Settler fire management: an examination of wildfire policy, practice, and research in the boreal forest region of Northern Saskatchewan

In this dissertation, I provide a place-based examination of settler fire management in the Boreal Forest region of what is lately known as the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. In Chapter 1, I start with a historical examination of settler colonialism in the kistapinānihk, or Prince Albert, region of the province, which is my home community and the site of state-led wildfire management in Saskatchewan. Drawing from Indigenous studies and settler colonial studies research, I argue that settler colonialism in the region is characterized by: the violation of agreements with Indigenous Nations, communities and people; ecological change for the purpose of developing and maintaining settler economies; and settler-led conquest characterized by genocide and Indigenous erasure. In Chapter 2, I describe anti-colonial placed-based research, including how my positioning as a non-Indigenous settler researcher informed my research topics, questions, methods and analysis. In the subsequent article-style chapters, I examine two areas of wildfire management in the province: (1) agency-led wildfire response and policy; and (2) wildfire research and practice as is characterized by dominant science and this dissertation. In Chapter 3, I examine the history of fire tower development in the province, including a recent shift towards remotely-operated cameras, showing how wildfire detection in the province has, at times, been colonial insofar as it renders Indigenous lands and labour exploitable to achieve settler state economic and political goals. In Chapter 4, I document the quarter-century long controversy about what many Indigenous northerners refer to as the ‘Let-it-Burn’ policy, showing how provincial practices of fire suppression render many Indigenous ‘values-at-risk’ expendable under the guiding premise that fires are ‘natural’ in certain regions. In Chapter 5, co-authors Robin Mcleod, Dr. Herman Michell and myself conduct a systematic literature review of wildfire science pertaining to climate change in the province, showing how Indigenous erasure permeates dominant scientific research practices, which in turn impacts scientific knowledge of wildfire issues. In Chapter 6, I examine these findings as they relate to Indigenous and settler jurisdiction, concepts of universalism and place-based knowledge, and settling as research practice. Reframing settling as an ethical orientation to uphold obligations with Indigenous Nations, I suggest that settlers may contribute to anti-colonialism within fire management and research by working collectively with Indigenous Nations to push back against practices of conquest and uphold agreements for shared jurisdiction.

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