Sustainability and the Gift Economy

Fitzsimmons 1 Emily Fitzsimmons Dr. Gina Stuart-Richards NAS 3313-995 28 September 2020 Sustainability and the Gift Economy Even in non-Indigenous cultures, people are often reminded that life is a gift, but how do we show our gratitude for this invaluable present? We gift back pollution, poaching, deforestation, war, and other means of destruction. Humans consume without thought or consideration because most believe that this is their right as surveyors of the earth. This philosophy not only harms the environment but is also quickly spiraling mankind towards its own irreversible self-destruction. These practices that have allowed many to thrive by building wealth are resulting now in ever-increasing severe weather, rampaging wildfires, heightening temperatures, rising sea levels, resource loss, long-lasting waste, disease, and international conflict.

In contrast to this reality that permeates most of the world, Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer presents a gift economy starkly different from that of western thought in her book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. As a member of the Potawatomi Nation, Dr. Kimmerer draws on Potawatomi history as well as experiences throughout decades of her own life that illustrate the philosophy of gratitude, reciprocity, and responsibility that is interwoven throughout her culture. These three tenets exist as a foundation for successful sustainability in the Potawatomi culture.

In the beginning, Skywoman descended from the Skyworld to the water below.

Fortunately, before falling into the waters, geese caught her and brought her to the other animals,

Fitzsimmons 2 including a turtle, who graciously offered his back as a place of refuge. Desperate to help her, the many different creatures discussed how to aid Skywoman, knowing that she needed land in order to survive. Several animals gave their lives attempting to gather mud from the bottom for her, but they eventually succeeded in bringing it to the surface. The mud was spread across the turtle’s back. To show her gratitude, Skywoman danced and sang for the creatures, which caused the mud to multiply, forming the earth. Then Skywoman reciprocated their generous sacrifice with gifts of seeds from the Tree of Life so that the animals could flourish on land as well. Even in the beginning, Skywoman and the other creatures acted on their responsibilities to help and respect each other, including reciprocating gifts of life and expressing gratitude for the others’ actions of kindness (Kimmerer 2-10).

In this cultural context, Dr. Kimmerer recalls her own experiential learning of this same responsibility, reciprocity, and gratitude throughout many years of her life. As a child, she recognized the earth’s gifts of fruit and repaid her by weeding around the wild strawberry plants, so the plants could flourish more each year (Kimmerer 24). Likewise, Kimmerer often witnessed her father pour the first mug of coffee to the earth when they camped as an offering to the land (33-34). As an adult, she held responsibility for her elderly neighbor, Hazel; they both showed gratitude and reciprocity to each other and the earth through conversation, acts of kindness, and gardening (73-80). As a mother, Kimmerer acted out her responsibility to her children by working hard to give them all she could, including tree houses, ducks, a purple room, and a swimmable pond, and Kimmerer’s daughters showed her gratitude in return (82-100). During this time, Kimmerer worked for years to clean her property’s eutrophic pond to make it swimmable for her daughters. As she underwent this experience, she learned to interact with the pond ecosystem with as much respect as possible, even taking the time to save individual

Fitzsimmons 3 tadpoles from the algae mats. Eventually, she and the pond cultivated a long-term relationship of reciprocity and gratitude as she maintained the ecosystem and helped it thrive while it provided a place for peace, recreation, and resources, like willow branches and sweetgrass (84-96).

Logically, practicing gratitude, reciprocity, and responsibility in all aspects of life – but especially toward the earth – would clearly make a better, healthier, more sustainable system.

Even so, Indigenous knowledge is almost always ignored in non-Native conversations about sustainability; rather, the wisdom is tossed aside as primitive and non-applicable beliefs to modern society. Indigenous sustainability is left out largely due to systemic racism that places people of color, their traditions, their cultures, their beliefs, and their ideas at a lesser place in the hierarchy. Additionally, most of the world today runs on capitalism; this requires a consumeristic culture to survive. In order to maintain consumerism, people must feel the emptiness of wants and needs, so they will buy more. The economy cannot risk people feeling that they have been given an abundance of gifts by the earth; the gratitude, reciprocity, and responsibility that is so vital to Indigenous sustainability must be eliminated (Kimmerer 110). Furthermore, for many people, it is not simply that they have been led to believe they do not have enough, but the capitalist system has physically taken away their access to the earth’s gifts. These environmental injustices include placing factories that pollute the air, water, and soil next to neighborhoods of color; dumping garbage from one nation to another where they cannot afford to fight for their land’s health; releasing climate change-inducing emissions that will produce droughts and flooding that destroy the harvests.

The field of urban planning is very broad and includes many different sectors, industries, and philosophies. My studies and interests lie primarily in community development, and in the face of climate change and its many effects, I consider environmental sustainability a crucial

Fitzsimmons 4 component to overall community well-being. In relation to the Potawatomi tenets of gratitude, reciprocity, and responsibility, I think that many sustainability solutions could be found in Indigenous knowledge and attitudes. For instance, taking responsibility in urban sustainability could take the form of planning for alternative modes of transport, such as public transit, bike lanes, and pedestrian infrastructure, in order to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions that are warming the earth. Applying the gratitude and reciprocity could materialize in community gardens and urban wilderness. Additionally, actively listening to and learning from nature can help improve the sustainability of urban design, as proven by the emerging field of biomimicry.

As Kimmerer explains, however, the capitalism that seeks to eliminate Indigenous gratitude, reciprocity, and responsibility also presents a formidable challenge to establishing sustainable policy, infrastructure, and lifestyle.

Sustainable ideals – such as the Potawatomi tenets of responsibility, gratitude, and reciprocity involved in the gift economy – are necessary now more than ever; we must learn to live sustainably by principles such as these both individually and as a society to even survive. To thrive, we should include Indigenous knowledge in the sustainability discourse as well as listen and learn from nature as we move forward in research and development.

Fitzsimmons 5 Works Cited Kimmerer, Robin. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Minneapolis, Milkweed Editions, 2013.