the landscape<\/p>\n\n\n\n

scale, there is a basic duty upon the Anishinaabe not<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to influence abundance or distribution of habitats. In a<\/p>\n\n\n\n

workshop with elders in Pikangikum, the same principle<\/p>\n\n\n\n

emerged and was concisely translated into English<\/p>\n\n\n\n

as, \u201cas was, as is\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The creation of blueberry patches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

through repeated burning was not seen as a contradiction<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of this principle. Burning or other disturbance<\/p>\n\n\n\n

simply reveals the different combinations of plants that<\/p>\n\n\n\n

are naturally present in the landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further east in Labrador, for example, fire also has an<\/p>\n\n\n\n

important role for the Innu in their cultural life, being the<\/p>\n\n\n\n

center of many ceremonies [41\u2022].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For Indigenous peoples in the boreal forest, fire is part<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of a complex network of relationships beyond that of just<\/p>\n\n\n\n

humans and fire. Fire is connected to a wide range of species<\/p>\n\n\n\n

on which Indigenous communities depend on, and the<\/p>\n\n\n\n

presence and absence of fire narrates how these relationships<\/p>\n\n\n\n

between humans, plants, and animals transpire. This is similar<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to how some other nonhuman entities such as glaciers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

rivers, plants, and wildlife are understood as active agents<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and beings in the world [73, 74]. As such, several Indigenous<\/p>\n\n\n\n

scholars have described relationships between human and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

nonhuman beings in terms of treaties, care, and kinship [75,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

76]. In some instances, fire is an important component of<\/p>\n\n\n\n

strengthening these relationships [77\u2022]. Instead of conceiving<\/p>\n\n\n\n

fire exclusively as a tool, Indigenous peoples see fire,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

humans, and other elements of the environment as active<\/p>\n\n\n\n

components in the boreal, and link their epistemological<\/p>\n\n\n\n

worldviews to the relations between human and nonhuman entities on the land. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indigenous conceptualizations of fire,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

relation and land offer radical alternatives to dominant<\/p>\n\n\n\n

approaches to fire and the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boreal needs
fire [9], and people need the boreal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Conclusions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indigenous knowledge systems have allowed Nations to<\/p>\n\n\n\n

survive for thousands of years in a constantly changing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

world [55\u2022]. Indigenous peoples in the boreal have<\/p>\n\n\n\n

applied fire on their landscapes for a multitude of reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They understand fire as an active, alive agent. As<\/p>\n\n\n\n

an agent, fire is capable of movement, destruction, and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

creation, acting on the landscape to create order, within<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a living, connected environment. Fire operates on the<\/p>\n\n\n\n

landscape, co-existing with and challenging people of<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the boreal forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This paper summarizes a diverse body of scholarly<\/p>\n\n\n\n

literature documenting Indigenous perspectives and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

interactions with fire on the landscape. This body of<\/p>\n\n\n\n

research \u201ccollectively refute[s] the idea that\u2026 forests<\/p>\n\n\n\n

are essentially unchanged by people, either in the past<\/p>\n\n\n\n

or present day\u201d [41\u2022: p. 11]. This paper challenges the<\/p>\n\n\n\n

dominant narrative of wildland fire history in the boreal<\/p>\n\n\n\n

forest that has to date focused on large-scale fires and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

has limited engagement with small-scale fires that often<\/p>\n\n\n\n

escape the detection of large-scale measurements. Factoring<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in small-scale burning, including Indigenous historical<\/p>\n\n\n\n

accounts, allows for a more holistic and accurate<\/p>\n\n\n\n

depiction of the place of fire in the boreal. As discussed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

earlier, this paper also challenges the dominant narrative<\/p>\n\n\n\n

that western biophysical research is the primary way of<\/p>\n\n\n\n

knowing. Indigenous knowledges are presented as distinct,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

holistic, and robust modes of knowing land and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

fire that have been millenia in the making. We call on<\/p>\n\n\n\n

our non-Indigenous colleagues who research on and write<\/p>\n\n\n\n

about the boreal forest, to include Indigenous peoples<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and perspectives in their work \u2014 not as footnotes or in<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the acknowledgement sections, but as equal peers and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

collaborators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to climate and forest fuel changes, Indigenous communities<\/p>\n\n\n\n

are at increased risk of evacuations and wildfire<\/p>\n\n\n\n

related impacts [29, 62\u2022\u2022]. There is increasing interest by<\/p>\n\n\n\n

government agencies and non-Indigenous researchers to<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cintegrate\u201d or \u201cincorporate\u201d Indigenous knowledge about<\/p>\n\n\n\n

fire, including cultural burning practices, into colonial management<\/p>\n\n\n\n

systems [138]. This enthusiasm to engage Indigenous<\/p>\n\n\n\n

knowledge about fire must also include discussions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

regarding Indigenous leadership and engagement in forest<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and wildfire management decisions, including training, certification,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and liability issues. Indigenous peoples should<\/p>\n\n\n\n

not only be informing decision-makers. There needs to be a<\/p>\n\n\n\n

shift in power so that they are the ones making the decisions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

about their own territories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Text<\/strong> Excerpted from Centering Indigenous Voices: The Role of Fire in the Boreal Forest of North America<\/strong> 27 July 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately the PDF version would not upload for this post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Court Painter proudly presenting the work of his Press Attache AHM<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Images presented are from Variations on Boreal Smouldering 2024, by Allan Harding MacKay Fire As an Agent, More Than a Tool As alluded to early on, the existing literature suggests that historically, Indigenous peoples understood that humans were not the only agents of change in the boreal forest [70]. For Cree people for example, fire … Continue reading “Wildfire: An Indigenous Perspective”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-images","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26902"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26922,"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26902\/revisions\/26922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}