Canadian Matricultures and Indigenous Gift Ecology in the North - Affinities and Differences

Threats to the welfare states and democracy, as well as the current civilizational and ecological crises have motivated scholars in ecology and political science to seek out and research alter-native social systems and gender regimes. The International Network of Feminists for a Gift Economy to which I belong has for l3 years sought out, researched and produced books and videos on cultures that are more ecosocially sustainable than Western capitalistic patriarchy. The accusations of cultural appropriation have also motivated many Western-trained scholars to seek sustainable models of living in their own marginalized ecofriendly culture. The concepts « gift ecology » and « gift economy » condense the ecofriendly politics of the North American and Northern European cultures in question that have much to offer regarding climate change and the future of our collective survival in a world of ever more finite resources. I focus on the gender and ecological dimensions of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and introduce those aspects of the worldview of Canadian matricultures like the Cree and Finnish Carelians living in Russia that offer the best practices for an ecosocially sustainable future worth adopting. I have studied and lived with the cultures in question, and now present the synthesis of 30 years of research