The book Braiding Sweetgrass sits on my shelf, always at the ready. I often pull it down and open it to randomly read any passage that appears on the page. It is that kind of book. I also have the audiobook version, on which Robin Wall Kimmerer’s voice calms any angst I may be feeling. I’ve written about her in the past; let me refresh your memory.
Robin is, in no particular order, a mother, an environmentalist, a botanist, an author, an educator and is of the Potawatomi Nation. The Potawatomi people were originally of the Great Lakes region. Their name is often translated as “People of the Place of the Fire”. The Potawatomi culture holds firmly to their spirituality, preservation of their language and community gatherings.
The good news is that I have in my hand another book of Robin’s, The Serviceberry, published by Simon and Schuster in 2024 and which instantly soared to the New York Times bestseller list.
The serviceberry, native to North America, is a shrub or small tree known for displaying its blossoms in early spring, its bounty of summer berries and fiery orange-red foliage in autumn, while it quietly supports an entire ecosystem. The plant has many names which indicates its deep cultural presence across the country. It is considered a calendar plant, signalling the arrival of spring and the return of certain fish species to the waterways. And to Wall Kimmerer, the serviceberry means so much more.
Despite how we have desecrated Nature, Robin has a perspective that seems unshaken and is determined that we can do things differently, so, with joy and conviction she shares her words that encourage rather than blame.
Her point of view might seem simplistic (like a Pollyanna, as I often call myself), as though at any moment we might come to our senses and globally change how we live. Not possible, right? But then I think of souls like the late Bishop Desmond Tutu, who confessed he was “addicted to hope”, and Nelson Mandela who believed we are all capable of change; in his words, “May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.”
The serviceberry inspires Wall Kimmerer to consider her Potawatomi roots and the message from the serviceberry, a symbol of a gift economy where value is measured by giving and gratitude, by our sense of relationship rather than accumulation.
I think back to my time in Dawson City where I visited the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, the Indigenous community, who held a cultural event at Forty Mile, where the Yukon and Fortymile Rivers meet, a place of deep cultural importance and a natural gathering place for the first peoples, 88 km downstream from Dawson City.
Elders explained the idea of a sharing community using an earlier moose kill to demonstrate. Thanks were given to the moose, leaving behind some of the body for the creatures who would benefit from the sustenance. The remaining body of the moose was used in its entirety. Was the meat stored in a freezer for the sole ownership of the hunter? No. The body was shared around the community so that each family had food until the next kill. I remembered that philosophy in the early days of Covid with the run on toilet paper, a striking difference to say the least.
Robin explained that abundance is the natural state of the world, reminding us there is enough food for everyone, yet many go hungry. Our cultural habits think in terms of scarcity. Cooperation and generosity are often thought of as moral choices but are also ecological truths, says Robin. The serviceberry shows us how we flourish when we have relationship and interdependence as opposed to competition. She urges us to reorient our social and economic systems toward reciprocity and sustainability, with a community working together. When the planet’s natural resources are seen as a commodity, we are diminished along with those resources and our relationship with Nature is severed. In our current economy, it is insatiable consumption that guides our actions. “Reciprocity is the antidote.”
Robin’s science education along with her Indigenous teachings reminds us that we humans are part of the natural world, not separate from it. Building economies that reward care and not extraction, benefits all parts of the natural world. The Earth’s bounty should be viewed as a gift with an obligation to reciprocate, not to exploit. “Enough” should play a major role in our economic decisions. Amassing personal wealth does nothing to strengthen the community.
“In a gift economy, abundance is generated by sharing,” says Robin, and it is generosity that creates real wealth. “The gift economy is a circle, not a line,” reminding us to think in terms of the cycles in the natural world. We can store meat in our own pantry, “or in the belly of your brother.” If we look around us, we will see that we are showered with Nature’s gifts, “but they are not meant for us to keep” but instead should be a reminder of gratitude and its partner reciprocity, says Robin. The Serviceberry is a short read, 128 pages. We all would benefit from reading it.
wendistewart@live.ca
