Outside the Box: reflections on living and learning sustainably

October 26

Today, I downshifted. I didn’t sell anything. Instead, I gave up two days of teaching a week. There were a lot of reasons for that but the one I’m going to focus on here is time. Time is one thing I undervalue for myself and I often find myself spread too thin. This causes me to feel, as Mulligan (2018) observes, “anxious about not succeeding in life” (p. 35). He’s talking about hyperconsumption here and is framing this in terms of products. Equally, I think, we can think of hyperconsumption in terms of time and focus.

We invited my Dad to live with us a number of years ago, putting on an addition so that he could have the facilities he needs (such as a wheelchair lift and accessible bathroom facilities). Dad needs a fair bit of time these days. When I added the two extra days of teaching, I found I wasn’t seeing him at all. The money was nice, of course, but I was seeing my Dad walk less and cough more (he aspirates sometimes when he eats, so movement is essential to combat infection). With the pandemic, I can’t ‘pay’ to have someone else take him out or do things with him.

Furthermore, I homeschool our son. I love it! I love learning about how he learns and all the new, cool things there are out their to learn that weren’t there when I went to school. It’s fun! But it is a continually changing curriculum. When I taught at the university, I really enjoyed the third year of teaching a course, when things flowed and I could throw myself into really conveying the material to the students and working with them to engage in the subject and also in the wonderful stage of life they were in. With homeschooling an only child, it is a constantly changing educational landscape. This is truly exciting. But it also takes time. Again, all I am doing is going from one thing to another and not honouring my commitment to my son’s education.

And I am running behind in this course. I realized this yesterday and this was the clincher. Years ago, when I was doing post-graduate work full-time rather than juggling family and work and school, I never ran behind. The stark comparison highlights how much I am juggling right now and how much I need to refocus. This MEd is important to me. It is a mid-life career shift. It is also time spent on ‘digging deep’ into issues that I want to learn more about and include my own life practices. I had hoped that these extra two days of teaching would allow me to invest the educational well-being that I am experiencing into the education of youngsters. Without the prep time (and for other reasons as well), this has been difficult to achieve. And the course where much of this new expertise could really make a difference (my WILD course), I have not had the time to develop as I had planned. Again, there is no repetitive curriculum here. And COVID times have shifted what we did last year (no more visits to the Wildlife Centre or the Turtle Trauma Centre etc). I am running from one thing to another without pausing or preparing. There is too much.

Heartbreaking as this is for me, I had to realize that I needed to slow down. I haven’t been sleeping. I am anxious. Texts are coming in through the evening and weekends that distract me from organizing my time and focussing on following through with my commitments. I am consistently dealing with feelings of coming up short, with my family, my friends, my colleagues and my students. Perhaps I should call this the hyperconsumption of time?

And what this means is that I am not living sustainably. I am taking shortcuts. I am not making the soups for my Dad that would both be healthier for him and for the planet. Or even spending the time to chat, rather than to just solve problems. I am not getting the greenhouse together to grow winter greens with my son or saying, let’s bike to the library to return our books. And I am not, like I envisaged, starting the day with a chapter or video from our readings as inspiration. I have stopped my morning yoga and meditation. I am not getting up early enough because I am awake too much during the night. And I am not living up to my commitments.

In his 2012 video, You Don’t Need to Buy This, Amitai Etzioni encourages us to ‘unhook ourselves’ (2012, timestamp 3:28). He maintains that there are three things that truly make us happy: Relationships, Intellection (reading, meditation etc) and Political Activism (2012, timestamp 3:50). This change means that I am investing in the relationships and intellection closest to me, most especially my family.

So, I have passed on this teaching to someone who needs the money more and who does not have the additional family commitments that I do. I hope she will flourish with this opportunity! And I will take the time to invest the energies I need into the responsibilities that were mine before this opportunity to expand my teaching happened. I will slow down my consumption of time and look at ways in which I can focus my energies and my expectations in more sustainable ways. I will invest in well-being.

References

Etzioni, Amitai (September 2012). You don’t need to buy this. YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN3z8gtDUFE

Mulligan, Martin (2018). An introduction to sustainability. Environmental, social and personal perspectives. Routledge.

October 25.

I don’t do the grocery shopping any more. My husband does. And he cooks the dinner meal for the most part. This is a recent change and I’m loving it. So, while I don’t buy food, I do consume it. Let’s look in the fridge!

