Hi Friend,

New podcast episode on cultural burning! 

First: just to be clear, this episode has nothing to do with Burning Man. That's a really, really, different thing. "Burning" here refers to indigenous practices of cultural burning. Cultural burning refers to the process indigenous peoples throughout the Americas use to burn landscapes (not houses or objects) in a controlled way. It is not the same as a controlled burn, though it has some similarities.

When I first heard that indigenous practices of Cultural Burning are being both practiced and learned from by the CA Fire Agencies I was totally impressed. 

Not that the indigenous practices of "fire management" (that's an American/European term, not an indigenous one) worked. I knew that. Several years ago, wildfires across my home state of California prompted me to do a fair amount of research into the disturbing histories of American/European burning practices in the western United States, the role that fire suppression had played in contributing to increased extreme wildfires, and the key role that fire played in enabling indigenous communities across what is now the U.S. and Canada in shaping, tending, and revitalizing their ecosystems.  It's been glaringly clear that our relationship with fire has been a major part of the problem.

The exciting and cool 'news' here is that firefighters and the fire department are beginning to listen to indigenous elders in California far, far more than they used to.  And are attending fire ceremonies led by elders like Ron Goode. Who is also opening cultural burns up to college students, community members, and people like our friend Pastor Katerina Gea, who serves a Wild Church community in Fresno, CA.