First Nations evacuations complicated by legacy of residential schools, expert says

While evacuations are generally stressful situations, one expert says they can be especially so for First Nations communities and residential school survivors.

As wildfires continue to burn across B.C. — particularly in remote areas of the Interior — there has been conflict between First Nations and emergency personnel over when and if to leave.

Chief Joe Alphonse of the Tl'etinqox First Nation community of Anaham Reserve announced some members of the community would be staying behind to protect their community, in violation of an evacuation order issued Sunday.

Amy Christianson, a fire research scientist in Edmonton with the Canadian Forest Service at Natural Resources Canada, has studied situations where First Nations people have been forced to evacuate from their homes.

"We've talked to hundreds of First Nations people who have gone through these situations and it is highly stressful for them. They're getting sent out of their communities with very little warning time to places that they are very unfamiliar with," she said.

"[A lot of] our participants are saying in future evacuations they won't leave their community again."

Reserve conditions make evacuation difficult

Christianson, who identifies as Métis, said Indigenous people have used fires — including controlled fires — for thousands of years, but the current conditions on reserves make First Nations more vulnerable to the impacts of wildfires.

"A higher proportion of their population is either young or elderly. There's lower income levels on reserve. There's overcrowding in housing. Reserves are also remote and there's limited access in some of them, especially what you're seeing in Northern B.C.," she said.

"There's also a lack of transportation. Not as many people have vehicles or access to vehicles or if they needed to evacuate from their house, their house may have between like 10 and 20 people that live there that need to get into one vehicle."

Forced removal a trigger

The historic legacy of residential schools also complicates things, she said, as the evacuations can revive painful memories of authorities stepping in to forcibly remove children or experiences of the schools themselves.

"They're being taken from their home. They're being put in an evacuation centre where they're very unfamiliar with. They're having to sleep in a room with lots of other people. They have to line up for food. They have to use communal bathrooms. They're sometimes separated from friends and families," she explained.

"When we're planning evacuations, we have to take that into consideration."

Ways to ease process

Christianson said there are ways of better conducting evacuations, like involving nearby reserves in the emergency planning.

"[In previous instances] those evacuations were less stressful for people because they were kind of in a setting that was more familiar to them. They had similar culture and access to more similar foods."

This is already happening in B.C.

For example, Chief Roger William of the Xeni Gwet'in of Nemaia Valley near Williams Lake says his community — which is not under evacuation order — is helping nearby First Nations communities with food and other necessities as well as welcoming several evacuees.

Christianson also pointed out in Kamloops the Tk'emlúps First Nation conducted a water ceremony at an evacuation centre to add a spiritual, healing component to the experience.

She said it could be beneficial to look at alternatives to evacuations in future, adding countries like Australia have implemented a stay and defend system, where plans are developed well in advance to empower communities to shelter in place and protect themselves from fire.

With files from Daybreak South