We eat a lot of whole foods. My husband’s health issues have meant that he’s been working with his diet quite intensively. We are gluten and mostly grain free right now. We don’t buy chips and our chocolate is Cocoa Camino because my husband is happy eating that and its Fair Trade. My husband also makes his own yoghurt and he used to make his own chicken bone broth. I must see if he’ll make more or start making it myself. We buy organic, antibiotic free meat and free range eggs and try to make them local. There are always improvements to be made here. For example, when I have the luxury of having eggs given to me by my friend, the yolks are always a deeper yellow than any you can get at the store. And, when the hens are young, the shells are much thicker and healthier. Having our own chickens would be lovely but I think I’m on a search for a gift exchange somewhere else.

Furthermore, enjoy some out-of-season fruit that is non-local. Though, we have been enjoying the Ontario grown strawberries and tomatoes from hothouses (and, yes, there are sustainability questions here too). Still, we buy avocados and bananas and while there is one farm pioneering bananas in Ontario (Canada Banana Farms), it is too far away, and likely too expensive, for us to partake of that bounty.

What we are brilliant at is composting! And in the past, reusing bones in soup stock! We have very little kitchen garbage which makes me very happy, especially as the compost goes to enrich our vegetable garden in the summer.

While we do pretty well on the health part of food, looking in the fridge, there are a LOT of plastics. This bugs me. And, of course, some of it had been affected by COVID and the inability to use bags from home for awhile. We need to regain the good habits we had before.

Bags are something we can easily change and do better with. But the internal packaging that comes with our organic and peanut free choices is a different matter altogether. I’ve mentioned the Royal Nuts packaging previously. We’ve reused some but as nuts are a staple of our diet, the extra containers are troublesome. So are the huge plastic containers that accompany the baby spinach which we use in daily salads. But here, perhaps, we can start to make some in-roads. Greens are so important to diet it’s nice to have them year round. One of the things I’d to try, is to grow them indoors in the winter. As non-fruit producing plants, I think this should be possible. Maybe here is one of the places I can make a positive shift in our consumption practices.

The other is adult diapers. My Dad is incontinent, sadly. And most of our garbage results from his diapers. If there is one thing to target to get our waste down, this would be it! The difficulty is getting something that is both comfortable and absorbent. Oddly, the thing that has stopped me before this, is the amount of time needed to research, buy and try products that none of the ‘wellness’ stores aimed at the aging populace carry. Again, this is putting the onus on the consumer to do their own research and to find alternate places of purchase. And perhaps that is where the acceptance must come. That time is well spent pursuing this research and that it’s not about money. I am reminded of the treadmill in the videoThe Story of Stuff (Leonard et al., 2007, timestamp 16:17).

And perhaps herein lies the rub. I often feel guilty about purchasing in general, despite the fact I am not a shopper. And I often feel I don’t have enough time in the day to keep up with my responsibilities. These are both states associated with hyperconsumerism. I reflect here Tim Kasser’s (2018) discussion of well-being in his video The High Price of Consumerism. The impact of consumerism on happiness and well-being further figures highly in Mattison’s (2012) dissertation on affluenza where she quite clearly links materialism with unhappiness (pp. 21-24). Perhaps, one ‘intervention’ (Mattison, 2012, p. 79) that I can make is to shift my own perceptions and to feel good about discovering alternate products that make our lifestyles happier. There is something here that has been stuck and needs to shift. I am greatly appreciating this journal because it allows me to take the time and consider not only the things that we could improve on but also the things that we do very well. Too often, I have been concerned about what I haven’t been doing. This leaves me with little energy to make changes. Conversely, feeling that you are making positive contributions to your lifestyle generates energy to go further and do more. Here, is perhaps, a key change I need to make.

References

Canada Banana Farms (2020). Canada banana farms. Canada Banana Farms. https://canadabananafarms.ca .

Kasser, Tim (January 2018). The high price of materialism – how our culture of consumerism undermines our well-being New Dream. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtwXryPNciM.

Leonard, Annie, Fox, Louis, & Sachs, Jonah. (December 2007). The story of stuff. Free Range Studios. https://www.storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-stuff/.

Mathison, M. (2012). Emancipation from affluenza: leading social change in the classroom. Unpublished dissertation Antioch University.

October 24th.

Today, I bought a car for a dollar.

Well, it’s a bit more than a dollar once the transfer tax and vehicle inspection take place but what my friend and I exchanged was the shiniest looney I had. Definitely a good price! And it underlines why I love the friends I have.

