Indigenous Commons & GrandMothering Economics—A conversation with Suzanne Bowles and Jason Jacobs

In this first episode of Towards Planetary Commons, we welcome Suzanne Bowles and Jason Jacobs, co-founders and kin-makers of Indigenous Commons, to explore the Commons from the perspective of indigenous-led governance. Suzanne and Jason guide us to rethink governance and economy through indigenous worldviews centered on relational trust, ancestral wisdom and the practice of being a good ancestor. The conversation moves through indigenous governance and autonomy, the role of communities at the margins of dominant systems and what it would take to redesign economic and financial systems around care rather than extraction. At the heart of the episode is GrandMothering economics—an approach to governance and economy grounded in nurturing and protecting both ancestors and future generations. Where Western economics asks what can be extracted from the forest, Grandmothering Economics asks what must be protected for the grandchild. Where markets distribute according to purchasing power, Grandmothering asks us to feed the smallest first. We’re left with a fundamental question for planetary governance: What would change if we redesigned our institutions around the responsibility to be good ancestors?