Meet the speaker for SAFE Connections:
Dr. melinda Adams
Indigenous Cultural Fire: Implications for Research, Policy, and Data Sovereignty in California and Beyond
Join us on April 15th from 2-3pm PDT to learn more about Dr. Melinda Adam’s career as a cultural fire practitioner and scholar. This talk with synthesize the research opportunities and barriers as well as policy-to-practice execution of cultural fire, concentrating first on California, then offering examples throughout the U.S. and other parts of the world. With particular attention to data sovereignty, discussion will elucidate the significance of working with Tribes and state/federal agencies while offering decolonial frameworks towards addressing the wildfire crisis.
Dr. Melinda Adams is a member of the N’dee San Carlos Apache Tribe and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Atmospheric Science at the University of Kansas. A cultural fire practitioner and scholar, her research focuses on the revitalization of cultural fire with Tribes in California and more recently with Tribes in the Midwest (USA). Her work with Indigenous communities lives at the nexus of ecology/environmental science, environmental policy, and Indigenous studies methodologies. As a fire scholar, Dr. Adams concentrates on encouraging public participation in prescribed and controlled burns, getting more people fire certified, and placing more Indigenous-led cultural fire to the ground with allies, agencies, and Tribal members, “decolonizing fire” as she describes. Dr. Adams holds her Bachelor of Science from Haskell Indian Nations University (one of thirty-seven Tribal Colleges located in the U.S.), her Master of Science from Purdue University, and PhD from the University of California, Davis.
For more information, Dr. Adams recommends the following papers:
The Good Fire: The Return of Indigenous Fire Stewardship chapter in Status of Tribes and Climate Change V2 highlights cultural fire initiatives in S. Cal, N. Cal and the Great Lakes region.
Indigenous Fire Data Sovereignty is a data sovereignty framework that seeks to protect Indigenous fire knowledge, linking to cultural fire reclamation in the U.S., Canada, and Australia.
Solastalgia addresses environmental/climate grief and how Indigenous cultural fire may be a salve to address disaster eco-anxiety.
