🌱 More Than Just ‘Nature’ In the dominant Western mindset, the environment is often seen as something separate from humans—out there, waiting to be managed, exploited, or occasionally ‘saved.’ But Indigenous knowledge systems have long understood what Western science is only now catching up to: we are part of Country, and Country is part of us.

For First Nations people, a healthy landscape isn’t one that’s been left untouched—it’s one that has been actively cared for. The land needs people just as much as people need the land. Traditional fire management, seasonal knowledge, and active custodianship all shape the health of Country. It’s not about ‘preserving’ nature in some pristine, untouchable state; it’s about maintaining a reciprocal relationship where both land and people thrive together.

The Environmental Connection landmark in the Pathmakers Framework reminds us that sustainability isn’t just about reducing harm—it’s about actively restoring and strengthening our relationship with the land, waters, and all living things. This isn’t just ‘environmentalism’; it’s about kinship, responsibility, and recognising that a thriving landscape and a thriving community are one and the same. Read More…

Tags: environmental connection, sustainability, caring for country, relational ecology

Opening Reflection

At first, I couldn’t quite put my finger on what I was feeling. Watching that White House meeting, Trump, Vance, Zelenskyy, something had shifted, but it took a while to work out what it was. It wasn’t just shock or disgust. It was grief. The world I had grown up in, imperfect, complete with struggles, but with certain shared understandings, was gone. Not eroded bit by bit as it had been for years, but torn away in a moment. The assumptions about how friends and allies behave towards each other no longer held. And with that sense of profound and sudden change came vulnerability. Memories of childhood trauma returned, if this could happen to friends, then we may be in for some pretty poor treatment as well. Read More…

Tags: cultural heritage, environmental connection, economic reciprocity, community collaboration, grief, relational governance