The Selk'nam people were thought to be extinct while the Māori saw their influence grow, and the Ojibwe fought for recognition and sovereign rights. In three high-latitude forests, full of soggy soil and peat bogs, fire was just a "sometimes" occurrence. In a hotter climate with erratic drought, the fires are now here, burning through temperate rainforest and even underground in ancient peat layers.
Meeting with the Selk'nam survivors of genocide in Chile's ultra-remote Tierra del Fuego, this project examines how they're recapturing their traditional ecological knowledge while partnering with a massive park named after their ancestral lands. In Northland, New Zealand, firefighters and the Māori scramble to protect sacred kauri trees from out-of-control trash fires. They'll also contend with global and sweeping plant pathogens, invasive species, and hotter firefighting days.
Lessons from the Ojibwe and Lakota regions of the American Upper Midwest share how wild animals influence firefighting. All sides now combat peat fire, one of the toughest on Earth to extinguish.
