Devastating wildfires continue to affect southern California, raising crucial questions about protecting our forests and communities.
Lyla June Johnston, an Indigenous poet and community organizer, studied how Indigenous nations use fire for land management during her doctoral research at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
She recently posted a TikTok video highlighting the process.
From her research, Johnston learned that Indigenous peoples used fire to fertilize soil with nutrient-dense ash and to prevent catastrophic wildfires by burning off excess fuel on the forest floor.
Johnston also examined bushfires in Australia and found that along with climate change, fires are exacerbated by centuries of fire suppression and the prohibition of Aboriginal practices.
In the video, Johnston states that "we must empower local Indigenous communities" to conduct traditional cultural burns to protect southern California's forests.
Such burns, performed at the right time and intensity, heal the land and safeguard both humans and wildlife.
Johnston then turns her video over to her friend, Jessa, who is an Indigenous resident of Los Angeles. In the video, Jessa is seen sitting in the dark holding a candle due to power outages from the fires. She emphasizes the need for cultural burning.
"Now more than ever, we need to start tending to this overgrowth and create controlled burns around our neighborhoods and up into the forests to give our relatives — plants, humans, and animals — a fighting chance," states Jessa.
This story was produced for Our Living Lands, a collaboration of Koahnic Broadcast Corporation, Native Public Media, and the Mountain West News Bureau.
