Good Fire cover art

Good Fire

Good Fire

Written by: Amy Cardinal Christianson and Matthew Kristoff
Listen for free

LIMITED TIME OFFER | Get 2 Months for ₹5/month

About this listen

 In this podcast we explore the concept of fire as a tool for ecological health and cultural empowerment by indigenous people around the globe. Good Fire is a term used to describe fire that is lit intentionally to achieve specific ecological and cultural goals. Good fire is about balance. Biological Sciences Nature & Ecology Science Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Reigniting Relationships: Indigenous Fire Stewardship and Community Resilience

    Reigniting Relationships: Indigenous Fire Stewardship and Community Resilience
    Jan 16 2026

    🔥 Reigniting Relationships: Indigenous Fire Stewardship and Community Resilience with Amy Cardinal Christianson, Alvin First Rider and Jordan Melograna

    Good Fire Podcast — Special Live Episode

    This episode of Good Fire was recorded in front of a live audience of 300 people at the Fire and Ice Symposium during the Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival, on Treaty 7 territory. What unfolds is not just a conversation about fire, but a gathering of stories—about land, memory, responsibility, and the work of rebuilding relationships that were deliberately broken.

    Resources

    Video from this episode: Reignition: Bringing Good Fire Back to the Land

    Alvin First Rider

    Jordan Melograna

    Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival

    Indigenous Leadership Initiative

    Blood Tribe Land Management

    Block by Block Creative

    Kainai Nation ignites the first Indigenous fire guardians program in Canada

    Reigniting Cultural Burning with the Blood Tribe Fire Guardians

    Show Notes

    Host Dr. Amy Cardinal Christianson (Métis, Treaty 8) is joined by Alvin First Rider of the Blood Tribe (Blackfoot Confederacy), along with visual storyteller Jordan Melograna from the Indigenous Leadership Initiative. Together, they reflect on Indigenous fire stewardship as a living practice—one rooted in sovereignty, cultural continuity, and care for future generations.

    Listeners are invited into a deeper understanding of good fire: fire as a gift, a teacher, and a tool for healing. Alvin shares how fire and bison have always shaped Blackfoot grasslands, and how restoring these relationships is both ecological work and an expression of Indigenous self-determination. From Fire Guardian programs on the Blood Reserve to community-led wildfire training in the North, the episode highlights how Indigenous Nations are reclaiming fire on their own terms—despite legal, financial, and colonial barriers that remain firmly in place.

    The conversation also explores how fire stewardship is year-round work. It includes winter planning, community education, youth training, and storytelling—long before flames ever touch the ground. Through lived examples, the episode challenges dominant narratives that frame fire only as disaster, replacing fear with knowledge, preparedness, and respect.

    A powerful thread throughout the episode is storytelling itself. Jordan reflects on the responsibility of documenting cultural fire in ways that are accountable to community, emphasizing co-authorship, consent, and long-term relationships over extraction. These stories—shared freely—are meant to shift public understanding, counter misinformation, and make visible the calm, collective, and deeply intentional nature of cultural burning.

    At its heart, this episode is about hope. While there is grief for the landscapes altered by fire exclusion and climate change, there is also determination and possibility. Indigenous fire stewardship is not a relic of the past—it is happening now, led by communities who know their lands intimately and are working every day to restore balance.

    Fire does not have to be something we fear. When practiced with care, knowledge, and respect, it can help heal the land—and our relationships with it.
    Show More Show Less
    Less than 1 minute
  • Fire In Our DNA with Elizabeth Azzuz and Margo Robbins

