Alberta: Carol Johnston counted her blessings as she stood on the barren site where her home was destroyed by a fast-moving bushfire that forced her to flee her community in northern Alberta two months ago.

Her family escaped unharmed, though her beloved cat, Missy, was unable to get out before a “fireball” fell on the house in early May. But the bush peonies her late mother inherited survived, and a black May Day tree planted in memory of her old partner has sent new shoots — hopeful signs as she prepares to start over in the East Prairie Métis Settlement, about 385 kilometers northwest of Edmonton.

“I can’t leave,” said Johnston, 72, who shared the home with her son and daughter-in-law. “Why do I want to leave such fond memories?”

The worst wildfire season in Canadian history is the exodus of Aboriginal communities from Nova Scotia to British Columbia, engulfing them in thick smoke, destroying homes and forests and threatening important cultural activities such as hunting, fishing and gathering of native plants.

Thousands of fires have burned more than 110,000 square kilometers across the country so far. On Tuesday, nearly 900 fires were burning — most of them out of control — according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center website.

Fires are not uncommon on Aboriginal lands, but they are now occurring in such a widespread area that many people are suffering at the same time – some for the first time – raising fears about a hotter and drier future. , especially in societies where traditions run deep.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Raymond Soberno, chief of the East Prairie Metis settlement, who said more than 85 percent of the 334-square-kilometre settlement burned in the first wildfire there in more than 60 years.

14 homes and 60 other structures were destroyed by the intense and rapid fire, which led to the evacuation of nearly 300 people and devastated forest lands.

“In the blink of an eye, we lost so much… It was devastating. It was devastating,” said Soberno, who said he hadn’t seen any elk or moose, both important food sources, since the fire.

“We don’t just hop in the car and go IGA,” for groceries, Supernault said. “We go into the bush.”