GIVING FOWARD & STAYING IN MOTION.

Please note: Unfortunately this aspect of my mission has been put on pause for a while as I am navigating the life of lower than usual income.

The “Rising” in White Pine Rising is there for a reason. It is meant as a reminder for staying in motion — action, progression, evolving — and that extends to keeping monetary gains in motion as a business. I believe in cycling proceeds back into our precious communities.

Since March 2021, White Pine Rising has been actively setting up monetary offerings to groups that are creating positive social and environmental change in the world. You will find an emphasis on various marginalized communities, who are often the driving force behind better ecological conservation and social progression on behalf of us all.

So far with your support in my business, we’ve been able to give forward to:

• Michele’s Midwifery Schooling and Preceptorship

• Rootwork Herbals / The People’s Medicine School

• Leilú Gardens for Indigenous Food Sovereignty in Detroit

• Keep Growing Detroit

• Recovery funds for Grand Rapids, MI based midwife Tiffany Townsend

• Indigenous-led advocacy, education, and litigation to Stop Line 3

• Healing By Choice! in Detroit, MI

In an ever-evolving list, here are other ways WPR is giving forward in the context for the land I operate on and the work lineage I am part of:

• Directly growing the herbs needed in formulas that I can build relationship to and harvest in an ethical, mutually beneficial way / Working with abundant and so-called “invasive” plants instead of at-risk plants when appropriate / “Wild” tending spaces of harvest to encourage a prolific lifecycle and environment.

• Sourcing materials from reputable businesses with mission statements aligned with ecological preservation and community building. Often these are local herbal growers and other small batch makers.

• Building a business model that disrupts and defies a modern capitalistic model by honoring mental health, physical wellbeing, and joy through respectable boundaries paying homage to rest and play. Operating a business that prioritizes an ethics of community wellness over the sole purpose of capital self-gain and constant production sets an inspiring example for others to help build this new business culture of mutual support and compassion. “Business is good” when we’re not depleting ourselves just to make a buck to survive capitalism. “Business is good” when we’re uplifting each other to meet our collective needs.

• Exemplifying a perspective away from an individualistic self-concerning “money making” mindset toward a community-forward mindset. Monetary wealth becomes less of a burdened goal when our focus isn’t so self-focused. No one lives in a bubble, and no one is a success on their own. We are interdependent species and need the care of our community tenants to literally live in this world. Being in service to each other and to the land helps us all flourish together. Hoarding resources is not a desire I aspire to.

• Unpacking the history of Western Herbalism and so-called “permaculture” practices in the US that have been colonized from Native American and Black populations for their knowledge, wisdom, and enslaved labor over hundreds of years, while being repackaged and sold as “new” discoveries by descendants of European settlers. I take great acknowledgement of this when considering where to cycle proceeds from my business, because this business directly benefits from those (often stolen) teachings.

• Learning about my own European lineage (French, Belgium, Irish, English, German) and ancestral connection to healing, preservation, and the more-than-human kin to suture gaps of cultural belonging. This prevents extraction from other cultural lineages I do no belong to.

• Offering trade of goods, sliding scale, & gifting goods to community members whom lack financial resourcing / Redistributing wealth when possible & offering restitution / Providing free educational content via social media channels.

• Encouraging land-based relationships woven with deep gratitude and reverence through spoken stories, written word, workshops, and artistic expression.

• Crafting herbal medicines that are obtainable for self-healing and deepening a relationship to one's own body and needs.

• Honoring the Native Anishinaabe peoples who have and continue to steward the land I live and work on - by learning more about their cultural and ecological practices and uplifting their voices in the fight for ecological wellness.