Consumer culture's fight against Indigenous cultures.
On October 13th, I was asked to attend a presentation that was being given by Amanda Funk of the Potawatomi nation. While this presentation was centered more around my Native American Women Writers course and less around spirituality, much of the information that Funk shared was highly intersectional with my own work within my independent study. In fact, while I was sitting there in that room, I had an epiphany that caused many pieces to click into place for me: capitalism and consumer culture work to directly combat Indigenous teachings about environmentalism.
Working from my readings of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book Braiding Sweetgrass, Indigenous cultures rely heavily on the ideas that the Earth provides everything that humans need to survive, and we, therefore, should not have to pay for it. Instead, we should work alongside the Earth to cultivate and nurture it, thus nurturing ourselves. She writes, “Water is a gift for all, not meant to be bought and sold. Don’t buy it” (Kimmerer 31). Instead we should have a relationship with nature of “‘formal give-and-take that acknowledges our participation in, and dependence on, natural increase” (30).
In her presentation on the Widoktadwen Center, Amanda Funk spoke about how the American Education System has worked to block out Indigenous teachings. We are made to study plants in terms of their biology and composition, but school fails to teach us anything further. We are not taught to safely forage and identify plants, nor are we taught about the medicinal benefits to the herbs. Dr. Funk stated that she found it strange that she can walk on our campus and immediately spot plants that can soothe aches and pains, but that nobody would ever know that they were there due to the failure of schooling. People can pay hundreds of dollars for prescription pills and over the counter medicines that can be made from things in our own backyards. This is where capitalism and consumer culture come into play.
Of course, matters of creating a universal healthcare and insurance system would aid in helping the issue. At the moment, America sells over $350 million worth of aspirin, yearly (PlanetChiropractiga.com). However, the active ingredient in aspirin, Salicin, naturally occurs in the bark of willow trees (PracticalSelfReliance.com). By harvesting and boiling willow bark into a tea, individuals get the same medicinal benefits of aspirin without spending a dime. Yet, this issue extends beyond pharmaceutical matters and branches out into diet culture. These days, consumers look to purchase only the freshest of produce. Containers of strawberries that feature only one moldy spot are made to sit in a grocery store until the company decides to throw them away. Bruised apples, browning lettuce, wrinkly bell peppers, and softening cucumbers are left to rot, daily. Produce that is marketed as ‘organic’ and ‘fresh’ feature prices that only seem to increase as time goes on. Individuals refuse to buy produce that is not as fresh as the produce that they spend thousands on, yearly. Unfortunately, the most popular products are ones that can be grown at home. In fact, I threw some onion clippings into a pot of dirt in my college dorm back in August, and my home-grown onions are about the size of golf balls already. If this was able to occur in the pot of a dark environment, imagine what could occur in a home garden if people were given a simple lesson in horticulture.
Beyond produce, the food industry fosters this anti-kindness and anti-sustainability ideology. I remember stories from my older sister, who worked the graveyard shift at a gas station, where she was made to throw out old donuts and dump chemicals on them to ensure that nobody would go rummaging through their dumpster. In addition to this, if the security cameras caught employees eating an old donut instead of throwing them out, that employee would be fined and fired. However, this does not just occur in fast food. Restaurants across America dump chemicals on their food waste so as to not tarnish the restaurant’s reputation by having homeless individuals rummaging through their garbage in a desperate search for food. Unfortunately, there are not many academic sources on this phenomena as these companies work to keep this anti-homeless policy covered up. Just be aware that the destruction of perfectly good items that could be donated occurs on a level beyond comprehension.
America has enough money and resources to keep all of its citizens well-fed, but they continuously refuse to do so. Rather than save lives and show kindness, capitalism works to dismantle Indigenous teachings on conservation and environmentalism by completely stomping them out. By refusing to inform individuals about plant properties, medicinal benefits, and simple agriculture, consumer culture continues to force people to purchase these ‘inaccessible’ items. Big Pharma continues to profit off of the exploitation of sick individuals, prices for fresh produce continue to go up, and food services continue to dump rat poison on their expired products.
Adamant, Ashley. “How to Make Willow Bark Aspirin.” How to Make Willow Bark Aspirin, Practical Self Reliance, 23 Apr. 2021, https://practicalselfreliance.com/willow-bark/.
Kimmerer, Robin Wall. “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants”. Milkweed Editions, 2013.
Wassung, Kieth. “Aspirin: Helpful or Hazardous.” PlanetChiropractiga.com, https://planetchiropracticga.com/files/Aspirin.pdf.
Comments