Oakland Museum of California Announces New Exhibition Exploring Native Fire Practices and California’s Ecological Future
Oakland, CA — September 4, 2025 — The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) announces Good Fire: Tending Native Lands, a new special exhibition exploring how Native communities in Northern California have long used controlled fire—also called “good fire” or “cultural burning”—to care for the land and uphold traditions. The exhibition is organized in collaboration with Native fire practitioners, artists, ecologists, and cultural leaders based in Northern California (full list below).
At a time when catastrophic wildfires dominate headlines, Good Fire: Tending Native Lands reframes the narrative: fire is not solely a force of destruction, but also a vital tool for maintaining healthy ecosystems and sustaining cultural traditions. Through art, science, history, and storytelling, visitors will learn how fire can support biodiversity, enhance sources of food and medicine, and play a crucial role in Native basketry, regalia, and ceremony.
The exhibition begins with an immersive sensory environment simulating the experience of a cultural burn. Visitors hear the crackling of fire and joyful conversation as they encounter visuals of regrowth and regeneration—from basketry plants that rely on fire for their lifecycle, to baskets used for carrying babies, to stories that honor intergenerational traditions shaped by the skillful use of this elemental force. Grounding this experience, a map of California’s tribal territories highlights Native sovereignty and the deep, place-based knowledge that has informed these cultural practices for millennia.
This leads into the exhibition’s first section, “Working with Fire,” which features tools, narratives, and ecologies that underscore fire’s role in sustaining healthy ecosystems and Native ways of life.
Highlights include artworks by Harry Fonseca (Nisenan/Hawaiian/Portuguese), a fire story read by Linda Yamane (Rumsen Ohlone), and regalia by Tiśina Parker (Yosemite Southern Sierra Miwuk/Kucadikadi Mono Lake Paiute/Kashia Pomo), along with displays of plants whose seeds are stimulated by fire to germinate and cultural objects (regalia, baskets, etc.) dependent on fire.
The second section, “Good Fire, Interrupted,” confronts the colonial legacy of fire suppression, tracing how settler-colonialism criminalized cultural burns by Native people, contributing to degraded forests, biodiversity loss, and today’s megafires. Historical photographs, fire-scarred tree samples, and artworks by Brian D. Tripp (Karuk) and Saif Azzuz (Yurok/Libyan) examine environmental exploitation and the exclusion of Native stewardship from Native homelands.
The final section, “The Future of Fire,” looks forward. Several short films, including one by Roni Jo Draper (Yurok) and Marissa Lila Kongao, and another by Ashley Salaz (Coharie/Nahua) of Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, along with artwork by Renée Leann Castro-Ring (Ohlone), and baskets from Corine Pearce (Pomo), Patricia Franklin (Pomo), and the California Indian Basketweavers Association’s collection, illuminate ongoing resistance and cultural resilience. Visitors will learn about efforts like prairie restoration, Land Back campaigns, and collaborative cultural burns led by tribal communities across Northern California.
“This exhibition centers Native fire practitioners and culture bearers, whose knowledge is grounded in the specific ecologies of their homelands and thousands of years of experimentation,” says Ryder Diaz, OMCA Curator of Natural Sciences. “Good Fire invites visitors to expand their view of fire in Northern California and to respect and support the sovereignty of Native peoples, who have never ceded their right to care for their lands with fire.”
“From the very beginning, this exhibition has been shaped in close partnership with Native collaborators, whose guidance, stories, and practices are at the heart of Good Fire,” says Dr. Brittani R. Orona (Hupa), co-curator of the exhibition and Assistant Professor of Native American Studies at UC Davis. “By looking to their leadership, the exhibition not only honors traditions of the past, but also points to the future of land stewardship—one rooted in sovereignty, respect, and the continuance of relationships between people, fire, and place.”
