THE INDGEGOUS CULTURAL EVOLUTIONIST
The Indigenous Cultural Evolutionist explores Indigenous ways of being and celebrates Indigenous sovereign power and spiritual nourishment. In each episode, Kim shares blog posts, papers, or pieces she’s written reflecting on these themes and how they relate to Indigenous justice. She describes the podcast as a companion to her blog, linked here. Some episodes cover contemporary issues, such as the pandemic and white supremacy in Canada, while others dive deep into Indigenous cultural practices.
Episode Discussion| transcript | audio
“The Fire Creation Methodology and a Legacy with Indigenous Love”
The episode featured here titled was published in December of 2019 and walks listeners through the Syilx ritual of fire creation. Through focusing on the medium of fire, this episode illuminates insights into the sacredness of land and how greatly Indigenous relationships with land differ from settler communities.
Kim describes Fire Creation Methodology as the thoughtful, deliberate, and honorable process of building a fire and organizing a gathering around it. The process comprises multiple steps, including selecting a gathering place, inviting community members to gather, building the fire, the burn, and extinguishing the fire. Fire Creation is often collaborative, as the creator seeks help to gather the fire materials and closely monitor the burn. Partway through the episode, Kim describes fire as “a great equalizer” between all beings and as something that “removes hierarchy”. She notes that “every organism is cosmically interrelated” and that “we are all born with the power to peacefully coexist with mother earth”. The process of fire creation reflects the symbiotic relationships humans have with the land by being a process that ensures respective practice
During the episode, Kim says, “the land is not divided from humanity, it is one with humanity”. This philosophy, reflected through the Syilx Fire Creation Methodology, epitomizes the difference between settler and Indigenous relationships with the land. In “Mirroring Nature”, Murdock describes how settlers assert control and domination over nature, instead of interaction with the land. By contrast, Indigenous philosophies live through a more egalitarian worldview that prioritizes connection and reciprocity over a hierarchical system of control.1 In “Settler Colonialisms, Ecology, and Environmental Justice”, Whyte expands on these ideas by elucidating how settler colonialism, by definition, disrupts human relationships with the land, while Indigenous cultures view humanity and nature as interdependent, characterized through a relationship of respect and equality.2
This episode is helpful in understanding how Indigenous philosophies towards the land manifest in customary practices. Kim is also brilliant and uses language beautifully, producing an engaging and informative hour of listening.
1: Murdock, Esme. “Mirroring Nature.” Earth Island Journal. Earth Island Institute, 2019. https://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/magazine/entry/mirroring-nature/.
2: Whyte, Kyle. “Settler Colonialism, Ecology, and Environmental Injustice.” Environment and Society 9, no. 1 (2018): 125–44. https://doi.org/10.3167/ares.2018.090109.