Indigenous community members speak on the loss of cultural burning in the Okanagan and the hope to bring it back

Photo: Penticton FireSmart

Harry Spahan from the Interior Salish Fire Keepers and Xwestikin from the Penticton Indian Band speak in council chambers on Friday in Penticton.

Interior Salish and Syilx Fire Keepers spoke about the importance of cultural burning and urging collaboration between Indigenous peoples and the province Friday, as part of Penticton’s FireSmart Interview Series.

Two speakers representing the Penticton Indian Band and First Nations’ Emergency Services Society addressed the history and the current state of burning for the Indigenous communities, with lessons on looking after the environment.

There is a long history of burning for Indigenous people, a practice they used to protect their land.

“Since the introduction of fire suppression with growth and population, a change in climate, the advancement of invasive species and the barring of cultural burning, the landscape has changed and no longer reflects the environment once held by Indigenous communities,” Brittany Siebert, emergency program coordinator for the City of Penticton said in her introduction.

“Now, the risk is too high to easily reintroduce a cultural burning without the complex community planning and then the guidance from Indigenous elders, Fire Keepers and fire knowledge holders.”

As the speaker addressed, there needs to be more collaboration going forward between the bands, the government and BC Wildfire Service in using cultural and prescribed burns.

“There needs to be [collaboration] for the fire dependent culture, where you kind of need to reduce the fuels and around the community while still promoting your ecosystem development,” Harry Spahan, an Interior Salish Indigenous Fire Keeper with the Cold Water First Nation said.

“There's lots of different lessons that need to be learned about fire suppression fire. How it worked and what could work better and what are some of the key things that we can carry forward in terms of the messages.”

Spahan spent decades working with the forest protection branch, which is now BC Wildfire Service, as an incident commander. He, like many others in his community, learned first from elders as to why fire is used on the lands.

“That's why we're working with the Salish Fire Keepers, is that we're thinking that getting that traditional fire person and to be able to give more thoughts to our communities and to keep them educated about the fire knowledge,” he said.

“My people have words for slope, fuel, the side of the mountain where the wind comes from,” added Xwestikin, a Syilx Traditional Knowledge Keeper with the Penticton Indian Band.

“They didn't just light a fire. It was a thought-out process and there was a learning way to do things….There's a time to burn that to get rid of all that old dead fuel.”

Xwestikin explained that while today's technological advancements are used to help identify areas of fuel to burn, his Indigenous community had studied and understood the land throughout the centuries, learning when to use fire.

"Our people have lived in harmony with nature for thousands of years ... And the environment was always looked after a long time ago. But as time went on, times changed and our people weren't able to go out and do the things that we naturally had done to look after the environment," he said.

“In our minds, I think we want to put fire back on the land and manage the cultural and natural resources.” Spahan added. “We need to develop some good relationships between each other to help, using traditional knowledge as well as available science.”

When asked if they could change one policy or a piece of legislation to help first nation communities put fire back on the land, Xwestikin said that right now, it comes down to Indigenous people still being left out of the conversation.

“We should be involved prior to them even discussing where they should burn, because how else are we going to have a relationship? How else are we going to work together? We have to be involved before the designated place [burns],” he said.

“The whole system is broken, the reality is we're not in a healthy environment. That's the reality of it. That's something to really think about. And then it's not getting any better. But working together, we can make this a better place.”

Penticton FireSmart will be hosting one more speaker series next Friday on emergency preparedness, which will run from 10:30 - 11:30 a.m. in council chambers at City Hall.

Attendance is free with an opportunity to attend virtually.

Spots can be reserved by visiting the Penticton FireSmart’s Eventbrite page here, or by emailing the team at [email protected]