Cycles of Renewal: Returning Good Fire to the Chumash Homelands

Fire has always been a part of life in southern California. Climate change and current fire management practices have led to catastrophic losses and impacts to human health, infrastructure and ecosystems, as seen, for example, in the 2018 Montecito debris flow. Indigenous wisdom instructs that rather than suppressing fire, we should seek to be in good relationship with fire. This project centers the voices of Chumash people by revitalizing their good relationship with fire in Chumash homelands. This revitalization comes at a critical time for both fire management and revitalization of Indigenous cultural burning practices in the southwest. The project will enable the recovery and documenting of Chumash knowledge related to cultural burns, through videos and StoryMaps, some of which will be shared beyond Chumash communities. The project will also enable the training and equipping of Chumash fire stewards, and will build social capital with non-Indigenous land managers to support cultural burns. This foundation will support a future in which Chumash voices lead the revitalization of fire in their homelands, and where cultural burns are routinely used to reduce damaging fire and increase ecosystem resilience as well as food and material availability for Chumash lifeways.