    Fire In Our DNA with Elizabeth Azzuz and Margo Robbins
    May 1 2025
    Good Fire Podcast by Amy Cardinal Christianson and Matthew KristoffStories of Indigenous fire stewardship, cultural and social empowerment, and environmental integrityFire In Our DNA with Elizabeth Azzuz and Margo RobbinsEpisode highlightIn this episode, Elizabeth Azzuz and Margo Robbins talk about restoring cultural fire in their tribal territory and across the world.ResourcesCultural Fire Management CouncilElizabeth AzzuzMargo RobbinsThe California Endowment: Building Healthy CommunitiesIndigenous Peoples Burning Networkhttps://www.elementalfilm.com/“Firelighters: Fire is Medicine” movie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AskCYsXWKpA&t=1sSponsorsCanada WildfireIndigenous Leadership InitiativeQuotes05.06 - 5.27: “Fire has an amazing effect on not just the land and the health of the land and the resources that it produces but it is in fact a way to bring health back to our communities.” 05.57 - 06.07: “Fire is one of the ways to reconnect us to the land around us and our ancestors and our cultural lifeways.” 19.00 - 19.05: “It seems like, oftentimes, women are the movers and shakers in the community.” TakeawaysMeet Elizabeth Azzuz (1.45)Elizabeth Azzuz is a Yurok Tribe member, a descendent of the Karuk Tribe and has ties to the Metis Nation as well. She began burning at age 4 when her grandfather decided to teach her after watching her play with matches. She’s always loved what fire can do to restore the environment and provide food, medicine and basket materials. She takes great joy in training younger generations to carry this knowledge forward. Meet Margo Robbins (02.57)Margo Robbins is the executive director of Cultural Fire Management Council (CFMC) and is a member of the Yurok Tribe. As a basket weaver, she saw the tradition dying out because of regulations preventing cultural burning on their land, which is required to reproduce new single shoots of hazel needed for weaving the frames of baskets. She was about to become a grandmother and wanted her grandchildren to be carried in traditional baskets. So, she conveyed this to The California Endowment.Loss of cultural identity (04.32)As a CFMC cofounder, Margo realized that many young Indigenous people are losing their connection to their identity as Yurok people, which manifests in unhealthy behaviours like using drugs and alcohol. She emphasizes that working with fire is in their DNA as a people and their true calling. Before working in fire, she worked in the school system and used to include information on fire in her lessons as well. Now her focus is on restoring the land and helping other tribal people reclaim their fire traditions as well.“We didn’t take no for an answer” (07.44)Margo marvels at how the fire-creation stories of many different tribes have a lot in common. Margo had just finished her first burn in CFMC when she met Elizabeth who also expressed interest in joining. She narrates the story of how CFMC came to be, and how they have worked to make cultural burning possible now. They knew the dangers of fuel buildup and so recruited volunteers, developed a partnership with Nature Conservancy and conducted community training sessions to be allowed to burn. Dual win (12.45)After several years of burning on a volunteer basis, CFMC finally received a million-dollar wildfire prevention grant through CAL FIRE in 2019. With limited burn windows and specific burn schedules, they also did home protection and roadside clearance to provide full-time jobs to the employees. They chose places rich in cultural resources to burn so that they could provide “important cultural resources for the community while also providing wildfire protection in an area that is rated as extremely high fire risk”.“A place that will be ours” (15.00)Elizabeth shares that they recently purchased 140 acres for CFMC, a unit they have burned on a few times before, which is also close to Margo’s home. She is excited about the possibility of the first Indigenous fire training facility in California. Having their own space means they don’t have to borrow Tribal facilities, and they can bring on more staff. The two buildings that the property comes with have been assigned for training and parking fire engines, respectively. Comfort in their territory (17.56)Elizabeth believes the longevity and stability of the organization come from the women in the tribal community, evident in the common thought processes shared in the board meeting conversations. Margo quips about how they have had to shift gears many times to bring the training center dream to fruition. They built CFMC based on learnings from other organizations but created partnerships and terminology to cater to the needs and sensibilities of the Yurok people specifically. “Happy and joyful” (23.23)It makes Elizabeth happy to see the organization grow and expand in a natural way. Margo explains how they balance the needs of the government along with those of the tribes in ...
    Show More Show Less
    Less than 1 minute
  • The Power of Fire and Memory with Lisa Shepherd and Paul Courtoreille

