Forced to the Forefront: How Native Americans, Aboriginal Australians, and Canadian Aboriginal Peoples are being asked to lead the charge against climate change
In the United States, Canada, and Australia, tensions between Indigenous communities and non-native, settler society citizens have always been fraught. However, with the climate crisis looming over many of the world’s governments, these countries have turned to Indigenous peoples for guidance on how to maintain the land responsibly.
In California, summer is a time of dramatic wildfires and droughts, with citizens being asked to ration their water in order to maintain sufficient levels in local reservoirs. In the past few years, state fire officials reached out to local Native American tribal nations in California to learn about “cultural burns”, a method of removing dead undergrowth with smaller fires that helps to avoid massive and uncontrollable wildfires and allows the flora to grow back healthier. Ron Goode, tribal chairman of the North Fork Mono in Northern California, says, “We don't put fire on the ground and not know how it's going to turn out. That's what makes it cultural burning - because we cultivate.”
The practice of tribal burning is not only environmentally beneficial but is also deeply tied to the cultural and historical essence of Native American tribal nations. Those such as the Yurok, Mono, and Miwuk have been practicing burns such as these for over 13,000 years. By doing periodic small burns, grasses in Northern California have been able to grow back to resemble prairie grass, which is ideal for traditional basket weaving. Yurok weavers have expressed their excitement at being able to carry babies in baskets once more, after believing they would never again have the materials to do so.
Fire is also considered a fundamental tool on its own. By using and controlling fire rather than fearing it, the communities of Northern California distinguish themselves from the European tradition of ‘fighting’ fires and suffocating them with water when they get too out of hand. This practice takes an antagonistic stance to nature and was made the norm when white colonists arrived in the state. Laws were even created that placed bounties on Native Americans who were caught starting fires. Because ‘fire-fighting’ has been unsuccessful in recent years due to the sheer size and power of the fires and the lack of water available, many fire teams are now attempting to rectify these past transgressions. Indigenous communities are being placed at the forefront of fire management, with fire squads following their lead in recognition that the original practices are simply more effective and suited to California’s conditions.
Across the globe, Australian Aboriginal peoples have also exhibited a similar understanding of fire in their highly-organized land management. Aboriginal people used fire as an ally in cultivating their land, employing it not only to clear out forest undergrowth but to lay out patterns for crop and animal raising and to attract animals for hunting. Fire-farming has been used for over 50,000 years in Aboriginal communities, and they are now sharing their knowledge to help prevent similarly devastating wildfires in Australia like the burns of early 2020. Researchers have confirmed that Aboriginal practices are a great source of knowledge for better land and water management, and that their policies should be enacted on a wider scale to improve the nation’s sustainability index.
In Canada, however, First Nation communities are still finding it difficult to be heard in conversations on climate change. Canadian Aboriginal Peoples have articulated the harmful and challenging stereotypes they face when it comes to their relationship with nature. John Kim Bell of the Atlas people in Canada asserts that First Nation people do believe in a fundamental balance between humans and other living things, and have an awareness that humans are a part of nature rather than separate from it. However, Bell also expressed that First Nation peoples are held to a standard of being anti-development. He points out that Indigenous communities are not responsible for the majority of the degradation of the planet, but are being asked to fix it anyway.
Like Bell, some Native Americans have been calling their re-inclusion in fire safety an “I told you so” moment, since they always understood the best methods for the land but were prohibited from acting on their knowledge. Now, to help alleviate the stress we have placed on our planet, Indigenous peoples are being asked by their colonising governments to turn the other cheek and rise above past offenses to bail us all out. It will require continued humility and a commitment to learning from governments and non-native communities to make the relationship last. However, one can hope that Indigenous leadership in the fight for a better environment indicates some aspect of healing and reconciliation, in which the land is returned to the stewardship of those that understand it best.
Image courtesy of Steven Shepard, Flickr, Creative Commons License under Public Domain.
