Topic: Economic Strategies We Can Learn from First Nations Peoples

Presenters: Mark Anielski

After a presentation on Native peoples by Professor Tink Tinker, the Cobb Institute reached out to Mark Anielski to help us further explore what we can learn from First Nations. He was the guest of John Cobb & Friends on September 29, 2020. John Cobb calls Mark his “favorite economist” because “he thinks the economy should serve the wellbeing of the people.” Economist Anielski asks about feelings and experiences. He’ll report hopeful things happening among Canada’s First Nations peoples and wherever there are opportunities to develop local economies of resilience and trust in local systems of trade and production.  

Mark Anielski, a resident of Alberta, has worked to apply Herman Daly’s economic theories in practical ways.  His work of measuring  well-being extends from First Nations in Canada, Nunavut (Canada), Alberta, Singapore, China, South Korea, The Netherlands, Austria, and French Polynesia (Tahiti).  New Zealand, Iceland, Ireland, and Scotland are advancing well-being budgeting and governance, common-sense-economics for building a better and happier world.  He’s also consulted with folks in Santa Monica and Pomona. Anielski has authored two books: An Economy of Well-being: Common Sense Tools for Building Genuine Wealth and Happiness (2018) and the award-winning book The Economics of Happiness (2007).  See him on a wide-ranging Green Interview about an “Economy of Love.”

Mark suggests that you explore his Economics of Well-being Podcast conversations with several First Nations people including Chief Christian Sinclair of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation in Manitoba whose Nation he worked with in 2020/21 in conducting a well-being assessment in the process of establishing a working economy of well-being. Here is another with former Chief Larry Sault from Ontario. This one with Lewis Cardinal is about the story of Canada from a First Nations perspective.

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Can’t make it to the live session? Click here to access our archive of Cobb & Friends recordings.