Coming Home to Nature: Lessons from Kincentric Ecology
Enrique Salmon describes Kincentric Ecology as a way that American Indian cultures understand the natural world through relationship and responsibility. Through a Kincentric Ecology lens, nature is seen as kin or family, and the human as part of the environment.
In Teaching Kincentric Ecology in an Urban Environment, Enrique Salmon describes his work as a college professor teaching Indian Studies at California State University East Bay. The lessons he has developed to teach his students can also help us deepen our relationship with nature.
Each semester Enrique Salmon gives his students the assignment of nature observation — they are to observe either the sunrise, sunset, or moon at the same time of day and the same location once a week for 6 weeks.
During this time students are able to observe changes in the position of the sun and moon, and changes of the timing of natural events. Salmon also describes how some students begin to make broader connections and observations of the natural world and their place in it.
As we face the climate crisis, destruction of the Earth’s life support systems, and mass extinction, it is so easy to get lost in despair and turn away from the natural world. On top of that, white American culture at large lacks a focus on the environment and how to relate to it in a meaningful way. The human is seen as removed and/or in control of nature. Time and energy are devoted to personal and often capitalist endeavors.
Those of us brought up in this culture can benefit from a deeper relationship with the Earth. As more of us build that human-Earth connection it can have a growing positive effect on the state of the world. Kincentric Ecology holds many lessons on how to deepen that relationship:
Attention brings connection.
Simply observing the natural world with regularity will help you deepen your relationship to nature. Pay attention to the seasons and cycles of the day, the month, the year.
Take a look out the window each morning as you rise, what is it like outside. Is it dark or bright, is the moon out, is it cloudy, is there snow falling. How does it change from day to day? Isn’t it all so beautiful in its unique way?
You are an integral part of the natural world.
Humans are of nature, not above it. Seeing how you reciprocate in your relationship with nature may be hard for you, I know it is for me. Often we can easily see how we benefit from nature, but how does nature benefit from us?
Looking deeply, you might notice — you share your energy with the plants and animals that you eat and the place that you live, your body is home to many trillion bacteria and following your death your body will feed more organisms still.
With connection comes responsibility.
“As humans we hunger for community and places we can connect to on a personal, ecological, and spiritual level” (Salmon, 2015).
When you develop a relationship and feel deeply connected with a place, you are able to recognize how your actions affect all the beings around you and how right action brings about wellness for yourself and All.
Language is a reflection of thought, thought is a reflection of language.
What you put into words is what you think. Filling your words with the natural world will bring about a deeper relationship with the land.
Language and story connect us linguistically with ancestors. Read ancient stories that help you develop an understanding of the world beyond an intellectual approach, on the level of your heart and soul.
Use nature metaphor in your daily language. You do this when you tell your loved ones they are your sunshine or your shining star. They bring light, joy and growth to your life on the scale of the life-giving sun. They are important to you just as the natural phenomenon of nature are.
How you think about, view and speak about the world affects your values, your actions and ultimately the world you create and share with others.
A true relationship with nature cannot be built if you are removed from it.
Nature is ever changing and cannot be captured in written word or static photo or even in video.
To really connect with nature you need to get into it — to touch the plants, to feel the cold air on your cheeks, to breath in the fresh moist air of spring, and feel the thrill — the heart jerk, as a turkey suddenly appears across the path from you.
Developing a relationship with the natural world is quintessential to a full understanding of sustainability and ecology.
The indigenous cultures of the Americas maintained a relationship of reciprocity and sustainability with these lands for many millennia before white settlers arrived. In four hundred years, white settlers have destroyed or disrupted many of the natural systems of this land.
We have much to learn from developing a deeper relationship with nature. Space and attention should be given to indigenous voices in these endeavors as an important part of this growth.
Thanks to Enrique Salmon for making accessible his clear writing on the subject of Kincentric Ecology.
References
Salmon, Enrique. Teaching Kincentric Ecology in an Urban Environment. The Journal of Sustainability Education: November 2015.
