Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World”
By Robin Wall Kimmerer
Scribner, 2024
128 pages, hardcover, $20
The award-winning author of “Braiding Sweetgrass,” Robin Wall Kimmerer, returns with another powerful meditation on relationship, ecology, and Indigenous wisdom. “The Serviceberry” explores gift economies, with Serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea and A. alnifolia) as a guide.
A member of the Potawatomi Nation, one of the Anishinaabe people of the Great Lakes region, Kimmerer knows Serviceberry as a gift, though readers might also know them for the ecosystem services they provide. As browse for deer and moose, and a source of pollen for insects, and a berry buffet for birds, Serviceberry supports biodiversity. Kimmerer writes that “the land is the source of all goods and services, which are distributed in a kind of gift exchange: one life is given to support another.” With these gifts comes a responsibility of respect and sharing, gratitude and reciprocity. When we recognize the Earth’s nurturing as a gift, we are moved to give a gift in return.
A gift, Kimmerer says, can be a direct response, such as weeding or watering Serviceberry, whose bounty has been given to you. Or, it could be indirect — she cites donating to a local land trust that supports habitat for the “gift givers” as an example. The currency is relationship, and the gift economy enhances mutual wellbeing. Kimmerer sees this in her community — from roadside free piles, to gardeners who share produce with neighbors, to farmers who participate in both market and gift economies. She writes, “The move toward a local food economy is not just about freshness and food miles and carbon footprints and soil organic matter. It’s about all those things, but it’s also about the deep human desire for connection, for honor, to be in reciprocity with the gifts that are given to you.”
Kimmerer’s words feel like a gift, in that they serve to deepen the relationships between readers and the land — and with each other. After you’ve read “The Serviceberry,” pass it along to a friend or neighbor, or deposit it at your local Little Free Library — yet another example, cited by Kimmerer, of gift economies at work in the world today.
– Holli Cederholm
This review was originally published in the winter 2024 issue of The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener. Browse the archives for free content on organic agriculture and sustainable living practices.
