We need to return to Indigenous economics

“INDIGENOMICS,” authored by Carol Anne Hilton explains, “The way we see the world shapes the way we treat it.” Relational economics in terms of Indigenous thinking, sees land as sacred, calls for reciprocity, responsibility, and accountability in stewardship. Taking, giving back, caring, and sharing with gratitude enhances nature’s resilience.
ABUNDANCE grows from relationship of mutualism for restorative practices. Indigenous economies offer clues about forgotten values to restore ecological balance. Capitalism runs on separation, scarcity, fear, hoarding and waste. Economics of abundance teaches us that enough means we take only what’s needed and no more.
NATURE AND NURTURE frames our understanding of Indigenous economics. Nature provides all that we need to physically survive and thrive. Nurture promotes and protects, both individual and community health, safety, and well-being. Cooperation and connection in community with all living things are Indigenous values.
THE COMMONS or community shared land gave way to enclosure for profitable sheep farming in the late 15th Century. Land privatized by a tiny number of employers created “sheeplike” dependence of employees on the power and wealth of others. A First People’s spiritual relationship with land and community needs a revisit,
SHARING resources among First Nation People emerges from land held as commons in the spirit of cooperation. Modern cooperatives grant one person, one vote, whereas each corporate share equals one vote, giving large shareholders controlling power and workers are excluded from participation. The former is democracy at work, the latter is oligarchic authoritarianism.
REGENERATION is rooted in Indigenous understanding that “all flourishing is mutual” in Nature’s design. Degenerative practices extract, exploit for profit and “externalize” all damage done. Regeneration and resilience reside in relationships within a circular system of flow by reusing every input without waste. “As long as the sun shines, the grass grows and the river flows,” all of us are Indigenous to Earth.
Harold Honkola
Stillwater