Fire Kinship: Southern California Native Ecology and Art

Fire has always been part of land management and cultural practices among Indigenous Californians. But the settlers who moved into the state associated fire with untamed wildfires and outlawed prescribed fires. Fire Kinship: Southern California Native Ecology and Art examines how three Southern California Indian communities—the Tongva, Ivilyuqaletem (Cahuilla), and Payómkawichum (Luiseño)—historically used fire to replenish the land and spur plant growth. The exhibition unites a wide range of Indigenous art objects embedded with traditional ecological knowledge about fire, including baskets, bark skirts, canoes, and more. It places these historical artifacts in dialogue with newly commissioned videos, sculptures, photographs, and installations by artists from those same Southern California communities who offer innovative ideas about the role fire might play in our collective future.