As we look for new ways to confront environmental challenges, we also need to look to old ways, including those of indigenous communities.

Ron Goode, Tribal Chairman of the North Fork Mono Tribe, led UC Davis students through a cultural burn this past February. Students in Native American Studies Professor Beth Rose Middleton Manning’s class helped prepare the land and ignite the fire, contributing to a historic indigenous tradition. Cultural burning practices empower Native American communities, and could be a tool to help alleviate devastating wildfires.

“I’m not out here to destroy … I’m out here to restore and make new life,” Goode said.

Sinead Santich is a Bay Area filmmaker and a recent UC Davis graduate, where she studied filmmaking and environmental restoration.