What Capitalism Gets Wrong — And What Indigenous Wisdom Can Teach Us

Suitauloa Simon Young
3 days ago
4 min read

A PEP Talk reflection inspired by Braiding Sweetgrass

Capitalism promises progress, efficiency, and prosperity. But many of us feel something deeper shifting — a sense that the system itself is struggling to hold the weight of its own design. As Simon and Marie shared in this week’s PEP Talk episode, the gap between wealth and wellbeing is widening. The earth is strained. People are overworked. Communities feel disconnected.

That tension sparked a bigger question: What’s the alternative?

The answer didn’t come from a business textbook, an economic model, or a policy debate. It came from a story — Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, a Native American plant scientist whose writing bridges science and Indigenous wisdom.

This episode became a reflection on how we live, how we consume, and how we might see the world differently.

A System Built on Taking

When we talk about capitalism, we often jump straight to numbers — GDP, profit margins, tax brackets. But Simon pointed out something more human: the system rewards extraction. Growth for growth’s sake. Ownership as entitlement. Resources as objects to be consumed.

We know how this story goes:

• The rich get richer.

• The poor become more vulnerable.

• The earth is pushed past its limits.

• And people are working harder than ever just to stay afloat.

It’s messy. And it’s unsustainable.

A Different Way of Seeing

What moved Simon most about Braiding Sweetgrass was its worldview. Robin Wall Kimmerer writes about land, water, plants, and ecosystems as kin — part of a family we belong to, not a collection of commodities we control.

This isn’t metaphor. It is a practical ethic of relationship.

Instead of saying, These trees are mine to use, Indigenous perspectives ask:

What is my responsibility to these trees? What is our shared survival asking of me?

As Marie reflected, this way of seeing simply makes sense. It’s grounded, relational, and deeply aligned with Pacific values of reciprocity, stewardship, and whakapapa.

The Honorable Harvest

One of the most powerful parts of Kimmerer’s work is the Honorable Harvest — a set of principles that guide how we receive the gifts of the natural world.

Some of the teachings Simon shared:

• Introduce yourself. Be accountable as the one who comes asking for life.

• Ask permission before taking — and abide by the answer.

• Never take the first and never take the last.

• Take only what you need.

• Harvest in a way that minimises harm.

• Use what you take with respect — and never waste it.

• Share.

• Give thanks.

• Give a gift in return.

• Sustain the ones who sustain you.

These aren’t abstract ideas. They are practical, ethical, and deeply adaptable to modern life.

And they offer something capitalism desperately lacks: balance.

Mining vs Harvesting

One line from their conversation stood out:

Mining is cracking something open to force value out of it. Harvesting is accepting what nature offers.

It raises a confronting question:

How much of our modern economy is built on mining — not just minerals, but people’s time, communities’ wellbeing, and the future of the planet?

What would change if we approached our work, our organisations, even our businesses, with a harvesting mindset instead?

Business and Indigenous Values Can Co-Exist

One of the myths Simon and Marie unpacked is that Indigenous principles somehow conflict with business or innovation. In reality, reciprocity has always been part of trade. Sharing has always been part of community economies.

Profit becomes harmful only when it serves the few and deprives the many. As Simon put it, when accumulation becomes the primary goal, it behaves less like growth and more like disease.

There is nothing incompatible about purpose-led business. Pacific communities have always known how to mobilise resources, innovate, and create economic resilience. The question is whether we can do it in a way that honours the relationships that sustain us.

A Call to Rebalance

This episode wasn’t a lecture. It was a gentle conversation about possibility.

A reminder that:

• Our environment has whakapapa.

• Our choices ripple across ecosystems.

• Gratitude and reciprocity are powerful economic forces.

• Justice isn’t abstract — it’s embedded in how we eat, buy, work, and build.

• Leadership is relational, not extractive.

Marie said it beautifully: when we pause to reflect on our surroundings with fresh eyes, we start to see the wider ecosystem we’re part of.

Purpose Empowers People

At PEP, we believe leadership is relational. Business is relational. Community is relational.

The Honorable Harvest simply reminds us to act as though those relationships matter — because they do.

If this episode resonated, we’d love to hear your reflections.

Drop a comment, share the podcast with someone who’s wrestling with these questions, or get in touch if you’re exploring how to embed purpose, culture, and reciprocity into your own work.

You are a purpose-empowered person — and the world needs what only you can bring.