Presentation short abstract

This research developed a decision-support tool with two Eeyou communities to challenge colonial fire management. By braiding Indigenous knowledge with spatial risk modeling, it empowers communities to reclaim fire sovereignty through collaborative and culturally relevant risk mitigation.

Presentation long abstract

In Canada’s boreal forests, state-sponsored fire management operates through intensive suppression near critical assets and a passive “let-it-burn” policy in remote areas. This approach, rooted in colonial dispossession, removes Indigenous knowledge and stewardship from the land, framing fire solely as a hazard. For the Eeyouch of Nemaska and Wemindji (northwestern Quebec, Canada), fire is intertwined with multigenerational experience, knowledge, forest management and biodiversity. Risk management policies, crafted through federal-provincial-local interactions and enacted by Quebec’s Forest Fire Protection Agency (SOPFEU), overexpose Eeyou landscape values to increasing risks, while traditional fire sovereignty is suppressed. This presentation draws from the colonial politics of fire management in Eeyou Istchee to propose culturally relevant decision-support guidelines for fire risk mitigation. Developed through collaborative research with Nemaska and Wemindji land users and practitioners, this tool integrates Eeyou knowledge and landscape values with spatial risk modeling. It empowers communities to evaluate mitigation strategies such as cultural burning, firebreaks, and forest thinning based on their efficiency in protecting culturally important areas, cost, and alignment with the Mino Pimatiseewin, the Cree way of life. We argue that such a tool challenges the colonial logic of state-controlled risk management by recentering Indigenous knowledge and land-based authority. By enabling Eeyou practitioners to prioritize interventions on their cultural and ecological priorities, the framework acts as a medium for collaborative forest management with non-Indigenous practitioners. This case offers a critical pathway for reclaiming fire sovereignty, positioning Indigenous fire stewardship as essential for resilience in an era of polycrises.