Tuesday, February 10, 2026
12:15–1:15 PM
Center for the Study of Women|Streisand Center (Google Maps)
Join us for a screening of Fire Tender, directed by Roni Jo Draper (Yurok) and Marissa Lila, followed by a discussion.
Fire Tender tells the story of Yurok tribal members returning to traditional fire practices as an essential form of land stewardship. The film centers on Margo Robbins—grandmother, cultural educator, healer, and Indigenous fire practitioner—who is leading efforts to restore Yurok fire sovereignty: the right to use fire for tribal land care, a practice outlawed under settler colonial policies. Through her work, Robbins challenges more than a century of environmentally destructive anti-fire policies that have endangered Yurok lands and restricted access to the natural resources necessary for clean water, food, and traditional lifeways.
Seating is first come, first served. No registration required.
Attendees are welcome to bring their lunch for the 30-minute screening and discussion to follow.
This event is part of programming for Thinking Gender 2026: “Feminist & Queer Ecologies.” Register for the conference.
About the Filmmakers
Director: Roni Jo Draper, PhD (Yurok, she/they) is a professor in the Department of Teacher Education in the David O. McKay School of Education at Brigham Young University where she teaches courses in multicultural education, women’s studies, and literacy. Dr. Draper began her work as a scholar investigating disciplinary literacies and seeking to uncover the texts and literacies needed to participate and learn in disciplinary settings such as mathematics, science, and the arts. Her work has appeared in various journals for researchers and teachers including the Harvard Educational Review, the American Educational Research Journal, the Journal of Teacher Education, the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, and the Mathematics Teacher. Currently, her research interest has focused on the challenge to prepare teachers to create classrooms that allow our most minoritized children to thrive. She is a former high school mathematics teacher and is proud of her work serving students at risk of not completing high school. In her recent work, she has turned to Indigenous storytelling to share stories that center the lives of Indigenous peoples. She has produced the film Scenes from the Glittering World, about the lives of three Navajo young people attending a remote high school on the Navajo Nation. Draper is also the writer, producer, and director of the documentary Fire Tender, which centers on the lives of Yurok fire practitioners.
Co-director: Marissa Lila (she/they) is a Thai-American documentarian who grew up in Hong Kong and Thailand and is now based in Salt Lake City. As a multicultural filmmaker, she directs and produces projects with characters who cross boundaries set by dominant cultures or identities. Lila’s projects have been selected to play at international film festivals (DOC NYC, Camden, IFF, Big Sky Documentary FF, and MountainFilm). Two projects she produced, Transmormon and Oxygen to Fly, went viral with over 160 million total views. These projects were featured in The Huffington Post, New York Times, The Atlantic, People Magazine, and Dazed. Lila is co-founder of OHO Media, a creative content agency for which Lila creates documentaries and documentary-based branded content. Lila directed, produced, and wrote for the docu-reality television series The Generations Project, for which one of the episodes she produced won a Regional Emmy. Lila also spent six years creating educational content to increase equitable outcomes for students inclusive of race, ethnicity, language, cultural, sexual orientation, or ability.
