Cultural Safety with Joe Gilchrist and Natasha Caverley

Good Fire

Good Fire Podcast by Amy Cardinal Christianson and Matthew Kristoff

Stories of Indigenous fire stewardship, cultural empowerment and environmental integrity

Cultural Safety with Joe Gilchrist and Natasha Caverley

Episode highlight

In this podcast, Joe Gilchrist and Natasha Caverley talk about how Indigenous and Western ways of knowing can come together to bring cultural burning back on the land a study exploring cultural safety of Indigenous wildland firefighters in Canada.

Resources

Joe Gilchrist describes how fire has changed the landscape

Natasha Caverley of Turtle Island Consulting

Giving Voice to Cultural Safety of Indigenous Wildland Firefighters in Canada

Revitalizing Cultural Burning

Sponsors

The Canadian Partnership for Wildland Fire Science

Support from:

● California Indian Water Commission

● Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation

Takeaways

Sparking passion (04.16)

Joe began firefighting at age 15 and became a squad boss in 1991 in Merritt. He narrates the travels and training they did, and how his experience firefighting and cultural burning for plant health helped him.

Glowing embers (11.55)

Natasha is the President of Turtle Island Consulting and was part of a specialized team funded by the BC Ministry of Forests to work with First Nations that were dealing with the mountain pine beetle infestation.

Two-eyed seeing approach (18.28)

Joe outlines the wages and structure of the crews involved in firefighting, as well as the demanding schedules of firefighters. Natasha’s work has been to formally capture such anecdotes from a national perspective.

Cultural safety (31.37)

Joe wants to share his experience and lessons learned as a firefighter but has always been a doer more than a talker. Natasha realized that Indigenous peoples do not feel safe accessing quality services in wildland firefighting as well.

Systemic racism (41.06)

Joe looks back at the systemic racism he faced as a firefighter and recounts instances when the Indigenous firefighters were tested through difficult tasks and their firefighting style was mocked.

The best way to work is to have fun (50.20)

Joe was diagnosed with PTSD in 1994 from the exhaustion of always having to be available or on standby as a firefighter. He informs that PTSD can affect anyone, can be hard to fight on one’s own, and warrants professional help, as difficult as it is to ask for.

Wildland firefighting as a career choice (01.05.05)

Joe believes knowledge of the land, its inhabitants, the wind patterns on the land, and the way fire burns through it are important requirements to be a firefighter. He is working with some universities to add an Indigenous perspective to the learning.

Cultural burning needs to come back (1.14.30)

Natasha is working with Amy in Saskatchewan to curate promising practices to bring fire back on the land by interviewing Elders and fire-keepers. Joe is inspired to continue making connections with knowledge keepers and Elders and share his knowledge in firefighting with others.

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