The Future is Indigenous

The “gamme” of the Saami people is a unique construction: A structure made of bent birch trees, often found on mountainsides where the snow weighs down the trunks in winter. Birchbark serves as a diffusion-open moisture barrier. Peat or soil cover from near the building site acts as an insulator and strengthens the structure over time because the roots grow into each other. Considering modern demands for zero-emission buildings and circularity in the construction industry, a gamme is a radical example of forward-looking architecture. The building parts are locally sourced, and nature's processes do half the job. The use of living materials is entirely in line with avant-garde research.

The regenerative revolution

Last week I sat on a panel at the Arctic Frontiers conference together with, among others, the Norwegian Minister of Fisheries and representatives of Inuit communities in Nunavut and Greenland. We discussed how climate change affects the food system in the Arctic: The migration routes of fish, which have been decisive for settlement and traditional culture, are changing. Climate change forces small and large communities to rethink food production and value creation. I contributed to the discussion with two simple points:

1. We must use our raw materials more efficiently and develop a circular industry enabled by modern technology and a deeper understanding of biological processes.

2. The food system should be resilient and adapted to the places people live. We have a lot to learn from the understanding of nature and the design philosophy of indigenous peoples.

Said differently: Regenerative models are the future. But they were also the past. The problem is the way we think right now.

Resilient and distributed systems

Today's sea farming, as an example, is based on a globalized and linear model. At one end, we import soy protein and other feed sources, often contributing to monocultures and deforestation elsewhere on the planet. The feed ends up as sludge, emitted to the sea from under cages. The recent Biodigsirk report estimates the annual loss of sludge in Norway at 300,000 tonnes.

Creating a more resilient, circular, and locally sourced industry based on current knowledge and proven technology represents a massive opportunity in the northern regions. For example, we can grow algae and low-trophic species to increase local production of feed and reduce dependence on uncertain, global raw material markets. We can create closed-loop handling of sludge and produce bioenergy. Technology already exists to extract phosphorus and nitrogen from what remains after energy production, the critical elements of agricultural fertilizer. In Norway, we can theoretically produce more phosphorus and nitrogen than the whole of Norwegian agriculture imports annually.

I described a napkin sketch of another type of food system rooted in conceptual ideas like bioregions and industrial symbiosis. The question is how we reduce the footprint in the global food system while strengthening the basis for local value creation. It acknowledges our crucial constraint is the tolerance limits of nature. It can become a reality by consciously investing in future-oriented and distributed production that plays along with local natural processes.

Competence, not representation

We live in an age where science has given us unique and quantifiable insight into the Earth's system's processes. We can now measure changes on the earth, in the sea, and the atmosphere. The circular economy is easy to understand: We should only use what we need and use our available resources wisely. Sustainability is almost banal; we must never push our ecosystems above the limit where they can recover.

But translating such principles into politics and business is tricky in an age of alienation, ignorance, and systemic forgetfulness. In shaping the visions for the future, we seem intellectually impoverished by a modern, growth-oriented way of thinking. The indigenous perspective can help bring another ethos and essential knowledge to the table. Strong and proud indigenous cultures make us all richer, not just because of cultural heritage and diversity. Yes, "representation" is essential, but in the transition we face, competence and local entrepreneurship are even more important reasons to include and diversify. The Saami, Inuit, and other indigenous groups carry a cutting-edge understanding of applied regenerativity that should be cross-pollinated with technology, business, and policy-making skills. A new paradigm is currently shaping. The local cultures represent vital thinking that belongs in the future, not only in the past. The ideas that currently renew us are not new. They've been here all along.