Wall-Kimmerer (2020)

The council of pecans

• Main idea is that Flourishing is Mutual and survival depends on co-operation not competition

Evidence

• Pecan groves demonstrate co-operation by mast fruiting

• Trees synchronise production to ensure there are too many to be all taken by predators

Allotment policies

• After finally settling in Kansas the federal government came once again to offer indigenous people another move, this time to private land that would be theirs

• Kimmerer states that it seems no one listened that year to the teachings of the pecans (stick together, act as one, strength in unity)

• Barely a generation after land was “guaranteed” through the sacrifice of common land converted to private property, most of it was gone

The Gift of Strawberries

• Nature gives gifts freely and humans must reciprocate this

Origin of Strawberries

Wild = relationship (gift)
Store = commodity

• This encourages restraint, gratitude and reciprocity

An offering

• Kimmerer’s fathering pouring coffee as an offering represents respect and gratitude to nature

• Lived from the teaching of only take what you need and create an ethical reciprocal relationship with the land