The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer
This little book is a gift about giving, and how gifts can save the planet. As is true in all of Kimmerer’s books, she uses her genius to teach us lessons for humanity through the natural world. A trained botanist and a traditional knowledge keeper (member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation), Kimmerer exemplifies the art of Two-eyed Seeing. This concept has been described as learning to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing, and from the other eye with the strengths of Western knowledge and ways of knowing—and learning to use both of these eyes together, for the benefit of all.
This lovely, small book is a lesson in how to learn from nature, and how to develop a gift economy as an antidote to the prevailing commodity economy of scarcity. The serviceberry, Amelanchier sp., is the vehicle used to describe a gift economy. This is a biomimicry economy that “nurtures the community bonds that enhance mutual well-being, where the economic unit is we rather than I, as all flourishing is mutual.” The serviceberry shows us a new model, one based on reciprocity rather than accumulation. The book also provides instructions on how we can achieve such an economy, also by mimicking the natural world.
Kimmerer uses the forest as a model of change. A young, immature forest is all about competition and rampant growth, while a mature forest is a complex, interdependent ecosystem. How does a forest transition from a young forest to a mature forest? Kimmerer describes two mechanisms: incremental change, and disturbance or disruption of the status quo. In the natural world, an old-growth forest is a matrix of diversity—young forest and mature forest interspersed. The gift economy, practiced for millennia by Indigenous communities worldwide, can be integrated into the existing economy like disturbance gaps in a forest—an economy flourishing in the ecotone where the old and the new come together.
This small book has a small cost. Make a gift to yourself and to others, then share the book, the knowledge—and take action toward a gift economy. As Kimmerer says, we can be the storm.
Recommended by Nancy Patch