The Sacred Balance, 25th anniversary edition: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature (Foreword by Robin Wall Kimmerer)

When Chief Oren Lyons of the Iroquois Onondaga Nation was invited to address students at the University of Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources, he highlighted this risk. ‘What you call resources we call our relatives,’ he explained. ‘If you can think in terms of relationships, you are going to treat them better, aren’t you? … Get back to the re

The prevailing materialistic culture has created a divided world where the sacred is relegated to churches and temples, the body to the gym, mental health to pills from the pharmacy. Economic growth is pursued as if it had nothing to do with the environment and ignorance, racism, and warfare continue to separate people and nations. These divisions

Human beings are the only species on the planet that has fallen out of step with creation. As a result, it is human beings that pose the greatest threat to life. The only way for us to regain our balance within creation is to once again find our balance with the natural world.

As Bruce describes it, ‘time spent with the Penan inspired me to realise that radically different ways of living together are not only possible, but might even be the best way for us to collectively flourish. Perhaps what we need is a new set of values, embedded in a different kind of story. An upgrade, perhaps, away from the belief that champions