But let’s backtrack here and just talk cars. As I mentioned yesterday, we have a 2007 Prius. It is the best car I have ever owned and really hasn’t cost us much. It’s taken us to west coast and to the east. The west coast was the big one for me, back in 2008, when gas prices were high. One of my best friend’s weddings was going to take place in Victoria. We priced out plane flights. And then looked at each other and said, let’s drive! It cost us a fraction of the price and I got to see some amazing parts of my country I’d never have seen otherwise. It also was a good choice environmentally. In Jonathan Porritt’s (2011) video The Trap of Materialism, Pooran Desai notes that one flight to Australia equalled eight years of saved carbon expenses from living in the BedZED eco-village in Sutton, Surrey, England (2011, timestamp 28:00). We definitely won there. And we had a great time: our choice of not flying increased our happiness. This is something pychologist Tim Kasser reflects on in his 2018 video The High Price of Materialism.

Our Prius is getting old. My husband has done a number home repairs. As I mentioned yesterday, the hood release is now a wire tucked into the grill that hooks up to a modified latch system because the latch he ordered didn’t quite match up. The trunk release has also seen the tender care of my husband. The lights have been changed. And we might have to replace the starter battery sometime as it doesn’t hold a charge for long: don’t hold your foot on the brake if the car is off (unnecessary habit anyway), turn off the internal lights if you are working on the car with the door open and, under no circumstances, start the accessories without starting the engine and leaving it running for awhile. We’d like to keep the Prius on the road as long as we can for as little money as possible. Its little aging issues sometimes mean it’s off the road for a little bit while we fix whatever it is that needs fixing.

That’s actually why the Cube originally made it into our driveway! Last winter our friend’s wife suddenly and tragically died, and we while were ferrying him back from the bus the starter battery on the Prius gave out! That was my leaning on the brake habit there. He had two cars, so he lent us the 2010 Cube while we got it fixed. It took some time to sort out the fact that we didn’t really want to afford the $300+ battery when I could change my habit of leaning on the brake when the car was off.

In the meantime, it made our winter! Having two cars made it much easier for my husband and son to take advantage of a great homeschool ski-school (out of town) while I could continue to teach my course. The Cube also had a higher seat, so my Dad, who lives with us, has an easier time getting in and out. The Prius requires deep knee bends which are a bit difficult for my 87 year old father who has significant ambulatory challenges. My husband’s mother is also lives alone in a different town. My sister-in-law doesn’t drive. So, we’re the ones on call when she needs extra body around.

I have expanded my work at the Environment Centre, though am likely pulling back due to being over scheduled. My husband does the shopping and the cooking right now, so he ends up doing short haul shops. And to be honest, my husband’s mood has significantly increased with access to a car. He’s had a number of health issues that have kept him from working all but the most minimal amounts. Having the Cube to run errands on his time rather than mine has had a significant psychological benefit and gets him out of the house.

I also consider the lovely gift our friend has given us. He was happy to just shift ownership as he had no need of the money. This keeps the car out of the wreckers yard and retires it to low-moderate usage. This also means that we can afford to bolster our other aging car along, prolonging our need for a new car. Furthermore, should one of our friends need a car for awhile, we have the opportunity to lend them one of ours. This reciprocal economy ends up looking more like shared resources, than the exchange and purchase of vehicles.

But, why not bike? Both my husband and I love biking! And the cars are really about town vehicles for the most part. And Peterborough is not a large town and it’s recently invested in some snazzy new bike lanes. We have the panniers and the bike gear from before my son was born when we both used to bike a fair amount. I truly think my bike commute to and from the university contributed to my love of teaching and my ability to reach out to students.

Here’s the rub! My husband’s neck/ear injuries keep him from biking, his number one love when it comes to exercise. Reflecting on the difference this car has made in getting him out of the house, into the community and doing more, I realize that it’s not a black and white problem for us. There have been years when he used to walk to work and didn’t drive. We gave up my car because of that. Now… there are more factors.

My Dad can’t walk more than about 20 meters at most and is often in a wheelchair when we go out. We need a car for him. And my work, while on university grounds, always includes my son. My son is an avid cyclist! And he bikes at a leisurely 10km/hr. A year ago we went up to Lakefield and back, a round trip of over 30km. It took us the entire day, including stops for ice cream and fries. I start work at 8-9AM snd leave about 5pm. Adding two hour bike commute with my son just isn’t in the cards. As for my husband, bending his neck at the angle needed for biking causes his tinnitus to truly excruciating levels. We’re considering a recumbent but those are pricey! More about what the Cube would have cost if we had bought it from a dealer.

