A path to a world of abundance, respect, and reciprocity is open to us — if we follow Indigenous ways of coexistence with the more-than-human.
Biocultural restoration efforts are restoring foundational components of the Hawaiian ecocivilizaton. Pictured here is a restored landscape in Hāʻena on the island of Kauaʻi. Photo: Kim Rogers
In our hearts, we all know it: we are at a crossroads in human history, and we are faced with a choice between two paths. One leads down a spiral of hopelessness, environmental breakdown, and social chaos — the path that “industrial civilizations” have been pursuing for centuries now.
A new era of restoring, sharing, and thriving for the entire planet.
Naturally, we all want to get off this path! But we feel like dreamers caught in a nightmare, our feet glued to the (increasingly hot) pavement. This nightmare is so amplified — even glorified — by the media that it often seems like the only path. Not surprisingly, staying glued to it only drains our imagination and will to act. We need to wake up fast from all this despair and pessimism and take the other path: the one that leads to a new era of restoring, sharing, and thriving for the entire planet.
This path has a name: have you heard of the Symbiocene?
“Symbiocene” is a term coined by environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht. The Symbiocene will be (“will be,” because the more quickly we envision it, the higher our chances are of making it happen!) a planet-wide era focused on restoring the essential inter-relationships between all living beings.
Bringing the Symbiocene into being requires two essential ingredients.
First, we must create a civilization based on restoring the interconnectedness of life and all living beings. This means restoring the interdependent relationships between individual humans, between communities of humans, and between humans and the “more-than-human” (more on that further down).
Second, we must switch to sharing the planet with every other living being, in a true spirit of abundance, respect and reciprocity.
Now, knowing the right ingredients is good — but knowing how to combine them requires a recipe.
Someone else’s bad dreams gave rise to our current ‘civilization’ of ruthless resource extraction, mindless profit, and endless conflict.
From Dreams to Recipes
A world of restoring, sharing, and thriving relationships between all living beings? In your dreams, right? But that is exactly it! Dreaming is an essential ingredient of the Symbiocene. Someone else’s bad dreams gave rise to our current “civilization” of ruthless resource extraction, mindless profit, and endless conflict.
But we can also dream of biocultural harmony, then act on our dream. In the Symbiocene, all life coexists in mutual benefit. There is an end to biocultural diversity loss, and health and well-being for individuals, communities, and nature. Simply put, the Symbiocene happens when that part of humanity that took the wrong path centuries ago decides to restore its interdependent relationships with nature.
Now, how do we get there from here? How do we usher in the Symbiocene?
As with any creative task, big or small, you need to start with an excellent recipe. What follows are some of the best recipes for thriving in the Symbiocene. How do we know they work? Because these recipes have been tested and re-tested by countless Indigenous Peoples and local communities. And these are the cultures who have survived colonialism and who, all along, have been showing us that other path.
Hawaiʻi is a global leader in biocultural restoration. Indigenous leaders from around the world were hosted in Hawaiʻi for the World Conservation Congress in 2016. Photo: Kuaʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo
Recipe #1: Restoring Eco-Civilizations
Embracing a tangible vision of what life could look like on a planet that allows us to thrive.
Have you noticed how often people rush to defend their own rights, yet rarely proclaim their responsibilities? Indigenous Hawaiians, biocultural ecologist Kawika Winter tells us in “Reviving Eco‑Civilizations: Our Best Hope for the Future,” traditionally had no concept of “rights” as we understand them in the West.
Traditionally, Hawaiians focus on their responsibilities — on “taking care” of the natural world that sustains them and on sustaining the mutually beneficial relationships between humans and nature.
Long before colonization by Europeans, Indigenous Hawaiians built a thriving “eco-civilization” that allowed a relatively small landmass to support a relatively large population, without the need for megacities.
Initially thrown off their path by colonizers, Indigenous Hawaiians have been restoring their eco-civilization. Once again, human needs are being met by an abundance of natural resources without sacrificing biocultural biodiversity.
By contrast, industrial “civilization” is marked by exploding populations trapped in fossil-fueled economies dictated by transnational corporations motivated only by profit – and we have certainly reached the end of that path.
So, Winter’s story about a Hawaiian biocultural resurgence is the perfect “starter recipe” for, as he says, “embracing a tangible vision of what life could look like on a planet that allows us to thrive.”
Humans, One among Countless Equals
Storytelling and story-making that can help us rediscover our interdependence with the more-than-human.
