Today marked the first time the United States of America observed Indigenous Peoples’ Day as a federally-recognized holiday. As a global network of sharers, it’s important that we acknowledge the significance that indigenous communities worldwide have had in shaping our own understanding of collaborative economics, environmental stewardship and worldview alternatives.

Adapted from the work of various Indigenous authors, activists, and leaders, the following principles of thought demonstrate how a return to Indigenous approaches in cultivation, economics and community can help us to heal our world and each other.

  • Lesson 1: Collaboration, not competition, is the true driver of human success.
  • Lesson 2: Intergenerational transfer of skills and shared collective knowledge can prevent fragmented ways of being.
  • Lesson 3: Anthropogenic mindsets are in direct conflict with sustainable worldviews.
  • Lesson 4: It’s impossible to have socioeconomic harmony under our current greed-based systems.
  • Lesson 5: The ethos behind ecological preservation is paramount in our efforts to be stewards of the earth.
  • Lesson 6: Spiritualism and intellectual existentialism can help us return to our humanistic roots and reimagine ways of being.
  • Lesson 7: We honor Native communities and their experiences by unlearning false accounts of history and standing in solidarity with Indigenous progress.

Read the full article about Indigenous lessons by Zanetta Jones at Sharable.