So, we are now a family with two cars again, aging beasts that they are. We will treat them gently and try to use alternate transportation when possible. As with many things, this purchase had practical advantages for our family and was an opportunity hard to pass up because of that. Was it the most sustainable? Possibly not. But it’s where we are right now.

This reflection is certainly helping to clarify for me that I need to return to my own love of biking and to keep on biking with my son. Perhaps, too, we should really consider that recumbent!

References

Bioregional (n.d.) BedZED: the uk’s first large-scale eco-village. Bioregional.com. https://www.bioregional.com/projects-and-services/case-studies/bedzed-the-uks-first-large-scale-eco-village.

Kasser, Tim (January 2018). The high price of materialism – how our culture of consumerism undermines our well-being New Dream. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtwXryPNciM.

Porritt, Jonathan (December 2011). The trap of materialism. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtwXryPNciM.

October 23

I forgot the marshmallows! Well, I didn’t really forget, though I was pretty tired in the morning not having slept well. We had an unseasonable high of 22 degrees and I didn’t really think we needed a fire. Besides, I reacted badly to the smoke of the fire yesterday and my head still felt thick through the day.

I apologized about the marshmallows, citing my reasons. I’m not sure my son is convinced.

We drove back and forth to the Centre. I fondly remember when I used to bike up this way when I had my office across the street at the university. I even have a pair of studded tires hanging in my basement, which I didn’t use much because I was afraid a wipe-out would wreck the laptop in my panier bags. I miss biking. There is a beautiful freedom in getting on your bike and going. And it helps immensely to improve one’s mood.

Today, I carted two kids up to the Centre for 9 o’clock in our 2007 Prius. It takes me 20 minutes to drive from my house and about twice that to bike. It takes my kid at least an hour. But I wonder about biking. Yes, we have a Prius, an older, much cherished vehicle whose hood opens with a bit of wire rather than the internal latch. That broke a year ago and my husband, handy person that he is, fixed it with a modified latch and a bit of wire. I feel good about that. But I love biking. So does my son. We bought him a very nice bike (I’m don’t get sucked in by most advertising but I’m a sucker for top quality long lasting gear). And we’re not biking, despite the fact that my paniers won’t be carting any precious lap top to and fro and, more importantly, all my work is backed up on the cloud and on an external drive. 10 years ago, I wasn’t as good at backing up and I was terrified of loosing the hours of work housed in my laptop.

But my son is not one to rush. Biking anywhere is enjoyable. Just not fast. 12 km one way would take him an hour. Is that too long? Right now it is. But is that my perception of time? Does that reflect hyper-consumption? I am stressed and not sleeping. I do not pause in the day. Cycling would improve that. My mind chugs in slow circles. 2 hours of cycling. More in the winter. I can hear the gears grinding in my brain. I think there is a bit of smoke.

Lunch, again, is a mixture of fruits and veggies and chocolate and a Wow butter sandwich packed in our Planet boxes. Breakfast was yoghurt and nuts. The nuts are peanut free as my son has a peanut allergy. They come in plastic containers sealed for our protection. I have written the company, Royal Nuts, about this. They didn’t reply. I should write them again. Or call. Surely, there is a way to loose the packaging.

We didn’t use the lanterns. That’s fine. They will be there for next week.

Dinner is homemade hamburgers made from local organic grass-fed beef. With potato home fries and cauliflower. There is ice-cream for desert for my Dad and son. I wince, remembering the 11 billion dollars spent in Europe on ice cream as listed on Global Issues ‘Consumption and Consumerism’ page in 2014. According to them, it would take 6 billion and 9 billion dollars respectively to achieve basic education and water/sanitation for all. This disparity has likely increased by now. They also list the difference in global meat consumption between wealthy and poor communities. We try to buy local and organic but we still eat a lot of meat. My husband and I have a few squares of Cocoa Camino chocolate for dessert. I’m sure there are hidden costs there as well, despite the Fair Trade logo.

I bought nothing today. But I did consume. That consumption came with a price: plastics and movement of food from one locale to another. It brought single-use containers into our house that will end up in the blue box, hopefully to be recycled, but not necessarily. Hidden costs which contribute to lack of education and clean water in the world. I resolve to make our own ice-cream more often.