Back to the “more-than-human,” an expression coined by ecologist-philosopher David Abram. Who are the more-than-human, and how can they help us thrive in the Symbiocene? Let’s look at it through the more egalitarian Indigenous expressions, “animal nations” and “plant nations.”
In this way, we see more clearly that from our very beginnings, we have been in relationships with non-human nations. But over time, certain human nations chose the path of “industrial civilization” and have forgotten these ancient relationships.
For so many of us, human conflict seems endless, and our climate-wrecking addiction to fossil fuels looks incurable. Perhaps our problem is that we no longer see ourselves as one intelligent life form among equals. For too long, we have been merely “tolerating” non-human nations (and other humans). And we have forgotten that we co-evolved alongside the animal and plant nations. If we want to thrive on earth, sharing — rather than making things scarce — is a key ingredient in our recipe.
So, we must re-balance our relationship with the animal and plant nations toward mutual respect, reciprocity, and a philosophy of abundance. We need new (“new” to non-Indigenous people) narratives about who we really are. This means storytelling and story-making that can help us rediscover our interdependence with the more-than-human.
Luckily, most Indigenous peoples have preserved their ways of coexistence. Let’s examine more of their wisdom contained in these recipes for thriving in the Symbiocene.
ᏓᎦᏏ (dagasi or turtle) crossing the road. Photo: PS Media House / Shutterstock
Recipe #2: Recognizing the Animal and Plant Nations
We urgently need to adopt a worldview in which plants and animals possess awareness and nationhood.
In his story “From Rights to Responsibilities: Regenerating Kinship Relations,” Jeff Ganohalidoh Corntassel, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, applies the term “nations” to animals and plants. Naturally, he considers them equals.
For him, the turtle who makes him hit the brakes on the road is not just a reptile, but a member of the Turtle Nation requesting help. And a medicinal plant is not just a source of commercially valuable chemicals, but a member of the Plant Nation — able to move without wind to signal to an Indigenous healer that this “will be the plant for you to use to cure [a] particular disease.” We urgently need to adopt this worldview in which plants and animals possess awareness and nationhood. They are not, as the Western mind so often sees them, “parts of nature” we can use or destroy.
Can the industrialized, urbanized part of humanity that has unleashed the biocultural diversity crisis learn from cultures who coexist in harmony with the more-than-human? Yes! — but we must be prepared to admit that a tree, a mouse, a snail, and fellow primates are not only our equals, but our kin.
For too long, many societies have held a worldview of relentless resource extraction, blind economic growth, and hostility toward nature. Clearly, it is high time to re-enter negotiations with the rest of the Family.
Freeway Driftwood. The lines on this driftwood curve away like a freeway to the unknown. Photo: Lee Beavington, 2015
Recipe #3: Making Space for the More-than-Human
Human habitat is fast replacing all others, leaving non-human species little choice of where and how to live.
One good place to start is by stimulating our capacity for humility and receptivity. Any good recipe for thriving in the Symbiocene should contain poetry, which has the capacity to open our minds by speaking directly to our hearts. For this, let’s turn to a beautiful poem, “Freeway Coyote,” by Lee Beavington.
Struck by the sight of wildlife struggling in our crowded, polluted, and hostile cities, Beavington shows us the stakes are higher than we think. Human habitat is fast replacing all others, leaving non-human species little choice of where and how to live. In fact, we have become as stressed in our own “municipal noise” as the wildlife we fail to see around us. This important poem shows the consequences of ignoring our relationship with the more-than-human world — here is an excerpt:
I watch the woman park at the forest entrance
pull her 4-year-old from the car
he shivers by her side
she smokes a long cigarette
sixty seconds on Nature’s periphery
some fix to forget what she has lost
Moose running down a highway. Photo: Page Lambert, 2019
How would we do it over if we were given a second chance?
In her own moving poem “Reclamation,” author Page Lambert asks us to notice the unequal collision of urban culture and nature.
Here, “a coyote sought shelter in a Chicago Starbuck’s last month, the closest thing to a cave he could find.” And recordings of nightingales in noise-polluted London reveal that these melodious birds now “sound more like the honking of horns, the squealing of brakes.”
But the animal nations are still here among us, reminding us of the ways we have lost, and always pointing us back in the right direction.
Speaking about the inspiration for her poem, Lambert asks, “How would we do it over if we were given a second chance?” Clearly, we must allow nature to reclaim its rightful place among us. In the process, we will reclaim our ancient bond with nature and find our footing on the path to the Symbiocene.