PROJECT COLLABORATORS
Diana Almendariz, Cultural practitioner of Maidu/Wintun and Hupa/Yurok traditions
Weshoyot Alvitre, Tongva and Scottish, illustrator
Kimberly Avalos, photojournalist and producer
Elizabeth Azzuz, Cultural Fire Management Council, Director of Traditional Fire
Saif Azzuz, Yurok/Libyan, artist
California Indian Basketweavers’ Association Board of Directors
Roni Jo Draper, Yurok, filmmaker
Patricia Franklin, Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians, basketweaver
Chairman Ron Goode, North Fork Mono Tribe, fire practitioner
Don Hankins, Miwkoʔ (Plains Miwok), CSU Chico, professor
Inés Ixierda, Sogorea Te’ Land Trust
Frank Lake, Karuk, Fire Practitioner
Ayuthea LaPier, Fire Generation Collaborative
Leece LaRue, Karuk Tribe Memory Lab Project Manager
Marissa Lila Kongao, filmmaker
Alice Lincoln Cook, basketweaver, Karuk
Valentin Lopez, Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, Chairman
Timara Lotah Link, Chumash, mapmaker
Starla Madrigal, California Indian Basketweavers’ Association, Board Chairperson
Danny Manning, Asst. Fire Chief, Greenville Rancheria
Tony Marks-Block, Professor, CSU East Bay
Beth Rose Middleton Manning, UC Davis Department of Native American Studies, Professor
Victoria Montaño, Sogorea Te’ Land Trust
Peter Nelson, UC Berkeley, Assistant Professor
Tiśina Parker, Southern Sierra Miwuk/Kutzadika’a Mono Lake Paiute and Kashia Pomo/Coast Miwuk, Regalia maker
Corine Pearce, Pomo, basketweaver and educator
Vikki Preston, Karuk Tribe Department of Natural Resources, Cultural Resources Tech lll, artist
Fern Purdy, Cultural Fire Management Council
Jordan Reyes, Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance, Field Coordinator, Middletown Rancheria of Pomo Indians
Renee Ring Castro, Ohlone, artist
Margo Robbins, Cultural Fire Management Council, Co-Founder and Executive Director
Alyson Sagala, Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance, Operations Manager
Ashley Salaz, Sogorea Te’ Land Trust
Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians
Irene Vasquez, Southern Sierra Miwuk
Desiree Walker, Chukchansi, Animator and illustrator
Tracey Williams Hughey, North Fork Mono, basketweaver
Theresa Williams, North Fork Mono, basketweaver
Linda Yamane, Rumsen Ohlone, artist and historian
Read OMCA’s Native Accountability Statement and Land Acknowledgment here.
Download the press kit here.
Support for Good Fire: Tending Native Lands is generously provided by The Oakland Museum Women’s Board.
CONTACT:
Alexxa Gotthardt | [email protected] | 330-472-3775 (cell)
Azayza Jimenez | [email protected] | 510-318-8467 (cell)
ABOUT THE OAKLAND MUSEUM OF CALIFORNIA
Founded in 1969 as a “museum of the people,” the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) tells the diverse stories of California’s art, history, and natural environment. Through inclusive exhibitions, public programs, and educational initiatives, OMCA creates space for meaningful dialogue and strives to build more equitable, empathetic, and connected communities. With more than 2 million objects, OMCA’s collection of art, history, and natural science is a resource for understanding California’s dynamic heritage—all within its 110,000 square feet of gallery space and seven-acre campus. A leading Bay Area cultural institution, OMCA is dedicated to fostering an environment where visitors from the region, state, and beyond feel valued and empowered to shape the future of California’s cultural landscape.
VISITOR INFORMATION
The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) is at 1000 Oak Street, at 10th Street, in Oakland. Museum admission is $19 general admission; $16 for seniors; and $12 for youth ages 12 to 17 as well as for students and educators with valid ID, and free for Members and children 12 and under. There is a $6 charge in addition to general admission pricing for special exhibitions in the Great Hall. OMCA offers onsite underground parking and is conveniently located one block from the Lake Merritt BART station, on the corner of 10th Street and Oak Street. An accessibility ramp is located at the 1000 Oak Street main entrance to the Museum. museumca.org