The Thunderbird Collective is hosting the inaugural National Indigenous Fire Gathering in partnership with, and on the traditional territory of the snpink’tn (Penticton Indian Band). The gathering is taking place at the beautiful Penticton Lakeside Resort and Conference Centre, in Penticton, British Columbia.
For three days, Indigenous fire practitioners will gather for celebration and sharing. We will:
Open in ceremony
Spend a day on the land with members of the snpink’tn (Penticton Indian Band)
Hear from international leaders in Indigenous fire practices
Share breakout sessions to dig deeper into topics
The gathering will create opportunities for conversation, laughter, exchange, and learning together. From a community feast to a night of music, we look forward to enjoying time together as we gather to strengthen Indigenous fire leadership.
Agenda
Check out the daily agenda for the Gathering:
About the Thunderbird Collective
The Thunderbird Collective is a group of Indigenous fire knowledge holders, Elders, youth, and leaders coming together as a national working group in what is now Canada, governed by a steering committee of Indigenous Peoples and allies from across the country.
The Thunderbird Collective provides a safe, ethical space for Indigenous Peoples to work together supporting and advocating for Indigenous involvement and leadership in wildland fire management.
Specifically, the Thunderbird Collective collaborates and cooperates to support cultural safety, career advancement and wildfire resilience for Indigenous Peoples, centred around four identified pillars:
Knowledge sharing
Advocacy
Land-based cultural practices, and
Sovereignty
Resources
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When Blood Tribe Fire Guardians returned good fire to their grasslands for the first time in over 30 years, they carried out their burn with an important cultural purpose. "Outside agencies might just be burning for fuel reduction, but we are burning for a different purpose. We are burning to help the plants, help habitats, to attract bison and grazers for hunting."
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Recently, fire practitioners, knowledge holders, and leaders gathered for a Fire Conference, which included hands-on training, knowledge sharing and deep exchange on cultural burning. From Canada, the U.S., Australia and beyond, participants came together with one shared commitment: return good fire to the land. From the conference room to the land, the message was clear: cultural fire is not destruction. It’s restoration. It’s resilience. It’s renewal. Watch the video here.
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The We Are Fire Toolkit is an online knowledge product that invites you to learn about and explore uses of fire on the land. The Toolkit shares wise practices and related resources on Indigenous-led fire practices and settler and state-led fire management for Indigenous Peoples and wildlife in the Saskatchewan River Delta in northern Saskatchewan (Canada).
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The Create a Cultural Burn Pathway workbook, released by the First Nations Emergency Services Society (FNESS) and the Indigenous Leadership Initiative (ILI), aims to help Indigenous Nations create cultural burn programs that reduce wildfire risk and revitalize a core part of our relationship with the land.
Indigenous Nations bring a range of current experience with cultural fire. To meet Nations where they are, FNESS and ILI launched a multi-year community-based research project, involving over 50 Elders and knowledge holders, numerous gatherings and workshops, extensive peer reviews, and multiple edits to the workbook to reflect all the input.
The result is a workbook containing seven worksheets that walk communities through the development of a strong cultural fire program—no matter what stage they are in.
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Click here to listen to the Good Fire Podcast, hosted by Dr. Amy Cardinal Christianson.