Cultural Burning – Shackan Indian Band

Produced in 2019 for First Nations’ Emergency Services Society (FNESS).

The Indigenous cultural burning storytelling and practices project is a companion initiative to the Revitalizing traditional burning: Integrating Indigenous cultural values into wildfire management and climate change adaptation planning project.

The Indigenous cultural burning storytelling and practices project facilitated an opportunity for the First Nations’ Emergency Services Society (FNESS) Forest Fuel Management Department to conduct spring cultural burns (March 2019) alongside Shackan Indian Band and Xwisten (Bridge River) First Nation respectively in collaboration with BC Wildfire Service (BCWS).

Two videos were produced. Each video is approximately 8-12 minutes in length, and features interviews with representatives from FNESS, Shackan Indian Band, and Xwisten First Nation about the importance of cultural burning revitalization.

In closing, the Indigenous cultural burning storytelling and practices project broadens learning opportunities about cultural burning revitalization to strategic partners across the various orders of government (e.g., provincial and federal governments) as stories/case studies on (i) advancing cultural burning revitalization in relation to reconciliation, wildfire prevention and risk reduction, and climate change adaptation; and (ii) enhancing holistic knowledge and observations of wildfire management to inform climate change adaptation planning for First Nations communities of similar scale and needs.