Karuk Tribe and SWCASC Fellows Release Intentional Fire Podcast Series

The Karuk Tribe Department of Natural Resources recently released a podcast series in collaboration with the 2020-2021 cohort of the SW CASC Natural Resources Workforce Development (NRWD) Fellowship. Intentional Fire discusses cultural and prescribed burning, the barriers to intentional fire, and possible solutions. Through interviews with traditional practitioners, the podcast seeks to amplify the practitioners’ connection to, and advocacy for, intentional fire. 

The podcast begins with an episode about Karuk master basket weaver, Verna Reece, released on September 9, 2022. The episode discusses Verna’s struggles against colonization and mismanagement of the land and highlights the importance of community weaving to the foundation of intentional burning. In their most recent episode from October 1, 2022, “Decolonizing Fire with Chook-Chook Hillman,” the hosts interview Chook-Chook Hillman about his role in the Western Klamath Restoration Partnership’s (WKRP) latest project, which aims to create and maintain conditions to return fire to the World Renewal Ceremony at Katimin.

The creators hope that the podcast “gives a voice to those impacted by fire suppression and fire exclusion and is an opportunity to learn from Karuk People about their relationship to fire.”