INSIDE THE REZ CROSS: AN ASSESSMENT OF HOSTING EVACUEES DURING A WILDFIRE DISASTER IN BEARDY’S & OKEMASIS FIRST NATION

Wildfires in northern Saskatchewan cause evacuations of Indigenous communities every year in summer. The summer of 2015 brought with it one of the most destructive and widespread wildfire season in Saskatchewan history, provoking massive evacuations of northern communities to shelters in urban centres across the province. Alongside provincial and local governments and the Red Cross, First Nations also took the lead in organizing and establishing their own evacuation centres on their reserves. This research considers the case of Beardy’s and Okemasis First Nation’s emergency response (through “Rez Cross”), which adopted a culturally-based approach to hosting evacuees. To understand how planning for and responding to wildfire emergencies can be more inclusive of cultural values, I created and designed a comprehensive wildfire emergency management framework. This framework is based on a literature review and qualitative methodology consisting of document analysis and semi-structured interviews. The literature review considers three key themes. First, the concept of effectiveness is used to understand critical elements in developing and evaluating an emergency plan. Second, a dual perspective considering both processes and outcomes is used to extract key meanings in planning and implementing emergency plans. Third, the role of culture in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is considered, specifically, using evidence from Indigenous-led emergency responses to determine how culture is incorporated and what impact cultural responses have on evacuated communities. Hand in hand with this literature review, I conducted document analysis and semi-structured interviews to gather insights from existing emergency guidelines and plans and from people involved with planning and implementing evacuations. I interviewed members of Beardy’s and Okemasis First Nation (BOFN), federal government officials, Red Cross representatives, and leaders of evacuated communities. The findings revealed that, in its emergency planning, BOFN developed a holistic culturally-based strategy rooted in inner cultural symbols, traditions, principles, and ideas that define BOFN as a community