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Revitalizing Fire Stewardship Practices with Indigenous Firekeepers and Outward Bound Canada

July 22, 2024

The Centre's Mitigating Wildfire Initiative partners with Indigenous Firekeepers and Outward Bound Canada to create an opportunity for Indigenous youth to actively participate in revitalizing fire stewardship practices on their traditional lands.

For about 150 years, colonial laws banned Indigenous cultural burning practices. Joe Gilchrist, one of B.C.'s cultural burning experts and a member of our Mitigating Wildfire Initiative's Advisory Committee, wants to change that, most recently by organizing a canoe trip to teach Indigenous youth how to work with fire.

With support from the Centre and Outward Bound Canada, which provided canoes and guides, the journey saw Gilchrist and six young people from First Nations across the B.C. interior paddle and camp for a week in Átl'ḵa7tsem/Howe Sound. The group paddled a few hours each day, then spent the afternoons and evenings learning about everything from wildfire mitigation and firefighting to how fire can support traditional medicines and foods like huckleberries. Gilchrist hopes to make the trip an annual event, with the goal of teaching up to 30 youth each season.

Read the National Observer article and learn more about this trip through the link below.

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