Take A Stand: Indigenous Leader On Action, Gratitude, Reciprocity in Times of Crisis
Jill Koski, president and CEO of Morton Arboretum (L), in conversation with Robin Wall Kimmerer, Indigenous scientist, founder, author and advocate.
“I am not who you think I am. I am so much more,” says Robin Wall Kimmerer, Indigenous scientist, botanist and best-selling author of Braiding Sweetgrass and the more recent, The Serviceberry: An Economy of Gifts and Abundance.
Speaking at the Chicago Humanities Fall Festival recently on National Indigenous Peoples Day at the Morton Arboretum in suburban Chicago, Kimmerer, a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, offers lessons of gratitude, reciprocity and community in leadership and life.
“There has been erasure of native history and knowledge,“ says Kimmerer, Citizen Potawatomi Nation member, founder of the movement, Plant Baby Plant, and live in a way that land will be grateful for us.”
“We have to give gratitude to the land and live in a way that land will be grateful for us,” said Robin Wall Kimmerer, scientist. leadership #generosity @Chihumanities @MortonArboretum”
Read more in take The Lead on native scholars
When people describe themselves, they think humility is “self-effacing,” Kimmerer says. “But we are all part of the great green we.”
The current political climate of bias, discrimination, erasure and harm caused to peoples and communities that are marginalized and “othered” is antithetical to nature’s economy. “Instead we other one another, and rarely do we elevate the team. There is estrangement from the other.”
“In this divisive political climate, “We other one another, and rarely do we elevate the team. There is estrangement from the other.” Robin Wall Kimmerer @SUNY #ecosystem #leadership ”
“This othering creates life-changing shifts, incites fear and confusion about how to react. #action #leadership ”
This othering creates life-changing shifts, incites fear and confusion about how to react.
“There is a tendency in the U.S. for women not to risk how they publicly express their anger,” says Gloria Feldt, co-founder and president of Take The Lead. “But more than anything else, we are at a moral crossroads.”
“But more than anything else, we are at a moral crossroads,” says Gloria Feldt, co-founder, pres @takeleadwomen #leadership #action #genderequity ”
That placement requires definitive action.
Read more from Gloria Feldt on difficult choices for resistance
This is happening today in elimination of DEI funding, refusal to fund programs and initiatives for persons of color, disability or difference, even geography, religion or identity. It is demonstrated in the federal government shutdown and in the withdrawal of millions in funding for projects and programs across the country.
Read more in Take The Lead on DEI
“Every word I use to describe myself is improper ideology,” in the administration’s policies and actions, she says. “But in a healing ecosystem, each being needs to be themselves, as diversity matters for productivity and stability. This is shared abundance.”
“In a healing ecosystem, each being needs to be themselves, as diversity matters for productivity and stability. This is shared abundance.” Robin Wall Kimmerer @potawatomi #scientist @ChiHumanities @MortonArboretum #IndigenousPeoplesDay”
Read more in Take The Lead on DEI in leadership
Cooperation needs to be modelled in organizing systems, instead of competition. Kimmerer adds, “Scarcity is often not real, it is imposed.”
“The notion of kinship in the natural world is counter to the worship of individualism and territory.” She adds, ‘It’s not the land that is broken, it is relationships that are broken.”
“The notion of kinship in the natural world is counter to the worship of individualism and territory. It’s not the land that is broken, it is relationships that are broken.” #author Robin Wall Kimmerer #natural #ecosystem ”
Read more in Take The Lead on women climate leaders
At a time of severe climate crisis, water shortages are a manufactured scarcity, she says. “Water is abundant. The notion that you privatize water and turn into a commodity” is not optimal. “We make things scarce to make a profit, but in the economy of nature, abundance is created by sharing.”
The notion of sharing abundance can counter scarcity, and people often ask how they can participate in gift economies. Kimmerer says to ask yourself, “What do I have in abundance and what will I share?”
That can be time, money, resources, expertise, seeds. All this is under attack now, she says.
During a time of division, violence, and climate catastrophe, “Traditional cultures recognize humans as the only manifestation of the animal world,” that holds importance. “But what if we proceeded in the notion of a world of beings possessed of their own gifts?”
Read more in Take The Lead on courage
Nature operates in a circular economy, which is a gift economy, “There is no waste,” she says, in this gift economy of Indigenous peoples. “When we look at trees, we do not think about them as resources, but relatives, living beings, not things.”
In contrast, the world economy of capitalism, profit and loss, scarcity and abundance, considers ecosystems as a one-way flow of “things to consume without ethical obligation. But the notions of honorable harvest are that we understand what we taking are gifts rather than commodities.”
Read more in Take The Lead on the power of nature
Everything is connected and there is no thing as an individual in a forest, Kimmerer says. “These relationships need to be balanced for the whole to thrive. Gift economies are the legacy of humanity.”
“Relationships need to be balanced for the whole to thrive. Gift economies are the legacy of humanity.” Robin Wall Kimmerer, director of Center for Native Peoples and the Environment @SUNY @takeleadwomen #leadership #science”
Read more in Take The Lead on green spaces
“Our values are challenged and what we cherish is bring demolished,” Kimmerer says. “Plants know what to do about climate change, they are not dithering in policy meetings.”
People ask her how can they support nature as we are on the edge of climate catastrophe? At this time, especially, she says, when you are “feeling powerless and frustrated, and you want to do something in these polarized time,” what do you do?
What every human being has in common is the earth we live on and in. “The ground is common,” Kimmerer says, “regardless of positions on a social spectrum.”
The cause of Plant Baby Plant is “an invitation to restore reforestation.
According to the site, “Our goal is not to reinvent the wheel. It is to amplify, multiply, and carry forward these powerful efforts. Now is the time to help accelerate and expand that work with a groundswell of resistance.”
“Our goal is not to reinvent the wheel. It is to amplify, multiply, and carry forward these powerful efforts. Now is the time to help accelerate and expand that work with a groundswell of resistance.” Robin Wall Kimmerer @ChiHumanities ”
Read more in Take The Lead on environmental justice
Kimmerer adds, “Even small urban patches make a difference. We are not powerless. It is about planting, even planting a flag to say, ‘No more distraction.’ If our leaders won’t lead, we will.”
Feldt agrees. “Which direction we take will determine the long term, not the short term outcomes. And it is the short terms risks people are afraid to take.”
But action is critical, Kimmerer says. Efforts such as forest therapy and reconnection to nature are crucial. “Reconnecting with the land is some of the most important work of our time,” Kimmerer says. “The average American can recognize 100 different corporate logos and only 10 plants.”
Comparing the earth to a gravely ill mother, Kimmerer says, you take action to help, not just blindly hope for recovery. “Our lands are a beautiful paradise, but our earthly home is gravely sick,” she says. “What do you love too much to lose?”
Read more in Take The Lead on hope
Recalling a recent conversation Kimmerer had with a student at SUNY on the recent Earth Day, which she was part of originally 50 years ago. Her student told her that these times of climate catastrophe, social injustice, violence and global wars, that it reminds her of old Looney Tunes cartoons of Wiley Coyote and Road Runner, when the chase ends with them on the very edge of a terrifying mountain precipice.
“When everything is on the edge,” she told Kimmerer, “it matters where I stand.”
Kimmerer smiles and explains, “Everything I do matters for the future of the world, what a moment to be alive. When our creativity, resistance and choice have real meaning, it matters where I stand. We can make that choice.”