References

Shah, Anup (2014, January 5). Consumption and consumerism. Globalissues.org. https://www.globalissues.org/issue/235/consumption-and-consumerism.

October 22nd

This is the beginning of a multiple week reflective journal on consumption that I am doing for my Fundamentals of Sustainability course at Cape Breton University. In it, I am suppose to track my consumption, reflecting on the patterns and behaviours I notice. This is very much linked to techniques in mindfulness and neuro-biology, where journalling is used in very similar ways (see Rebecca Kochenderfer’s conversation with Dan Seigel). I am also supposed to make some changes to my behaviours and to see where that takes me. Through this practice of being critical and thoughtful of how and what I am consuming, I aim to become more aware of my behaviours and feel more empowered to make changes.

Today, I bought nothing. Not even the marshmallows I had been thinking about for my son so he could have something to cook over the fire. He said he was fine with not having any -as long as we have some tomorrow.

I thought we might do leaf and flower lanterns with the last of the fall foliage. So, I went downstairs to see what glass jars we had. My co-leader was also bringing some. I had, of course, forgotten to ask parents and the recycling had gone out yesterday. I gathered up some mason jars and put them in a box. I have no candles to put in them. Hmmmm…. perhaps it is enough to make the lanterns.

What I do need to consume more of is sleep!

We drove to the Centre and back again at night. The day was spent in to woods. I fed some chickadees, giving them some sunflower seeds. This was very special, the exchange between two different species. I love this connection. I hadn’t expected to be able to feed them this far from the Centre and I appreciate their bold willingness to trust.

My lunch, lovingly packed by my husband, was a selection of fruit and veggies, hard boiled organic eggs, and a few small squares of gluten free fair trade chocolate. We’ve had to make some dietary changes over the last fee years which has curtailed much of my indulgent spending. My husband has also taken over the shopping with my life being more busy. He’s much less tempted to buy treats for everyone. I like giving, which I am reflecting, means buying more often than not.

The kids play and learn and get wet in the swamp and we head back to finish their volcano project. These are made of recycled newspaper, old flour left over from our gluten friendly days, water and water bottles (mea culpa Nancy!) to provide enough upthrust for the vinegar, baking soda and flour mixture, tinted with red food colouring. I had run out of yellow. Pink lava is just as exciting as orange! We went through the baking soda and vinegar like whoosh! I got more from the Centre and will have to replace it next week. Neither costs very much from my pocket, but I reflect on the plastic bottle that contains the vinegar. Hidden costs here. I reflect on the Story of Stuff where Annie Leonard talks about externalizing the costs of production and distribution (2007, timestamp 8:12). This is what I am literally ‘buying into’ here.

We didn’t end up making the lamps. Perhaps tomorrow with my other class. Or next week.

We had a meeting. I came home and ate dinner (organic chicken breasts, tomatoes, mashed turnip and potatoes and broccoli). Another lovely meeting after dinner with Amy and Nancy and the day is done.

References

Kochenderfer, Rebecca. (2019, October 8). Discover Journaling’s Positive Effects on the Brain, with Dr. Dan Siegel. Journaling.com. https://www.journaling.com/articles/discover-jouranlings-positive-effects-on-the-brain-with-dr-dan-siegel/.

Leonard, Annie, Fox, Louis, & Sachs, Jonah. (December 2007). The Story of Stuff. Free Range Studios. https://www.storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-stuff/.

I love the way Robin Wall Kimmerer, in her popular book, Braiding Sweetgrass (2013), speaks of weaving Western science, Indigenous wisdom and the reciprocity of plants. This, my heart sang, was a path towards healing our troubled world, that brought understandings from both cultures together in harmony. Two ways of seeing. Two languages groups. Working towards a common goal of a healthy, happy planet.

We need this right now.

I recently listened to Elder Albert Marshall and Kerry Prosper speak about netukulimk (Steigman, 2014; Marshall, 2011; Prosper et al., 2001). Netukulimk is the Mi’kmaq word for sustainability. Marshall eloquently expresses this: “… I cannot take too much of anything. I cannot take it all. I have to make sure it will grow back and that it will continue to grow in the future” (Stiegman, 2014, Timestamp 4:45). Netukulimk is a way of life that the Mi’kmaq (and Indigenous cultures worldwide) have been struggling to maintain in the face of Western concepts of appropriation, commodification and superiority.

