In this episode, we welcome Elizabeth Azzuz, Director of Traditional Fire for the Cultural Fire Management Council [https://www.culturalfire.org/]. Join us as Elizabeth shares her profound insights on cultural fire practices from the Yurok and Karuk traditions and their significance in promoting ecological balance and cultural sovereignty. We delve into the historical context of fire suppression, the urgent need for Indigenous-led fire management practices, and the deep-rooted connection between fire and the ecosystem. Discover how cultural burning not only enhances wildlife habitats but also fosters a sense of community responsibility and respect for Mother Earth.

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Since time immemorial, many Indigenous peoples have used fire to tend and care for the lands, to help the ecosystem and all inhabitants of the forest to flourish together in balance, and to sustain culture for future generations. Given the growing urgency around climate change, the greater scope and intensity of fires, and the long legacy of colonization and its impacts upon our environment, cultural burning is now being more widely embraced and recognized for its value — this after 100 years of fire suppression and criminalization of Indigenous practices around fire and tending the land in a prescient and balanced way.

We had her on the show in 2020 to discuss her work using Traditional Native Yurok and Karuk methods of what is called cultural burning to protect forests and local communities, heal degraded ecosystems, and reestablish forest-grown food, medicine, and products, so check our archives for Episode 83.

LISTEN: https://wilderutopia.com/ecojustice-radio/cultural-fire-native-land-management-and-regeneration-2/

For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

Also the films for clips are:

Firetender on PBS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU7g7vMnKfE

Firelighter: Fire is Medicine https://www.pbs.org/video/firelighters-fire-is-medicine-fzumwo/

Elizabeth Azzuz, Director of Family and Traditional Burning Programs for the Cultural Fire Management Council [https://www.culturalfire.org/] based in Northern California. A cultural fire practitioner, also gathers and propagates traditional food and medicinal plants. Of Yurok and Karuk descent, she comes from and lives in her ancestral territory where the Trinity River flows into the Klamath on the North Coast of California. Elizabeth is a mother and grandmother; at the age of four she learned about burning from her grandfather.

Carry Kim, Co-Host of EcoJustice Radio. An advocate for ecosystem restoration, Indigenous lifeways, and a new humanity born of connection and compassion, she is a long-time volunteer for SoCal350, member of Ecosystem Restoration Camps, and a co-founder of the Soil Sponge Collective, a grassroots community organization dedicated to big and small scale regeneration of Mother Earth.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/

Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

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Executive Producer and Intro: Jack Eidt

Hosted by Carry Kim

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Episode 254

Photo credit: kiliiiyuyan