Indigenous wildfire evacuees in B.C. are reporting gaps in emergency support after the first week of displacement, according to preliminary findings from a Thompson Rivers University research project.
The project, Listening to Lived Experience: Indigenous Evacuee Perspectives on Emergency Supports During Wildfires, examines how evacuees access emergency resources and whether those supports meet their needs during and after an evacuation.
Jeneen Herns-Jensen, a TRU graduate, is the associate director of the All My Relations Research Centre and co-investigator on the project. She said preliminary findings suggest Emergency Support Services (ESS) are providing effective initial assistance, but support can become harder to access in the following weeks.
“After the first week, supports disappear significantly for evacuees,” she said.
The research has also identified concerns for seniors, people with disabilities and evacuees with unconventional family situations, who may face additional barriers to accessing assistance.
The project was developed through the Network for Environmental Indigenous Health Research (NEIHR), a national research network supported through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The research project initially planned to hold in-person discussions with 40 participants but adapted the study to an online format as wildfire activity and evacuation patterns shifted across B.C.
The survey received 2,250 submissions of interest in just nine hours, highlighting the demand for Indigenous evacuees to have their experiences heard.
“This survey was only open for nine hours so I posted at 11 p.m. woke up the next morning at 8:30 a.m. and I had 2250 responses.” The associate director said. Researchers had funding to include 300 eligible participants in the study.
Herns-Jensen said the volume of interest suggests evacuees want opportunities to share their experiences and have their concerns heard.
“People are definitely feeling unheard,” she said.
While emergency responders must prioritize immediate needs during an evacuation, Jeneen said evacuees also need opportunities to process the experience and access support after returning home.
“There’s a huge amount of trauma that comes even if you didn’t lose your home from that experience,” she said.
She pointed to evacuations near Summerland as an example of how quickly residents can be forced to flee, with some leaving their homes under dangerous conditions.
Herns-Jensen said the emotional impact of an evacuation does not necessarily end when residents are permitted to return.
The preliminary findings also suggest that online toolkits and informational resources may not be reaching evacuees when they need them most. According to Jeneen, most participants had not reported using the online resources included in the study’s questions.
“As helpful as people think it is to create those resources, when you’re in that kind of frazzled state of evacuation, having to call numbers or do any of those things is just beyond your capacity at that stage”
The research also identifies strengths in existing emergency responses. Herns-Jensen said participants generally reported positive experiences with ESS support staff, while many also indicated that their First Nations communities or bands had emergency plans in place.
She said these plans could provide lessons for larger municipalities developing or improving their own evacuation procedures.
However, emergency planning must account for more than the immediate safety of evacuees said Herns-Jensen. The loss of cultural and ceremonial belongings, as well as separation from traditional lands and community, can have consequences that are difficult to measure in financial terms.
She said some participants expressed frustration that emergency assistance systems can place greater emphasis on replacing material possessions than recognizing the significance of sacred or cultural items.
“Cultural items, sacred items, ceremonial items don’t necessarily have that attached dollar sign,” she said.
The associate director hopes the research will encourage governments and emergency response organizations to work more closely with Indigenous communities and leadership when developing evacuation plans.
The research team plans to compile the findings into a report that can inform future emergency response practices. Herns-Jensen said she hopes the results will help identify which existing approaches are working and where additional support is needed.
In particular, she wants governments to develop more inclusive evacuation centres and longer-term supports for people who face additional barriers, including seniors and people with physical disabilities, health conditions or mental health challenges.
“We definitely need to step up as a province to support our most vulnerable,” she said.
For the 35-year-old mother, the research is also a reminder of the importance of listening directly to people affected by emergencies rather than relying solely on existing policies and resources.
She said the work can be emotionally demanding, particularly for Indigenous researchers who feel personally connected to the communities and experiences represented in the study.
However, she said the possibility of informing meaningful changes makes the work worthwhile.
“It’s always small and it’s, you know, a few steps at a time, but it is significant in the long run,” she said.