Much recent literature explores controlled burning practices used by people of different cultures to manipulate landscapes. Because humans have only recently been able to suppress fires occurring at larger scales these studies focus on activities occurring at the scale of sites as making the greatest contribution to creating cultural landscapes. In this study we examine the role of fire in the construction of Anishinaabe cultural landscapes in the boreal forest of northwestern Ontario. Through our work with elders of Pikangikum First Nation we examined Anishinaabe knowledge and relationships to fire occurring across spatial and temporal scales. Pikangikum residents perceive forest fires as beings which possesses agency and who intentionally create order in landscapes. This notion suggests that cultural landscapes are more than the physical remains of the sum of human activities. The possibility of non-human agents having a role in the creation of meaningful spaces prompts us to call for a reassessment both of the scale of inquiry and the nature of cultural landscapes. We conclude with a discussion of the benefits and potential constraints to inclusion of indigenous cultural landscapes in current co-management arrangements.