Restorative Economy Series

“Mother Earth does not need our protection, she needs our love.”

- Mbali Marais

Braided Wisdom is committed to building a restorative and regenerative economy where all people may live well and thrive in joy and abundance. We are committed to learning and embracing principles and practices that support the deeper healing, freedom, and restoration of people, culture, and land. We believe these practices begin with how we lead and operate our own organization and how we engage and build reciprocity centered relationships with our entire community.

Since 2021, we’ve featured local teachers and movement leaders like Konda Mason, Melissa Crosby, and Kimi Mojica who are leading collective efforts towards restorative and economic justice, based on the Just Transition framework. Our intention is to support our community members with learning new ways, languages, and practices to support their deeper development and cultivate their connection to land, nature, and resources. We believe our role is to help illuminate critical frameworks and approaches to a new world and to stir and provoke dialogue on the topics of Just Transition and Restorative Economy. We believe the decolonizing process begins with each of us which is why supporting our community members in their self discovery process and exploration through these generative paradigms is an essential part of our work.

Our Statement of A Restorative Economy

Mbali Marais said, "Sacred Reciprocity a practice of mirroring Earth's blessings, abundance, and gratitude." It is a loving and joyful practice that invites people to consider their relationships with the world around them. Sacred Reciprocity asks each of us to contribute in a way that aligns with our ability and capacity, encouraging an exploration of our unique needs and a practice of meeting ourselves exactly where we are, with the benefit of others in mind.
In a practice that shifts away from an exploitative and extractive system to a just and restorative economy, we seek to pay anyone who offers their gifts, talents, and labor a just, liveable, and equitable level. When we seek funding, we integrate the costs of these wages and stipends and make this intentional practice of reciprocity known to our funders.
The concept of ‘scholarships’ was born out of a response to the White Supremacist capitalist system. For many, receiving scholarships may engender shame, guilt, and embarrassment. We seek to decolonize this construct in our own organization by instead providing a “Community Building” tier in all of our events and programs where individuals who may be limited in their circumstances or financial capacity can consider paying a reduced amount to support their sustainability or we simply register them in a program or we may explore together another way that honors Sacred Reciprocity, be it through event volunteering, a delayed contribution, or an offering of other skills and resources.
In following the Decolonizing Wealth paradigm, our team is committed to decolonizing our own individual relationships with wealth and money and engaging as a collective about how each of our experiences may impact the organization in how we make decisions, operate, and plan. We practice intentional dialogue, tension check-ins, and deep discovery with each other to bring forth what is real from our lived experiences and cultivate healing and shifting from scarcity mindset to abundance. We believe our part at Braided Wisdom is to be a healing crucible for all who come to our programs. The value of healing and integrating the whole of our reality includes our relationship to money and capitalism.

"We live in a global economic system where more money means more power. It will take all of us, working together, to develop solutions that repair the harm caused by that system and begin to restore both people and the planet."

Nwamaka Agbo, CEO Kataly Foundation