Fire Kinship: Southern California Native Ecology and Art

Exhibit Runs: January 12 – July 13, 2025

@The Fowler Musuem at UCLA

Mark you calendars for the upcoming exhibit Fire Kinship: Southern California Native Ecology and Art.  It introduces fire as a generative element that connects us to our past and offers a collective path toward a sustainable future. The show presents a living history and expertise of the Tongva, Cahuilla, Luiseño, and Kumeyaay communities. 

Prior to the colonization of Southern California in the 18^th century, Native communities throughout the region used controlled fire practices to ensure the vitality of their local ecosystems. Fire-based land management practices ranged from small burns to spur healthy plant growth, to larger ones that strategically eradicated invasive species and reduced fuel loads (preventing catastrophic fires). Fire Kinship counters the attitudes of fear and illegality around fire, arguing for a return to Native practices, in which fire is regarded as a vital aspect of land stewardship, community wellbeing, and tribal sovereignty. These conversations have been shaped by key community leaders throughout Southern California: Lazaro Arvizu (Tongva), Marlene’ Dusek (Payómkawichum, Kúupangawish, Kumeyaay, and Czech), William Madrigal (Cahuilla/ Payómkawichum), Wesley Ruise Jr. (La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians), Stanley Rodriguez (Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel), William Pink (Pala Band of Luiseño Mission Indians), Lorene Sisquoc (Mountain Cahuilla/ Fort Sill Apache), and Myra Masiel-Zamora (Pechanga Band of Indians).

The baskets, ollas, rabbit sticks, bark skirts, and canoes presented in this exhibition were made possible through the relationship between people, place, and fire. Commissioned video, sculpture, portrait paintings, and installations by contemporary artists such as Weshoyot Alvitre (Tongva and Scottish), Emily Clarke (Cahuilla Band of Indians), Gerald Clarke Jr. (Cahuilla Band of Indians), Leah Mata Fragua (Yak Tityu Tityu Yak Tiłhini Northern Chumash), Summer Herrera (Payómkawichum), Lazaro Arvizu (Tongva), and Marlene’ Dusek (Payómkawichum, Kúupangawish, Kumeyaay, and Czech) respond to and rejoin the cultural and historical objects, spurring a dialogue of critique, reflection, and futurity. The exhibition presents a living history that centers the expertise of Tongva, Cahuilla, Luiseño, and Kumeyaay communities. Fire Kinship reintroduces fire as a generative element, one that connects us to our past and offers a collective path toward a sustainable future.