Where there is smoke, there is fire – or so they say.

And wherever there is a ceremonial bonfire at a gathering of indigenous people around London, Michael Hopkins, a traditional firefighter from the N’Amerind Friendship Center, often appears.

The elder from the Moraviantown First Nation in Delaware is now 71 years old and has been doing this job for 42 years. He is called upon to light traditional bonfires during events and ceremonies, from weddings and funerals to ceremonial ribbon cuttings. He even lit a ceremonial bonfire at a gathering to celebrate a successful liver transplant.

The fires Hopkins sets are not lit to provide warmth or add atmosphere. Flames have a spiritual meaning and are an element necessary, according to Hopkins, to create a connection between the world of the living and the spirit.

“The fireman is the most important part of any gathering,” he said. “It represents life, and without fire there is no life. The guard is responsible for lighting and extinguishing the fire. Bringing spirits and also sending them home.”

It is this last element that is truly key: fire as a portal or window that allows spirits to be present in meaningful encounters. For everything to be done properly, the fireman must be the one who lights the fire, and while assistants may help tend it, he alone must extinguish the flames after the ceremony, he said.

Hopkins said being a firefighter requires up to 10 years of schooling. Much of the preparation involves fasting: no food or water for up to four days. Fasting is a necessary step to establishing contact with the spirits, which he said include the ancestors of those gathered.

“A lot of people think that anyone who starts a fire is a firefighter,” Hopkins said. – It just doesn’t happen.

During the ceremony, guests can expect tobacco to be thrown into the fire as an offering. This is not brown, loose tobacco that could fall out of a broken cigarette. It is green, completely dried and very fragrant. Hopkins grows and harvests his own plants, hanging them to dry in the garage. He said most firefighters will have enough tobacco on hand during the ceremony for guests to use as an offering.

Some ceremonies also include pipe smoking. Hopkins has over 30 pipes. He showed CBC News one he made from stone. He shaped and surfaced the bowl himself and made its handle from sumac wood.

He warns people who are not used to smoking traditional tobacco to be careful when inhaling.

He performs pipe ceremonies in local jails and prisons. Once, during one such ceremony, he saw a motorcyclist, a large man, fall to the floor, coughing and gasping, after taking an exceptionally long drag, against Hopkins’s advice to ride slowly.

“It’s really powerful,” he said.

Wanting to keep the firefighting tradition alive for future generations, Hopkins also teaches the profession by mentoring 27 Native firefighting students. Many of them live in Ontario, but he also has students in Michigan, New Jersey and one in California.

On Monday, Hopkins will light the fire for a sunrise ceremony at Western University as part of Canada’s National Day of Truth and Reconciliation. He sees the day and ceremony as an opportunity to connect with foreigners and educate them about the role and importance of a firefighter.

“As boarding school kids, what this is all about, we need to understand our ceremonies and our ancestors,” he said. “I see a lot of foreigners wearing orange T-shirts and that’s good too. So our work is bearing fruit, our job is to keep things alive so that everyone respects and understands what First Nations have gone through.”