Hey Worth Warriors,
First, my apologies for missing last week's edition. I had a few folks ping me asking if they'd missed it, which was both touching and a reminder that I'd forgotten to schedule it! Your grace with my very human moments means more than you know.
I also want to say how genuinely grateful I am for the continued engagement, replies, and shares I see from so many of you across platforms. Knowing these reflections land and resonate keeps me writing. Thank you for being here.
Now, to this week's theme...
The poverty of modern wealth thinking is staggering.
We've been taught that wealth means extraction. Taking resources from the earth, value from labour, profit from systems. Accumulating more, faster, regardless of what it costs the land, the community, or future generations.
Indigenous cultures have maintained sophisticated wealth systems for millennia based on an entirely different premise: wealth as stewardship, not ownership. Abundance through reciprocity, not extraction.
Whilst Western economics measures GDP and quarterly returns, Indigenous knowledge systems measure seven generations forward. They understand wealth as relationship - with land, community, ancestors, and descendants.
What if the wealth we're chasing is making us poor in the ways that actually matter?
This week's Worthy Wednesday is about learning from Indigenous wisdom on regenerative wealth, not to appropriate or romanticise, but to humbly recognise that perhaps the oldest economic systems have something crucial to teach the newest ones.
To our collective regeneration,
💫 Grace
⚡ Spark Insight
💡 Indigenous cultures have sustained wealth for thousands of years through principles modern economics dismisses as "inefficient" - reciprocity, stewardship, and future-orientation.
Western wealth accumulation operates on extraction: take resources, convert to profit, repeat.
Indigenous wealth systems operate on regeneration: receive from the land, give back more than you take, ensure future generations inherit abundance.
These aren't primitive economic systems, they're sophisticated frameworks that have maintained ecological balance and community wellbeing across millennia. They understand what modern economics is only beginning to grasp: infinite growth on a finite planet is impossible.
We shouldn't be asking..."How do we extract more wealth?"
Instead we should ask..."How do we participate in wealth systems that regenerate rather than deplete?"
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🌀Shift Perspective
🔄 What if the "primitive" economic systems we dismissed are actually more advanced than the extractive models destroying our planet?
Modern capitalism measures wealth by what you can take and keep. Indigenous systems measure wealth by what you can give and sustain. One creates billionaires and ecological collapse. The other creates intergenerational thriving.
Consider the Seventh Generation Principle from the Haudenosaunee Confederacy: every decision must consider the impact on seven generations into the future. Compare this to quarterly earnings reports and short-term profit maximisation.
Regenerative wealth recognises:
- Wealth isn't scarce, it multiplies through sharing
- The land isn't a resource, it's a relationship
- Future generations aren't abstract, they're stakeholders
- Community wealth exceeds individual accumulation
When you shift from extraction to regeneration, wealth becomes about participation in living systems rather than domination over them.
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🧘Self-Reflection
🪞 Ask Yourself:
- Where in your life are you operating from extraction mindsets, taking more than you give back?
- What would change if you measured your wealth by what you sustain rather than what you accumulate?
- How might your financial decisions shift if you considered seven generations forward?
🚶♀️Step Forward
🛠️ RESOURCE: LEARNING FROM INDIGENOUS VOICES
Instead of me interpreting Indigenous wisdom, I'm directing you to Indigenous teachers, economists, and thought leaders who share this knowledge on their own terms:
📚 "Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer A botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation explores Indigenous wisdom about reciprocity with the natural world and what it teaches about genuine wealth.
🎧 "For The Wild" Podcast - Indigenous Wisdom Series One of my absolute favourite podcasts ever! Features conversations with Indigenous knowledge keepers on topics from land stewardship to economic sovereignty, centring Indigenous voices on their own terms. If you really want one episode to start that connects to this weeks theme then dive into CHUCK COLLINS on Wealth Hoarding and Capitalist Capture /340
🌐 First Nations Development Institute Explores Indigenous-led economic development that honours traditional values whilst building contemporary wealth systems rooted in community and sustainability.
Practical Application: Choose one resource to engage with this week. Reflect on one principle from Indigenous wisdom that challenges your current relationship with wealth, resources, or future-thinking.
🌱 Small Challenge
⚡ This week's Wealth Move: Practice Regenerative Economics
Apply one principle from Indigenous wealth wisdom to your own life:
- Reciprocity: For every resource you take this week, find a way to give back more than you received
- Seven Generations: Make one financial decision considering its impact 50+ years forward
- Stewardship over Ownership: Shift from "What can I extract from this?" to "How can I care for this?"
- Community Wealth: Identify one way to build collective abundance rather than individual accumulation
Notice how different regenerative wealth-building feels from extractive wealth-building.
WISDOM WHISPERER
We don't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.
Indigenous Proverb (attributed to multiple cultures - some say it’s a Native American proverb)
Why this whisper? Because this principle fundamentally reframes wealth from ownership to stewardship, from extraction to responsibility. It reminds us that true wealth isn't what we accumulate. It's what we sustain and pass forward.
Regenerative wealth isn't about what you can take. It's about what you can tend.
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