The final episode of the Good Fire Podcast is an incredible conversation that helps to try and summarize some of the ideas we have discussed over the last 10 episodes. Jay Mistry has been working with and doing research in South America with Indigenous peoples for years, and she has a great perspective on many of the issues we have discussed. We talked about the role of cultural fire in Brazil and Venezuela, indigenous lead fire programs, and the challenges with colonial governments and how we can start to shift the conversation. Thank you for listening, we hope to bring you more episodes in the future.

Episode highlight
In this podcast, Jay Mistry talks about cultural fire in Brazil and Venezuela, Indigenous-led fire programs, and challenges with colonial governments.
Resources
Jay Mistry: https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/jay-mistry(21cb3408-1419-4ec2-9b70-bcf46c0bfac4).html
Sponsors
The Canadian Partnership for Wildland Fire Science
Support from:
● California Indian Water Commission
● Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation
Quotes

30.58 - 31.07: “Fire is not just a tool but it’s actually part of people’s culture as well and it’s actually quite linked into every… bit of their culture.”
Takeaways

Fire used differently in different ecosystems (01.27)
Though Jay had set out to study the effects of fire on vegetation, her research led her to the Indigenous peoples who conducted cultural burning, and their practices in the savannas.

Changing the fire paradigm (8.48)
Jay recalls that due to the strong focus on firefighting and fire prevention, Indigenous burning in Brazil was not well-received in the 90s, and in some cases, it still isn’t.

Making the case for Indigenous fire management (14.10)
Jay and Bibiana Bilbao of Simón Bolívar University in Venezuela have organized discussion groups and trust workshops for Indigenous peoples, government and academics.
 
Creating a safe space (20.33)
Jay highlights that the key to success in their workshops was that the Indigenous peoples trust them due to their long-term relationship.

The importance of Indigenous fire management in preventing climate change (26.23)
Jay speaks about a workshop held in Venezuela which brought Indigenous leaders to look at how Indigenous fire management could inform climate change mitigation policies.

Learning from Indigenous knowledge (35.07)
Jay cites a UN report that states that we must learn from Indigenous peoples’ sustainable practices, which can prevent the mass extinction of biodiversity.

Community and solutions (40.24)
Jay suggests adopting a positive and inquisitive approach in learning from local people how they practice conservation and natural resource management.

Paving the way forward with reconciliation (45.25)
Jay and her colleagues have received a grant to create an international Centre for Wildfires, Environment and Society to research global wildfires.

Our land, our rights (49.48)
Jay notes that since Indigenous knowledge is tied to the land, land tenure and land rights become important considerations to maintain biodiversity and reduce greenhouse gases.

Collective connectedness (54.46)
Jay has observed that Indigenous peoples “see themselves completely connected” as a collective, with the physical and spiritual ecosystems within nature.
You can get in touch with the hosts of this podcast via email: amy.christianson@canada.ca and yourforestpodcast@gmail.com.
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