Melinda Adams: Cultural fire and the longings of the land
Green Dreamer: Seeding change towards collective healing, sustainability, regeneration
Kaméa Chayne
4.8 • 694 Ratings
🗓️ 11 September 2025
⏱️ 54 minutes
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Summary
How does historical processes of colonization relate to the increasing prevalence of more intense, destructive wildfires? How can Indigenous-led cultural burning support the regeneration of fire-dependent ecosystems — as well as the healing of communities experiencing "solastalgia"? And how are fire cycles and water cycles entangled?
In this episode, Green Dreamer’s Kaméa is joined by Dr. Melinda Adams, an Indigneous fire scientist who belongs to the N’dee, San Carlos Apache Tribe. A cultural fire practitioner and scholar, Dr. Adams’ research focuses on the revitalization of cultural fire with Tribes in California and more recently with Tribes in the Midwest.
Join us as we explore the longings of the land for cultural fire rooted in right relations, and what it means to move from ecological grief towards an empowerment to participate in biocultural revitalization.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The world can feel like a lot these days, especially for those of us who kind of want to do the |
| 0:07.5 | both end of staying grounded so we can be present in our lives and show up as our best selves |
| 0:14.3 | for our loved ones and our communities and ourselves, while also staying informed about the overwhelming state of the world and the planet. |
| 0:26.0 | And this is why it's so important for us to nurture a solid ritual or regular practice of mindfulness, |
| 0:33.7 | or as I like to invite in more radical iterations of that, practices of earthfulness that connect |
| 0:40.3 | us to our broader webs of life. So I want to take this quick moment to gently remind us, |
| 0:46.4 | because I'm very much working on this every day myself as well, but just to remind us to keep |
| 0:52.0 | turning to whatever practices that help us to stay rooted |
| 0:55.6 | and inspired. And also, if you're curious to engage with the practices that we created and |
| 1:02.9 | curated, specifically based on inspirations from this podcast, and translating a lot of our |
| 1:09.6 | kind of head-heavy learnings here into more creative, |
| 1:14.3 | sensorial, and body-centered practices, I invite you to check out Alchemize radical imagination |
| 1:21.3 | for collective transformation, Green Dreamers 12-week, self-, audio-based program of daily imagination and creative practices. |
| 1:32.4 | Enrollment is open now, and you can learn more at greendreamer.com slash alchemize. |
| 1:38.7 | I don't know a cultural fire practitioner that I work with that doesn't relate the positive benefits of fire |
| 1:46.3 | to the positive benefits of water. It's always in conversation. They're not separate, not ecologically, |
| 1:54.9 | biologically, and certainly not culturally. |
| 2:07.0 | You're listening to Green Dreamer, and I'm your host, Kamehashane. |
| 2:13.3 | I'm so honored today to share my latest conversation with Dr. Melinda Adams, |
| 2:18.9 | an indigenous fire scientist who belongs to the Indy San Carlos Apache tribe. |
| 2:25.4 | A cultural fire practitioner and scholar, her research focuses on the revitalization of cultural fire with tribes in California and most recently with tribes in the Midwest. |
| 2:31.0 | As I'm recording this voiceover right now, there's actually a forest fire within a |
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