Recipe #4: Sharing With the More-than-Human
New, exotic species are met with fear and loathing from White settlers – but who were the original invaders?
Admittedly, there is something uneasy about the word “coexistence.” If two or more things exist at the same time, are they also benefiting — and not just tolerating — each other? In this age of extinction, coexistence is no longer enough. Coexistence is just a snapshot, a moment in time, with no guarantee of reciprocity or sustainability. And yet, so often, we confuse coexistence with connection, balance, and harmony. In fact, over the past millennium, a large part of humanity has gone from coexistence with the more-than-human nations, to mere tolerance, and finally to outright conflict.
Monarch chrysalis cohabits deck. Photo: Renato Rosaldo, 2015
Another recipe for thriving in the Symbiocene, then, is the willingness to enter into “a continuous negotiation among life forms.” To acquire this skill, we turn to “It’s Hard to Know,” Mary Louise Pratt’s gently unfolding account of her childhood on the nature-rich Bruce Peninsula in Ontario, Canada.
Over her lifetime, familiar species of plants and animals have disappeared, while new, exotic species have taken their place. These “invaders” are met with fear and loathing from White settlers – but who were the original invaders? Pratt compares “invasive” animals and plants to the much larger invasions and extinctions caused by colonialism. Negotiating the right balance, she tells us, requires truth. And truth means recognizing that her (and our) privileged life of belonging and well-being was made possible by colonialism.
In blistering and beautiful language, Pratt helps us understand ourselves — not as innocent bystanders to the global crises, but as “a blissfully embedded invasive species,” blind to its own impact. Indeed, Pratt opens our eyes to the value of learning to negotiate with the more-than-human.
Karen people are traditionally prohibited from cutting down a tree with bee hives.
Recipe #5: Learning to See the Wild in You
Many of us still feel we are separate from and superior to animals and plants.
Even today, with the word “holistic” firmly embedded in modern English, a phrase such as “We Are Wildlife; Wildlife Is Us” may sound a bit radical to non-Indigenous people. Many of us still feel we are separate from and superior to animals and plants. Yet, this phrase sums up the traditional worldview of the Indigenous Karen people of Burma (Myanmar), who have successfully coexisted with the more-than-human.
Author Saw Moe Aung, a wildlife and biodiversity program coordinator, reminds us that we share the earth with our wildlife kin — our family. Like other Indigenous Peoples, the Karen recognize that coexistence with wildlife means interconnectedness and sharing, not conflict.
Gently, Aung takes us into the rich world of traditional Karen beliefs about ecology. In his world, gibbons, hornbills, woodpeckers, tigers, trees that support ant, bee, or wasp nests, and many other species all benefit from strict taboos against harvesting. To the average Westerner, whose contact with wildlife is often limited to swatting at mosquitos while mowing the lawn, this may seem radical!
Though we love to use the word “holistic,” it is Indigenous Peoples like the Karen who actually live the concept. And they can teach us the essential recipe for seeing the wild in ourselves as we move into the Symbiocene.
Recipe #6: Thinking And Acting Like Water
Suddenly, water became an obstacle or a commodity — a molecule with a price tag.
Water is the binding element of our blue-green home, Earth. As newborns, we emerge still “breathing” water, and throughout our lives, two-thirds of our body consists of water. It is what makes all life possible, and it flows deeply through our myths and collective memory. Water, with its ever-changing rhythms and ways, is something Indigenous Peoples know how to adapt to, use carefully, and venerate. Our own ancestors lived alongside water and spoke to the spirits in it, as Indigenous Peoples still do.
But industry and profit changed all that. Suddenly, water became an obstacle or a commodity — a molecule with a price tag. It has often been said that the next world war may be fought not over oil, but over water. We forget that we are not the only ones who depend on water. So, healing our relationship with water and learning to share it with the other-than-human is another key to the Symbiocene.
An elephant foraging in Uda Walawe National Park, Sri Lanka.
If we imitate water itself, can we, too, change the current of human history? Yes, says Elizabeth Oriel, who researches coexistence between humans and the rest of the living world. She takes us to Sri Lanka where a model for this new/ancient behavior still exists. In “Where Elephants Drink: Water Bodies and Human-Elephant Coexistence,” we discover a “social contract” between humans and elephants, more effective than any municipal water service.
