By Darlene Donloe
Contributing Writer
WESTWOOD — The Fowler Museum at UCLA is hosting “Fire Kinship: Southern California Native Ecology and Art,” an exhibition that explores the historical and cultural significance of controlled fire practices in Native American communities.
Ironically, the exhibit’s opening celebration, scheduled for Jan. 11, and its exhibition walk-through, scheduled for Jan. 12, were postponed due to the wildfires in the Los Angeles area.
The exhibit officially opened Jan. 22.
Museum officials understand they are walking a thin line by presenting the exhibition as a force of renewal while thousands are still trying to recover from the fires that ravaged the Southland. The exhibit’s presentation during sorrow, devastation and tension certainly summons a conversation.
In a statement. Silvia Forni, the museum’s Shirley and Ralph Shapiro director, said: “Our hearts are with all those who are grieving and recovering from the recent devastating wildfires that have upended lives, displaced families, and reshaped communities across Southern California. We extend our deepest gratitude to the firefighters, first responders, and tribal nations who have worked tirelessly to protect lives and land during this crisis.
“The Fire Kinship: Southern California Native Ecology and Art exhibition has been years in the making,” Forni added. “When we were developing its content, we could not foresee the tragic circumstances currently affecting our city. Yet the show could not be more timely.”
The statement added: “For centuries, native communities in Southern California have lived in a deep relationship with fire — not as a destructive force, but as a regenerative one. This exhibition tells a story of ancestral knowledge and the healing practices of controlled fire, known as cultural burning, which has been integral to maintaining the health of the land, ecosystems and communities.
“The Fire Kinship exhibition seeks to provide insight into and honor the wisdom of Indigenous fire stewardship and its potential to restore balance, reduce the risk of catastrophic fires, and renew the land for future generations.’
The exhibition, which runs through July 13, presents a living history that centers on the expertise of the Tongva, Cahuilla, Luiseño and Kumeyaay communities through objects, stories, videos, images and newly commissioned works from contemporary artists. These include baskets, ollas, rabbit sticks, bark skirts and canoes that highlight the importance of fire in Native American culture.
Fire tempers and hardens clay vessels used for cooking and storing food. It helps cultivate plant materials employed in the making of baskets, blankets, capes, and skirts, fire thins out Juncus patches, allowing new shoots to grow. It also softens the tar that makes them seaworthy when spread on cottonwood canoes.
“Fire Kinship” incites viewers to drastically rethink their relationship not only with fire but also with the Earth, which provides home, food, and water, and to accept that native ecological techniques are not just stories from the past but feasible practices that hold profound knowledge for the future. The embodied traditions can pointedly contribute to the health of the air, water, agriculture, art making, cultural heritage, and finally — the survival of humanity.
“Southern California native communities are bringing fire practices back from dormancy,” said Curator Daisy Ocampo Diaz. “Colonization, both past and present, disrupted a cycle that honored fire at the center and caused Earth-wrenching ramifications. Native communities have been holding on to these gentle burns despite California’s ravaging by flames. We are all part of this story, and it is a time for listening and (un)learning.”
As seen in recent weeks, in California, the frequency and ferocity of uncontrolled wildfires have an enormous impact on people and property — and represent brutal evidence of the erasure of native ecological practices.
Before the colonization of Southern California in the 18th century, native communities throughout the region deployed controlled fire regimes to safeguard the well-being of their local ecosystems.
Fire-based land management practices ranged from minor burns to spike healthy growth to larger ones that cleverly eliminated invasive species and decreased fuel loads (preventing catastrophic natural fires).
Baskets frequently represent identity and kinship with the land and are central to ritual practices and ceremonies. Fire Kinship documents and celebrates the intergenerational knowledge passed among basket weavers.
The exhibition also illustrates the significance of the Land Back movement, which advocates for native communities’ ability to reclaim access to and ownership of ancestral lands. Such access is currently limited by private property boundaries, public land laws and management practices.
Access and ownership must be restored for cultural burns and fire practitioners to flourish.
“I often wondered what comes after the movement to decolonize museums,” said Lina Tejeda, who has a master’s degree in history from Cal State San Bernardino. “What’s next after exposing the power dynamics in early collecting practices? For native people, giving a voice to the land is what’s important. We do this through relationships, tending to plants, and creating baskets. Fire Kinship is about forging a future where people, land, and fire stewardship are all part of the same effort to heal and strengthen our communities.”
New commissions from contemporary artists respond to the exhibition’s cultural objects, inviting a discourse of analysis, reflection and futurity. Some works use the color and growth patterns of the California poppy as a point of reflection, as wildfires influence the well-being of this state flower.
Commissioned artists include Weshoyot Alvitre (Dormidera portrait series honoring indigenous women), Summer Paa’ila Herrera (ceramic vessel and skirt), Emily Clarke (Womanfire poem), Gerald Clarke Jr. (multimedia work The Heart is Fire), Leah Mata Fragua (The Sunis On the Ground), and Lazaro Arvizu (Sand Acknowledgment).
“Fire Kinship” is organized by the Fowler Museum at UCLA and curated by Daisy Ocampo Diaz, assistant professor of history at Cal State San Bernardino; Michael Chavez (Tongva), former Fowler archaeological collections manager and NAGPRA project manager; and Lina Tejeda of Cal State San Bernardino.
The exhibition is part of the nation’s largest art event, Getty’s PST ART: Art & Science Collide. The exhibition has been shaped through collaborations with key community leaders throughout Southern California: Lazaro Arvizu (Gabrieleno/Nahua), Marlene’ Dusek (Payómkawichum, Kúupangawish, Kumeyaay, and Czech), William Madrigal (Cahuilla/ Payómkawichum), Wesley Ruise Jr. (Burn Boss and La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians Fire Department Chief), Stanley Rodriguez (Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel), William Pink (Cupeño), Lorene Sisquoc (Fort Sill Apache, Mountain Cahuilla descendant), and Myra Masiel-Zamora (Pechanga Band of Indians).
“Fire Kinship” follows Fowler’s presentation of Sangre de Nopal/Blood of the Nopal, which launched the PST ART initiative at the museum last July. It will be the closing exhibition of PST ART (a collaborative arts event that explores the intersection of art and science), the largest art event in the U.S.
The Fowler Museum, a renowned museum dedicated to global arts and cultures with an emphasis on Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and the indigenous Americas, will offer community events and educational programs in conjunction with the run of Fire Kinship. The events and programs will be announced on their website in the coming months.
Darlene Donloe is a freelance reporter for Wave Newspapers who covers South Los Angeles. She can be reached at ddonloe@gmail.com.
