Paper short abstract:

Based on collaborative action anthropological and St‘át‘imc research, we examine St‘át‘imc peoples’ political and social attention to the (hi)stories and reclamation processes of key fire and water places during the age of colonial jurisdictions, a rapidly changing climate and decolonial activism.

Paper long abstract:

Fire and water are radically entangled in Interior Salish St‘át‘imc water management, past and present, in and around the Fraser River Valley of British Columbia. The influence of fire and controlled burning on how wetlands and riverine environments function is re-emerging as a prominent topic of discussion among researchers, activists and policy-makers, and further social scientific research is sorely lacking. We address this gap by providing a detailed picture of how Upper St‘át‘imc across the vastly diverse coastal mountains and the dry Interior Plateau region are envisioning and practising the revitalization of controlled burning to heal mountains and forests and reclaim sacred places and practices within a traditional territory during the age of a rapidly changing climate and activism. Knowledge and practices centering on the reciprocal kind of balance, predictability and stewardship of these key elements offers an important questioning of the (in)adequacy of colonial, scientific and non-Indigenous attitudes and governance regimes of land, water, and (wild)fire management.

Water and fire as ancestral, sentient and mythical beings and affective, moral or spiritual engagements with water’s aesthetics and sacred qualities as a solution to flooding, out-of-control destructive wildfires, insect infestations, landslides and water contamination will be a key focus. We question the seeming universal indispensability of water which prompts our cross-cultural comparisons and the consideration of the status of such universals. Reflections on the entanglement of Indigenous title, rights and the protection of the land through collective land use planning strategies will be shared.