Oriel shows us how water infiltrates, percolates, seeps, and always moves — and how this creates equity between humans and elephants. When we think more like water, we understand that coexistence is key to any recipe for thriving in the Symbiocene. In fact, human wars over water will be avoided by recognizing “water covenants” between humans and the more-than-human.
Detail of the inner side of a red abalone shell. In Pomo tribal stories, when you see Abalone Woman, you are dazzled by a being covered in the brilliant inner nacre of her shell. Photo: Jacquelyn Ross, 2020
Very often, water is also the source of a culture’s traditional food, making water even more essential to coexistence between humans and the more-than-human.
If we do not hunt and we do not gather, our relations will disappear. And our skills will disappear.
In her urgent story, “No Word for Goodbye: Reclaiming Abalone’s Home on the California Coast,” Jacquelyn Ross introduces abalone, a large sea snail with a beautiful shell that is critically important to the nourishment and adornment of Indigenous Peoples all along the Pacific Coast of the United States. In fact, Ross calls abalone “one of our elder relatives.”
Yet, like so many other species, abalone is disappearing because of imbalances caused by colonialism. You can feel the dread in Ross’s story: how will her people survive if abalone disappears?
My concern is that our Elders are right: if we do not hunt and we do not gather, our relations will disappear. And our skills will disappear. I have cousins in their thirties who have never seen or touched a live abalone in the water; do not know how they like to live; and do not know our fishing ways.
Yet Ross and her people “are not prepared to say goodbye,” and we should take our cue from them! As she reminds us, recovery efforts are underway, a first step toward reversing what seemed like abalone’s inevitable extinction.
The return of the shepherds and their flocks. North Pindos, Greece. Stamos Abatis, 2014
Recipe #7: Looking to Our “Ancient Future”
Some traditional forms of coexistence have survived a very long time. Why? Because they are truly sustainable and enrich both the more-than-human and humans. As living links to our ancient bond with nature, these traditions are also indispensable recipes for thriving in the Symbiocene.
Looking to the past can help inform a future that is more sustainable, more resilient, and more in tune with nature’s harmony.
An example is the pastoralism that still exists in parts of the Mediterranean. This is the subject of “On The Move,” a photo-essay by DiversEarth, an organization working for nature, culture, and spirituality. In language that flows like a river, the authors describe the rhythms of seasonal cattle migrations along ancient mountain paths. The movements of the cattle and their herders are like water, “creating links between different areas of high biodiversity; preventing the spread of wildfires; enriching the soils; and dispersing seeds of countless varieties.”
Even in an urban context, the lesson we can draw from these “ancient futures” is that a bond with nature has always been vital to humans and must be nurtured. As the authors remind us, our past is also sometimes our future:
Sometimes, looking to the past can help inform a future that is more sustainable, more resilient, and more in tune with nature’s harmony. How much longer will it take us to realize that harmonious practices such as these are the very key to a sustainable future?
A Baiga man from Achanakmar Tiger Reserve, Chhattisgarh. The Baiga communities in the tiger reserve have been subjected to forced evictions from their traditional habitat for tiger conservation — although for decades, Baigas and wild animals have coexisted sustainably. Recognition of Indigenous Peoples is the key to ensuring a sustainable future for biocultural diversity. Photo: Purabi Bose
Though incomplete, this collection of seven recipes for thriving in the Symbiocene offers a vision of what can be. Consider it one of many antidotes to the conflict and disconnect between industrialized humans and the more-than-human.
Coexistence and sharing with the more-than-human is just one thread in a vast and luminous web of biocultural integrity.
As you may suspect, the stories featured here are not the only “recipes” for restoring, sharing, and thriving in the Symbiocene. Storytelling and story-making are ancient and mysterious human instincts which continue to evolve as we do. At Terralingua, we are always attuned to stories, ancient and new, and we will be bringing you more.
We hope these recipes will stimulate your hunger for change and hope. Use them, test them, share them!
Indeed, coexistence and sharing with the more-than-human is just one thread in a vast and luminous web of biocultural integrity. Follow this one thread, and you will encounter many others, until the complexity of life emerges as a beautiful, shifting pattern of possibility and diversity.
For a Deeper Read
Interested in knowing more about the Symbiocene? You might enjoy the following article:
“Exiting the Anthropocene and Entering the Symbiocene,” by Glenn Albrecht. Republished by the Center for Humans and Nature. Learn how the idea of the Symbiocene can unhitch our imaginations from the negative concept of the “Anthropocene” and the accompanying “maldevelopment” that undermines the foundations of life on earth.
