Professor Emma Feltes participated in "Jurisdiction Back: Restoring Indigenous Governance through an Ethic of Care" at the University of Victoria's First Peoples House, September 25-26, 2025.
The symposium was organized by Dr. Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark, Sarah Hunt/Tłaliłila’ogwa, and Sarah Morales. It was funded by and organized as part of the SSHRC Partnership grant Infrastructure Beyond Extractivism, on which Professor Feltes is a co-applicant.
Feltes was invited to present the research she is currently doing in partnership with the Yunesit'in Fire Stewardship Program, Gathering Voices Society, and Tŝilhqot’in National Government, examining whether there may be a constitutionally-protected Aboriginal right to steward fire through the practice of burning the land to protect it (sometimes known as 'cultural burning').
She presented "'If you want it to regrow, you have to burn it': Learning about Care from Fire," and has now been invited to contribute a chapter to the edited volume coming out of the symposium with University of Toronto Press.
This intimate conference, which was wrapped in Indigenous legal protocol, prompted me to think about Aboriginal rights through a lens I had never considered before—whether there could be an Indigenous right to care for the land. Getting to explore a creative legal argument like this, surrounded by some of my heroes in the field, while at the same time guided by Indigenous law, was one of those special scholarly experiences.
- Professor Emma Feltes
Watch conference video recordings, download the program or learn more about speakers.