Scarcity simmers beneath so many issues today.

It is baked into so many of our assumptions - about economics, about land/property, about money. About ourselves. I'm sure you recognize this voice: We don't have enough. We are not enough. In order to survive, we have to take from others.

In this (economic/philosophical/theological) logic of scarcity, humans are often portrayed and forced into extracting from ecosystems.

But humans can be and do so much more than operate from a place of scarcity. And I'm not talking about the personal and limited approach of an "abundance mindset"... or rather, I'm talking about the real possibility of re-imagining what a collective abundance mindset could look like.

Humans can not only help ecosystems survive, but we can also help ecosystems thrive. We can not only "produce more per square mile", but we can help entire watersheds, and systems of watersheds, thrive, for generations and generations.

But abundance in, for, and with community.

And we don't have to look into science fiction for that model, or start from scratch, or "start from an imaginary idealized world/future and work our way backward." 

Because there is so much evidence and experience of how humans can live - can actively and purposefully and meaningfully construct - abundance. In North America. And South America. And many other parts of the world.

To create delicious foodways. And nutritious. And beautiful. Dr. Lyla June Johnston, (Navajo/Dine and European descent) has recently completed her doctoral dissertation showcasing indigenous food ways in (primarily) North America. In her typically poetic way, she describes these systems as "architects of abundance." It's a beautiful framing for an immensely hopeful story of humans co-creating with nature.

I've known Lyla June for many years - before she was quite as famous as she is now - and have long been inspired by her poetry, activism, music, and her way of being in the world. So when I heard that she was doing her Ph.D. on this topic, on indigenous foodways, excavating history for what is often dismissed and disconnected, and integrating the past with contemporary oral histories... I was super excited.

I get so, so tired of people talking about the need for a "new food system" and a "new economic system" while ignoring the indigenous food-economic-governance systems-cosmovisions that have actually existed on this continent (and many parts of the world) for generations. We don't have to invent from nothing. There is so much we can learn from, lean into, and enable to flourish again.

So I was thrilled when Lyla June said yes to sharing some of her stories with us on The ReMembering and ReEnchanting Podcast.  The title of this episode, "Celebrating Architects of Abundance," 

I hope you enjoy this episode. And do take a moment to listen/read some of the other resources around this topic, especially her TedX talk, which is quite brilliant.

It's great to listen to at any time of year.

We recorded this episode earlier this Fall. It's not about Thanksgiving, because learning about, reclaiming, and re-creating indigenous food systems is something we can and need to engage in all year round.  

That said, it could be a great resource to share with your communities who are thinking about food, food systems, thanksgiving, indigenous peoples in America, #landback, faith, gratitude, abundance, and many related interwoven threads of these conversations that can easily arise at this time of year.