Impact Awards—2025 Connection Award: Tara McGee and Amy Cardinal Christianson

Tara McGee and Amy Cardinal Christianson have been collaborating on wildfire research for more than 20 years. They first teamed up on a project to mitigate wildfire risk in Edmonton’s River Valley; McGee was a new environmental hazards professor at the University of Alberta when Christianson, a recent graduate, introduced herself. She brought a personal connection to fire through her Métis background: growing up in Treaty 8 territory (northern Alberta), “fires were just such a part of life,” she says.

As wildfires in Canada intensified and became more frequent, McGee and Christianson agreed something important was missing from the broader wildfire evacuation research agenda: First Nations perspectives. Nearly 42% of wildfire evacuations affect Indigenous communities, yet there was no specific research or guidance regarding evacuations.

McGee recalls, “We said, ‘let’s do this,’ because at that time, there were no researchers looking at First Nations wildfire evacuations.”

Christianson, who is now a senior fire advisor for the Indigenous Leadership Initiative, adds, “We have similar values, in terms of really putting communities first, so I think that’s why we really work well together.”

From there, the SSHRC-funded First Nations Wildfire Evacuation Partnership was born.

For bringing together researchers, community partners and agencies to improve wildfire evacuations of First Nation communities, McGee and Christianson are the winners of the 2025 Connection Award.

“It’s great that SSHRC is recognizing the work that we do, in terms of really focusing on working with communities and having an impact,” McGee says.

Their book, First Nations Wildfire Evacuations: A guide for communities and external agencies, has been widely distributed to First Nations communities and Indigenous organizations. It provides guidance on the effects of wildfire evacuations from a community perspective that is important for researchers, community leaders and agencies.

“Evacuees shared heartfelt recommendations with us on how wildfire evacuations could be improved, and we’ve been really excited to hear that those messages have gotten to other people who are trying to improve wildfire evacuations experiences,” Christianson says.

McGee adds, “We’ve had lots of comments that people find the book to be an excellent learning tool, an excellent teaching tool.”

McGee and Christianson have already noticed positive changes since starting their research. For example, in their initial community visits, they were shocked to learn there often wasn’t anyone dedicated to emergency management or evacuations full time.

“It was a side-of-desk role. They might be the fire chief and something else and then are also responsible for all the emergency management,” Christianson says. “So, one really positive change we’ve seen is that the federal government has made a significant investment by employing emergency managers in lots of different First Nations, including in Alberta and Saskatchewan. I think that made a real difference this past summer.”

Their research showed them there needs to be a much more serious effort to reunite families who get separated during an evacuation. For example, it’s common to remove high-risk individuals first, such as babies with a parent. However, as evacuations continue, the next round of evacuees is often placed elsewhere. Sometimes, evacuations last for weeks and people may have difficulty communicating with family members sent to different host communities.

Looking ahead, McGee and Christianson want to continue to expand their research and disseminate findings to improve wildfire evacuations in Canada.

“We really think about how to distribute the research results in different ways,” McGee says. “We’ve produced infographics, and we’re looking at videos.”

Christianson adds, “We are also focused on advocacy. The reason we do the research is to create change.”