    The Power of Fire and Memory with Lisa Shepherd and Paul Courtoreille
    Apr 24 2025
    The Power of Fire and Memory with Lisa Shepherd and Paul Courtoreille Episode highlightIn this episode, Lisa Shepherd and Paul Courtoreille share personal memories and cultural insights into fire’s role within Métis traditions. From childhood experiences to modern applications, they discuss fire's ability to connect communities, heal the land, and preserve Métis heritage.ResourcesLisa ShepherdMétis Nation of AlbertaParks Canada Indigenous ConnectionsMétis CrossingRocky Mountain House National Historic Site SponsorsCanada WildfireIndigenous Leadership InitiativeQuotes1.07.33 - 1.07.09: “In order for us to gain back that which was almost disappeared, we need to be able to live in our truth, which… means… being able to recognize the land is in us... it’s where we come from, it’s what we are made up of.”TakeawaysA Journey to Reclaim Language and Culture (4.33)Lisa introduces herself, acknowledging her Métis and Italian heritage. While she didn’t grow up speaking Cree, she is now learning it to reclaim her cultural roots. Lisa expresses the importance of integrating language into daily life, not just for herself but for her children and future generations. This reconnection is part of her broader goal as a Métis artist to revitalize cultural practices and traditions lost due to colonization.Childhood Memories of Cultural Burns (6.14)Lisa shares a childhood memory of participating in a cultural burn at four years old. She vividly describes walking alongside the fire, stepping on flames, and watching it roll across the grass. This moment stands out as a formative experience, showing the unity of her community and fire’s life-giving role. Paul adds his perspective, recalling how fire was integral to his family’s life for ceremonies, cooking, and traditional healing, as taught by his grandfather, a medicine man.Fire as the “Little Fire Within Us” (8.14)Paul describes fire as part of all life, comparing it to the mitochondria within our cells that produce energy. He reflects on his upbringing in the Gift Lake Métis Settlement, where fire was central to both practical and spiritual life. He emphasizes how deeply fire is connected to the Métis worldview, symbolizing energy, connection, and renewal.Language and Fire’s Cultural Connection (11.19)Paul explores linguistic ties between Cree words and fire, explaining how the language reflects fire’s cultural significance. While Cree lacks root words, its descriptive nature ties fire to various concepts and practices, deepening its role within Métis traditions.Displacement and the Loss of Knowledge (15.44)Lisa discusses the historical displacement of Métis people from Jasper National Park in 1907. This forced removal disrupted traditional practices, cutting off communities from their land and cultural knowledge. She recounts efforts by Parks Canada to reconnect with Indigenous communities and foster truth-telling about these historical injustices. Lisa highlights the complex expectations placed on Métis people, who are often expected to retain Indigenous knowledge despite the colonial disruptions that made it difficult to do so.Fire as the Heartbeat of the Community (19.14)Lisa reflects on the metaphorical “fire in the belly” that drives Métis people to reclaim their traditions and language. She emphasizes that humans are not separate from nature but deeply intertwined. Connecting with the land and engaging in cultural practices helps restore this sense of unity and well-being.Including Children in Fire Practices (25.45)Lisa shares how her son participated in a recent cultural burn, documenting the experience through photography. She notes the importance of involving children in fire practices to demystify its role and teach them how fire can renew and heal the land. Lisa believes that hands-on experiences help children understand the responsibility and respect required when working with fire.Watching Fire Come to Life (28.50)Lisa describes how observing the movements of fire during a cultural burn, including the spiralling patterns of smoke, deepened her appreciation for its spirit and vitality. These firsthand experiences, she explains, cannot be replicated through imagination alone—they require presence and connection to the land.Revitalizing Practices Through Art and Storytelling (33.00)Lisa speaks about creating a children’s book that teaches the sacred relationship between fire and land. The project began with an image of a rabbit she envisioned during a brainstorming session. Through intricate beadwork and storytelling, she sought to illustrate fire’s positive role while ensuring the book remained engaging and accessible for children.The Challenges of Fire Stewardship Today (39.16)Paul reflects on his experience as a trapper and his deep understanding of the land and its interconnected ecosystems. He shares how modern practices and environmental changes, such as diminishing food sources for muskrats, have ...
    Show More Show Less
    Less than 1 minute
No reviews yet