This approach is vitally needed in Western culture. We need to enter into a relationship with our planet that is steeped in reciprocity and respect rather than commodification and appropriation. We need to understand netukulimk. My classmate, Charlene Sacher, recently highlighted the distinction between a Western mindset of ‘rights’ and an indigenous mindset of ‘obligation’ (Charlene Sacher personal communication, September 18, 2020). As humans, we have an obligation to this world and all its peoples, not just in this generation but those that come after (Mulligan, 2018, p.28).

A key ideological difference between the Indigenous and Western worldview is the definition of people. This needs to shift before we can even start thinking about reciprocity or netukulimk. Western culture is still grappling with how to treat other humans with respect: racism and cultural disparity must be resolved before we can live harmoniously on this planet. Indigenous understandings are way ahead of us here: they maintain that humans are only one type of people. Even strawberries are “sovereign beings, with their own intelligences, their own wisdoms, their own responsibilities” (Kimmerer, 2012, Timestamp 2:30). As Kimmerer puts it: plants “know how to make berries out of light. We might do well to listen” (Kimmerer, 2012, Timestamp 5:25).

When I listen to Kimmerer, I am reminded of Leanne Simpson’s (2013), The Gift is in the Making. This rich ensemble of stories, beautifully incorporating the Nishnaabeg language, is written from this peopled perspective of the world. In these pages, Zhingwaak (the white pine) gets truly annoyed with Wiigwaasaatig (the birch), and the Hoof Nation leaves because they aren’t being respected. While primarily written for Nishnaabeg children, as a non-Indigenous person, I have found them pivotal to my own teachings, though I am still learning (and struggling with) how to bring this wisdom to kids.

These days, I find myself opening my own eyes, learning what is called ‘two-eyed seeing’ or etuaptmumk (Marshall, 2020). This was originally a way for Indigenous peoples to embrace their own cosmologies and learnings while pursuing Western education (Hatcher, 2012). But it can – and needs – to work both ways. In a recent talk, Elder Albert Marshall introduces this concept by speaking about the importance of “invoking” two-eyes, of looking at “everything from another perspective” (Marshall, 2020, Timestamp: 8:10)

Good advice for anyone, really.

I am reminded that it is not just Indgenous voices that are advocating for respect and reciprocity to this earth, but astronauts. Kimmerer tells the story of Skywoman Falling (Kimmerer 2013, pp. 3-5). Astronauts have achieved the perspective that Skywoman had before she fell to be cradled on the wings of Geese and to dance upon Turtle’s back. They look at the world from a different perspective, one where there are no national boundaries and where the hospitality of our blue world is so very clear in the darkness of space. They too, speak of the interconnectedness of life, of the reciprocity between the winds of Amazon and the diatoms in the oceans (Aronofsky, 2018). We would do well to listen to those able to see with more than one eye.

References

Aronofsky, Darren. (Executive Producer). (2018). One Strange Rock [TV Series]. National Geographic.

KImmerer, Robin Wall. (2013). Braiding Sweetgrass. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions.

Kimmerer, Robin Wall. (2012, August 18). Reclaiming the Honorable Harvest: Robin Kimmerer at TEDxSitka. [Video]. TEDxTalks. https://youtu.be/Lz1vgfZ3etE.

Hatcher, Annamarie. (2012). Building cultural bridges with Aboriginal learners and their ‘classmates’ for transformative environmental education. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences 2: 346-356.

Marshall, Albert. (2020, February 20). Etuaptapmumk: Two Eyed Seeing With Albert Marshall. [Video]. Humber College. https://youtu.be/pJcjf1nUckc.

Marshall, Albert. (2011, June 17). Mi’kmaq Elder Albert Marshall explains “Netukulimk, [Video]. UNIRTV. https://youtu.be/0mYfx5PIo_4.

Mulligan, Martin. (2018). An Introduction to Sustainability: Environmental, Social and Personal Perspectives (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Prosper, K., McMillian, L. Jane, Davis, Anthony A. and Moffitt, Morgan. (2011). Returning to Netukulimk: Mi’kmaq cultural and spiritual connections with resource stewardship and self-governance. The International Indigenous Policy Journal , 2(4). https://doi.org/10.18584/iipj.2011.2.4.7.

Simpson, Leanne. (2013). The Gift Is In The Making: Anishnaabeg Stories. Winnipeg, MB: Highwater Press.

Stiegman, Martha. (2014, March 19). Seeking Netukulimk. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/jrk3ZI_2Dd0.