Canada is having one of its worst wildfire seasons on record. More than 4 million hectares have burned, well above the ten-year average for this point in the season. There are still 620 fires active, with 116 of them out of control, and 375 burning under monitoring rather than suppression. Roughly 94% of the total burned area accumulated in the five weeks between late June and the end of July. On August 8, British Columbia declared a state of emergency with more than 100 fires burning, nearly half of them out of control, and close to 25,000 people fleeing two communities east of Vancouver. Tens of thousands more across the country are evacuated, on alert, or watching the horizon from somewhere they can’t yet call safe.
This isn’t landing evenly, and it was never going to. First Nations communities make up roughly 5% of Canada’s population and have long accounted for about 42% of the country’s wildfire evacuations, a pattern that goes back decades, not just this season. This year, Namaygoosisagagun (Collins) First Nation fled by boat, in 12- and 14-foot vessels, as their entire community burned. More than 30 homes, the band office, the school, the cultural cabins, the community centre are gone, in a community that is still, as of this writing, waiting on federal recognition.
We want to be precise about what’s happening here: this is a climate crisis, and it is also a colonial one. The communities carrying the heaviest weight are the ones whose relationship to this land has already been most disrupted, by displacement, by extraction, by chronically underfunded infrastructure, by governments that take days to answer a phone call about a burning town. When Anishinabek Nation Grand Chief Linda Debassige said Namaygoosisagagun was being tossed around like a “jurisdictional pin ball” between federal and provincial governments, she wasn’t describing bureaucratic friction. She was describing the current mechanism by which people don’t get warned before a fire reaches their homes.
Mutual aid isn’t the whole answer to that. But it’s real, and it’s ours to do right now. Here’s where to give: Indigenous-led and Indigenous-serving organizations first, because they’re carrying the most weight.
This list is incomplete and moving fast; we’ll do our best to keep it updated.
To track fires in real time: interactive fire map
Give directly to communities and Indigenous-led organizations
- Namaygoosisagagun (Collins) First Nation — evacuated by boat after fire destroyed their community. Give via Anishinabek Nation 7th Generation Charity or e-transfer to an7gc@anishinabek.ca.
- Whitesand First Nation — e-transfer to donations@whitesandfirstnation.com (include your full name for a tax receipt).
- Mikinakoos Children’s Fund — food, clothing, hygiene products, and school supplies for First Nations children across Northwestern Ontario, with a dedicated wildfire emergency fund. Donate here.
- Okanagan Indian Band — mutual aid for folks affected by the Bradley Creek fire.
- Summerland & Penticton — mutual aid for folks affected by the Summerland fire. Donate here.
- True North Aid — food, water, clothing, and essentials to remote Indigenous communities nationally. Donate here.
- Moon Time Connections — menstrual products and dignity supplies for evacuees. Donate here.
- First Nations’ Emergency Services Society of BC (FNESS) — leads wildfire emergency management for First Nations communities across B.C., including fire-hardening, preparedness training, and culturally safe crisis response. Donate here.
By region
British Columbia
B.C. has been under a provincial state of emergency since August 8. Seventeen First Nations were already reported impacted before the current escalation.
- Okanagan Indian Band, Summerland & Penticton, FNESS (above)
- BC Assembly of First Nations — coordinating advocacy and emergency response support across member Nations.
- Community Foundation North Okanagan and Central Okanagan Food Bank — supporting evacuees in the North and Central Okanagan region
- United Way BC Wildfire Recovery Fund — basic needs, mental health support, recovery funding
- 211 BC — dial or text 2-1-1 for local resource navigation. The Hope for Wellness Helpline (1-855-242-3310) is available 24/7 for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples.
Northwest Territories
- United Way NWT Emergency Response Fund — goes directly to local organizations supporting evacuees and host communities, including Fort Simpson and Wrigley
- Salvation Army – Yellowknife Multiplex — running meals, essential supplies, and reception support for evacuees; planning a pop-up thrift store for donated clothing (drop off at the Salvation Army Thrift Store on 45th St. rather than the Multiplex directly, to keep things organized). Financial donations are the most useful form of support since needs shift day to day.
Northern Ontario
- Namaygoosisagagun First Nation, Whitesand First Nation, Mikinakoos Children’s Fund, True North Aid, Moon Time Connections (all above)
- Northwestern Ontario Wildfire Community Support Fund (United Way Thunder Bay + Thunder Bay Community Foundation) — set up in direct collaboration with local Indigenous organizations
- Superior Inn Hotel and Conference Centre (Thunder Bay) — accepting drop-off donations of food, clothing, and essential supplies, which are then distributed to evacuees staying in the city.
- Thunder Bay Police Service toy drive — collecting new or gently-used toys, books, and games for displaced children; drop-off at the police station, 24/7.
