Season 1 | Episode 7 | Good Fire Podcast
In this live episode recorded at the Interior Fire Keepers Workshop in Merritt BC, Canada, hosts Amy Cardinal Christianson and Matthew Kristoff sit down with Pierre Krueger, a traditional fire-keeper and Penticton Indian Band Elder, who debriefs us about a cultural burn that was done at the workshop.
Quotes
13.58 - 14.15: “We have a responsibility. If someone knew what I know or any of my family knows, they could be billionaires within 2 years because they’d exploit our knowledge.”
Takeaways
Burn debrief (1.55)
Pierre brought his own tools for the cultural burn but says that he would have preferred to wait a few days because it was not dry enough to burn. Every year is different due to the seasons and that affects the window of burning available. He normally tests the grass and does a clean burn.
“Everyone gets a chance at everything” (3.48)
Pierre’s mother looked at burning as an act of togetherness and encouraged everyone to participate to the best of their ability. Burning is also an act of communication, as animals would be forewarned to clear the areas to be burned.
Safety is the fire-keeper’s responsibility (7.47)
Pierre believes firefighters have a lot to learn from his family’s way of fire-keeping since their practice has never seen a fire go astray. He shares instances of using fire to regulate the cultivation, and how food made him and his brother strong enough to run 115 miles a day!
Land and water (13.19) Pierre wants to teach cultural burning to the youth and other people who care for Mother Earth, to help clean the waterways. His people know how to spot the streams which are drinkable, and they consider it their responsibility to inform others if they find a bad stream to avoid.
Weather whisperers (17.35) Pierre shares how his family has the ability to control the weather and sees great possibility in others learning this art to make a difference to the environment. He narrates an incident when his mother created a 100-foot circle of protection around them to keep the rain away.
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Resources
Prescribed Burn: An Indigenous burning story featuring Pierre Krueger
Sponsor
The Canadian Partnership for Wildland Fire Science
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