Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations is a powerful, multidimensional work of extraordinary vision and reach whose overarching theme of humans sharing encounters with our other-than-human relations presaged a project out of the ordinary.
Kinari Webb, MD, is the founder of Health In Harmony, an international nonprofit dedicated to reversing global heating, understanding that rainforests are essential for the survival of humanity, and a cofounder of Alam Sehat Lestari (ASRI). She addresses the question of “What Could Possibly Go Right?”
From the Navajo Nation to a small town in Pennsylvania to Ecuador, then across the world, the idea of enshrining the rights of nature is only growing.
I am proud of the Sámi parliament for creating the Environmental Programme – called Eallinbiras in Sámi. It is more of a life programme. We are trying to convey the Sámi culture to inspire others to have a more sustainable view on life.
Kinship is a certain type of relationship that we all have with each other. No matter what society you live in, there’s going to be some degree of kinship.
As the coastline changes rapidly—reshaping the marine landscape and jeopardizing the hunt—Inuit youth are charting ways to preserve the hunt, and their identity.
As Carver, Kimmerer, Stamets, and many mystics and shamans have written, life (god, plants fungi, trees, and grasses) sings all around us. The question is, are we listening?
In 2021, I heard that a lithium mine was being proposed within this sea, in a region where I had been told the wild gardens were still largely intact. Pee hee Mu’huh, also known as Thacker pass, exists in the northeast region of Northern Nevada, close to the Oregon border.
The moment the U.S. Forest Service posted its July notice of a draft decision to permit gold prospecting at Jenny Gulch here in the Black Hills, tribes, water protectors and treaty rights defenders turned out in droves to ward off the project and others like it.
Eslava and Sumano are working together to preserve the region’s chinampas, remnants of the branch and reed rafts that Mesoamerican farmers covered in nutrient-rich lake mud to grow fruits, vegetables, and flowers.
By focusing on reciprocity and the common good—both for the community and the environment—sea gardening created bountiful food without putting populations at risk of collapse.
If humanity is to deflect from the current disastrous path, we need a change of consciousness. Reading a book like Braiding Sweetgrass can illuminate the alternate path. I recommend it without reservation.