- Amazon wishlist for evacuees and their children in Toronto, organized by @raunchykwe on Instagram
By service or need
Intimate partner violence (IPV) and gender-based violence supports
A 2021 study found 1 in 6 Indigenous women experienced IPV in the past year, and 86% of 2SLGBTQ+ Indigenous women had experienced IPV in their lifetime. Women who are disabled, elderly, or part of the broader LGBTQ+ community carry overlapping risks too, often with the least access to services, shelters, or protections during a disaster.
The link between climate disaster and gender-based violence is well documented, even though wildfires specifically haven’t been the focus of most existing research. Every 1°C of warming is associated with roughly a 4.7% rise in IPV, and heatwaves alone have been linked to a 28% jump in intimate partner femicide. By 2090, a 2°C warming scenario is projected to mean 40 million more women and girls experiencing IPV each year; in a 3.5°C scenario, that will more than double. The mechanism isn’t mysterious: climate shocks displace people, strain infrastructure, and fracture the systems, shelters, helplines, health services, social networks, that survivors rely on to leave or to heal. Wildfire evacuation carries the same structural ingredients as the floods and storms researchers have studied more directly: displacement, crowding, loss of privacy, and institutions stretched too thin to notice what’s happening inside a single hotel room.
Evacuation itself can create new openings for control. An abuser within earshot at registration, access to emergency assistance or hotel information quietly withheld. Shxwhá:y Village, a First Nations-led evacuation centre in B.C., has built confidentiality protections directly into evacuee registration and connects survivors with Ann Davis Transition Society and Battered Women’s Support Services.
Evacuation can also be one of the only windows where leaving becomes possible. Worth knowing if you’re supporting someone in that situation, or are in it yourself.
Health care access for evacuees Evacuees living in hotels for extended periods often lose access to routine care (prescription refills, chronic disease management, puffers, midwifery.) NorWest Community Health Centres has redeployed teams to Thunder Bay and runs a virtual care clinic (7 days a week, 12–8 p.m., no need to be an existing client) in partnership with Dilico Anishinabek Family Care and the Independent First Nations Alliance.
Pets and animals
- Ontario SPCA and Humane Society — foster care, supplies, and vet care for animals who couldn’t be evacuated in time, and for pets who evacuated with families. Donate here.
Organizations to follow for ongoing updates and ways to give
- Indigenous Climate Action maintains a province-by-province list of wildfire resources — fire maps, emergency management offices, Indigenous emergency services organizations, and evacuation updates for every region including Yukon, Nunavut, and Atlantic Canada. If you’re trying to find out what’s happening somewhere specific, or you’re supporting someone who is, start there rather than here.
- Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction
- 8th Fire Rising
- National Association of Friendship Centres
- APTN
- Ontario Native Women’s Association
What’s actually being asked for, beyond money
Chiefs at the Assembly of First Nations passed an emergency resolution demanding immediate federal support for Namaygoosisagagun, commitments to rebuild, and an independent review of why evacuation warnings failed to reach the community in time. Chief Wilfred King of Gull Bay First Nation said it plainly: coverage of smoke reaching Toronto outpaced coverage of people fleeing by foot, boat, and car. That’s not incidental, it’s a measure of whose emergency counts as news.
Chief Russell Wesley of Cat Lake First Nation, whose community evacuated in mid-July as the Sioux Lookout 72 fire burned nearby and only returned home this month. Chief Russel Wesley released a statement calling this season’s fires a warning that the current approach to forest management, emergency preparedness and climate adaptation is not sufficient. It sets out twelve priorities for immediate action by Ontario and Ottawa, starting with a First Nations-led wildfire authority. The rest are concrete: multi-year funding for preparedness, support for traditional fire stewardship including prescribed burning, fire breaks, evacuation planning, trauma counselling, warning systems that reach communities in time.Ontario and Ottawa, he writes, must move beyond consultation and take meaningful action, with First Nations as partners in decision-making, in prevention, and in building communities that can withstand what is coming. The statement ends: “These forests are our home. Protecting them is not optional. It is a responsibility we all share.”
The same objection is being made from the other side of the country. On August 9, International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs wrote to the Prime Minister and the Premier of Alberta calling for a halt to the West Coast pipeline. Their objection is that the government has not consulted or co-operated in good faith: the corridor is already drawn, prospective development partners are already named, and the economic case is already being promoted publicly. Consultation, they write, cannot be meaningful when First Nations are invited only to discuss how a predetermined project will proceed. And then the line that matters most: “Nor can equity ownership, loan guarantees, revenue-sharing, employment, or other proposed benefits be treated as substitutes for consent”. The letter came the day after B.C. declared a state of emergency for fire.
So: give if you can, to the organizations already doing this work on the ground. Ask why warning systems failed. Notice which stories get covered and which don’t, and say something about it when you notice.
Money is one form of care. It isn’t the only one. Sharing this list, checking in on people you know in affected regions, staying informed, and naming the pattern out loud when institutions fail to act, all of that counts too. Care doesn’t have to be big to be real. It just has to show up.
This list is incomplete and will keep changing as the situation develops. If you know of a community or initiative that should be added, let us know.
