'The Honorable Harvest'

Guidelines for living with the earth, captured as a poem that I came across in the book 'Braiding Sweetgrass' by Robin Wall Kimmerer

August 9 is celebrated as The International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples. There's a lot we can learn from Indigenous people but right on top of that list is how humans should think of our relationship with nature.

I recently read the book ‘Braiding Sweetgrass’ by Robin Wall Kimmerer. It’s a brilliant book that took me through a beautiful journey of learning from trees and plants, and from the people who knew how to live with them and has stayed with me long after I finished reading.

One of my favourite passages from the book is the poem ‘The honorable harvest’. I loved it. I have been increasingly aware of modern humankind’s exploitative relationship with the earth, but have struggled to articulate what the alternative could look like. This poem was exactly that. It was the best articulation of what I hoped our relationship with the earth could be.

I am reproducing the poem here. Hope it speaks to you the way it spoke to me.

Know the ways of the ones who take care you, so that you may take care of them. 
Introduce yourself. 
Be accountable as the one who comes asking for life. 
Ask permission before taking. 
Abide by the answer. 
Never take the first. Never take the last. 
Take only what you need. 
Take only that which is given. 
Never take more than half. Leave some for others. 
Harvest in a way that minimizes harm. 
Use it respectfully. Never waste what you have taken. 
Share. 
Give thanks for what you have been given.
Give a gift, in reciprocity for what you have taken. 
Sustain the ones who sustain you and the earth will last forever.