Good Fire Podcast by Amy Cardinal Christianson and Matthew KristoffStories of Indigenous fire stewardship, cultural and social empowerment and environmental integrityHealing Trauma Through Burning with Vikki Preston and Monique WynecoopEpisode highlightIn this podcast, Vikki and Monique talk about the role of Indigenous women in fire and the path to bringing fire back on the land. ResourcesAssociation for Fire Ecology 10th International Fire Ecology and Management CongressVikki PrestonMonique WynecoopJessica Conradhttps://www.hcn.org/issues/55-1/indigenous-affairs-wildfire-what-if-indigenous-women-ran-controlled-burns/https://yff.yale.edu/speaker/monique-wynecoop-atsugewi-mountain-maiduhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK77EWDJeoUSponsorsThe Canadian Partnership for Wildland Fire ScienceIndigenous Leadership InitiativeQuotes42.41 – 42.46: “There is a place for me, and it doesn’t need to be in the system that’s not working.”50.06 – 50.16 “It’s our journey as… mothers and matriarchs and leaders to make sure we are protecting the younger future generations.”TakeawaysMeet Vikki Preston (02.14)Vikki is from the Karuk Tribe and has lived in rural Orleans, California for most of her life. She works as the Cultural Resource Technician for the Department of Natural Resources of the Karuk Tribe. Being at the Association for Fire Ecology 10th International Fire Ecology and Management Congress has been made more significant for her due to the “strong native presence”. Growing up Indigenous, she used to listen to basket weavers talking about fire being a big part of “the lived experience of being Indigenous”. As a basket weaver herself, she is constantly connected to the importance of fire in her culture.Meet Monique Wynecoop (05.59)Monique is Pit River/Mountain Maidu on her mother’s side and Italian American on her father’s. Her ancestors are always on her mind, and she has been educating her children and family about residential schools. She has worked for the forest service for 16 years now and takes pride in working in the same profession as her father did his whole career. She is excited to be working with the Bureau of Indian Affairs as Tri-Regional Fire Ecologist for the Northwest, Alaska, and Rocky Mountain Regions so that she can help the tribes in those areas access the resources they need for fire and fuels management, and cultural burning. Rebuilding the relationship between the land and community (08.18)For the last 16 years, Monique has been living in the ancestral territories of her children’s father’s tribe, the Spokane Tribe. “I’m at that point in my life where I want to be the matriarch I needed”, she notes, and works to teach the children by example. She was contacted by Dr. Melodi Wynne, the Food Sovereignty manager for Spokane Tribal Network and the Spokane Tribe, to work on the Food Sovereignty Garden for the Spokane Tribe. She helps communicate how fire is important for food sovereignty which in turn is essential for community wellness.“Delayed justice” (11.04)Vikki emphasizes the importance of Indigenous women being at the forefront of telling the stories of their community. Monique shares how it is her moment to tell the stories that her mother or great aunt were not able to share either due to the trauma or fear, to help deliver justice for her ancestors. Vikki continues to be inspired to work in fire so that no woman in her community is made to feel small. She encourages women to speak up, especially the younger generation. Monique tries to give herself the same advice she gives her children - to not apologize for speaking the truth.Indigenous fire management (16.34)Vikki appreciates working with strong women like Jessica Conrad, who has done some amazing work in wildlife and fire and reinforces the role Indigenous women play in protecting land, cultural resources and community. The work they do for wildland fires in culturally relevant areas for the Karuk Tribe, speaking up and having a say, is important in the face of outside management teams using suppression tactics that the tribe doesn’t agree with. Now, their cutting tribe goes to the forest with tribal representatives and heritage consultants on the ground to ensure better processes.“Don’t stop being the way you are” (20.41)Vikki is often the only Indigenous woman in a fire camp and feels judged; she does not like to see other people experience that feeling of being unwelcome. “Sometimes it’s about being someone, someone else can feel supported by”, she explains. She finds it important to have someone who can help you overcome the negativity in the fire world. She shares a negative experience she had with other firefighters on a recent TREX (prescribed fire training exchange). Her father, who has been in fire his whole life, told her, “They are never going to accept you but don’t stop being the way you are”, which allowed her to step into a leadership role at Karuk’s Women’s TREX.The canoe journey (24.36)Vikki talks about how the land holds trauma and being on the land can help you heal your own trauma as well as that of the land. Being a matriarch and helping her children participate in their culture is her way of healing the trauma of being separated from the tribe after her divorce. She is happy to organize community gatherings for her tribe to help them see a good snapshot of Indigenous women in fire and burn together. Having a supportive learning environment to burn and ask questions, like the Fire Congress provided, also makes the burns go well, she believes.Demilitarizing fire (32.32)Vikki ponders about the tools she can offer from her experience with the federal government to “help people put more good fire on the ground”. She has received some great ideas from her interactions with others at the Fire Congress. Monique believes that fire is already too militarized, and that no workforce should be created within the military to do prescribed burning. She laments that western standards consider fire to be a liability but participating in cultural burning with families is important to understand the intergenerational aspect of the cultural practices. Vikki agrees that children should be allowed to burn.Representation matters (36.51)Monique has observed that her children feel content and proud of their families when they are actively participating in their culture and seeing representation. She goes to talk to their non-tribal school about cultural burning and fire ecology, and being some of the few native kids at that school makes her children step up to talk about it. “Kids aren’t that much different from adults; when we see representation, we speak up as well - we tend to shine brighter”. Vikki is also proud of the representation of Indigenous peoples at the conference but knows that decolonizing fire from an academic approach is still far away.“You should know your land the best” (41.45)Monique advocates for more fire practitioners to tell their story instead of academics. Telling the stories themselves is important, especially for those who have not been able to share their stories. She finds that the western scientific community is elitist and that not enough application of research has taken place. Vikki believes the strongest education one can have is talking to people who are doing the work, which helps build a community that feels like home. Vikki finds sharing her ancestors’ stories is a way to help deliver justice and undo Indigenous erasure.Academic decolonization (52.30)Vikki believes that stereotypes perpetuated by non-Indigenous peoples should not be available for citation for students. Monique has found that lots of racist content gets perpetuated and elevated through citation. She grew up learning from her family members about the effects colonization had on Indigenous peoples and wants to work to help future generations “feel like they belong on their ancestral homelands”. Her goal is to visit the tribes whose lands she works on to talk about functional learning and build relationships by attending cultural ceremonies as an example for her children. Looking ahead (1.04.04)Vikki is looking forward to organizing more Karuk Indigenous Women’s TREX to bring back more feedback to the prescribed fire world. She also wants to organize more events for women in fire, especially queer or trans folks in fire to create a safe space for them. Monique highlights the condition of Indigenous peoples in Palestine and urges listeners to consider how they can support the Indigenous communities there.Send in your comments and feedback to the hosts of this podcast via email:
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