{"id":3597,"date":"2023-07-11T05:14:18","date_gmt":"2023-07-11T05:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regenesis.org.au\/?p=3597"},"modified":"2023-09-25T04:54:02","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T04:54:02","slug":"relationism-the-circular-nfp-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regenesis.org.au\/2023\/07\/11\/relationism-the-circular-nfp-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Relationism & the Circular NFP Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

DeGrowth Week Webinars<\/span><\/h1>\n

Yesterday 10 July, I tuned into the DeGrowth Week of webinars being offered by NENA (National Economy Network Australia) and caught up with Donnie Maclourcan, an Australian with links to UTS who is now based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and who is the Executive Director of the international Post Growth Institute.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a big fan of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA) led by Michelle Maloney and her network of collaborators, which includes Future Dreaming Australia, and NENA. We sometimes think Queensland is the home of conservative thinking, bulwark of the LNP, but it is also home to this network of organisations who are forging a new pathway to address the interlinked crises of our times.<\/p>\n

As I have written previously, the clash of civilisations in the 21st<\/sup> century is NOT between the liberal democratic and autocratic nation states within the global capitalist economy. Nor is it between the Christian West and the Islamic East.\u00a0 Rather it is between the Extractivist<\/em> logic of global capitalism in a world with a human radical sense of separation from the natural world, which is experienced only as a resource, and the Relationist<\/em> logic of the world revealed in Indigenous knowledge systems, with their ancient awareness of living in tune with ecological systems of animated intelligence; all of nature with their own voice and spiritual agency.<\/p>\n

Relationist Logic<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

Today, Kombumerri Elder, Dr Mary Graham is in conversation with Michelle to talk about the need for us to take a lead from Indigenous knowledge systems and shift from \u2018extractivist\u2019 logic to \u2018relationist\u2019 logic in how we shape our future.<\/p>\n

As Donnie Maclurcan explains in his new book, How on Earth<\/em> (co-authored with Jennifer Hinton), this Indigenous commitment to relationist<\/em> logic is exemplified by the approach taken by civil engineering company, Myuma. Donnie relates how, in 2009, he heard Colin Saltmere give a presentation at a conference in Brisbane, Australia. Talking about his company, which had 50 employees and an annual turnover of 17 million Australian dollars, he discussed how their work\u00a0 included the construction of roads in north-west Queensland. Then, Saltmere said five words that changed our lives: \u201cAnd we\u2019re not-for-profit\u201d.<\/p>\n

This was a paradigm-shifting moment for us. How could this company, which does so much work and generates so much revenue, be not-for-profit? Furthermore, if an engineering company could be not-for-profit, then might there be not-for-profit companies in other unlikely sectors of the economy, too? If so, would it be possible to have an entire economy based on not-for-profit business? Could that help us move beyond our current crises? The potential felt enormous.<\/em><\/p>\n

In a follow-up conversation, Saltmere told us that, as an Aboriginal group of engineers, they wanted to do work that would help the community. So they started their engineering firm as a not-for-profit (NFP). This means that Myuma is based on a social mission and that, after it has paid all its expenses, including wages, it must use 100% of its profits to fulfill its social mission.<\/em><\/p>\n

They acknowledge in their book that this understanding of interdependence was embedded in many ancient cultures, and remains an integral part of many indigenous societies today. They also note that, fortunately, this wisdom is re-emerging in different forms all over the world. Movements such as the sharing economy, the solidarity economy, open-source innovation, peer-to-peer networks and a growing focus on taking care of the commons all show the eagerness of people to work for the greater good.<\/p>\n

The 21st<\/sup> Century Interlinked Global Crises<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

We all know the interlinked crises bearing down on us, whether we live in affluent Australia or the poor and struggling nations of Bangladesh and much of equatorial Africa:<\/p>\n