Opportunities for Indigenous fire stewardship within Ontario’s policy framework

Abstract

Indigenous people have used fire as a tool for thousands of years for resource management, community protection, and cultural purposes. The criminalization of the practice during colonization in combination with a history of government fire suppression policies has contributed to a loss of culture and knowledge of cultural burning in Ontario. The publishing of information on cultural burning has been approached cautiously by Indigenous people because of the risk of non-Indigenous people adopting practices and using them inappropriately, thereby reducing their effectiveness. Presented in this thesis are the history of Indigenous fire stewardship, its benefits, and Ontario’s current wildfire policy framework. Current barriers to Indigenous Fire Stewardship are explored to recommend areas of Ontario’s policy framework where amendments could support and increase cultural burning practices.