The Hopkinton Historical Society and the Hopkinton Town Library invite you to a special, town-wide discussion of the book,
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World (2024)
by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Thursday, Oct. 16, at 7pm, at the Hopkinton Historical Society on Main Street.
for more details on the event, see the Hopkinton Historical Society's website.
A bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world.
As Indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass
Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she
considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift
economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the
plant world to reimagine what we value most? Our economy is rooted in
scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have
surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love.
Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an
embodiment of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude. The tree
distributes its wealth—its abundance of sweet, juicy berries—to meet the
needs of its natural community. And this distribution insures its own
survival. As Kimmerer explains, “Serviceberries show us another model,
one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your
relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency.”
Resources for the book:
- More details about the book at the publisher's website.
- The author's homepage.
- "Robin Wall Kimmerer on What Nature Teaches Us About Giving Back" Museum of Science interview
- A conversation with Kimmerer on Emergence Magazine's podcast. Emergence is the magazine that published the original article "The Serviceberry" on their site as well, which was expanded for the book.
- To find out more about Serviceberry / Shadbush, see the Maine Forest Service's illustrated guide to Forest Trees of Maine. On that page, click "search for individual species" and type "serviceberry" for a PDF.
- Discussion questions (not necessarily the ones we will discuss on Oct 16)
- NPS's website on Indigenous Knowledge or Traditional Ecological Knowledge (site appears to be unchanged since this 2024 archive of it)
- An article about Kimmerer's talk at the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center last winter.
- NPS's site on Anishinaabe culture and language.
- Learn more about Nobel Prize-winning economist Elinor Ostrum (page 60)
Mentioned at the Historical Society discussion
- Kimmerer's profile and portrait on the Americans Who Tell the Truth Website
- Examples of gift economy mindset in Hopkinton:
- Slusser Center (winter coat drive, lunches, and more), Witching Hour's Halloween costume drive, the trade table and trailer at the dump, the Sean Powers Wood Bank, Work Song Farm's compost collection, the library, Shared Harvest, Susan's Hopkinton News newsletter, and more
Keep reading:
- Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest, by Suzanne Simard
- World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments, by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
- Abundance, by Ezra Klein
- Sacred Economics, by Charles Eisenstein (cited in The Serviceberry, p93)
