a book
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
Robin Wall Kimmerer · 2013 · 384 pages
'A hymn of love to the world ... A journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise' Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two ways of knowledge together. Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings - asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass - offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In a rich braid of reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.
recommended by 7 people
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Ada Limon
“The book that I most likely have told people to read, or sent copies of, or taught, or mentioned in my own work is Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass. It’s a book that really shifted the way I thought about my own relationship to nature and to the earth. But it’s more than a book of indigenous wisdom or the power of plants, but a book that makes you look at the connectedness of all things. When I feel untethered and breathless, Braiding Sweetgrass reminds me that there is beauty here and that I can belong here. It’s a hugely important book to me.”↗
Sarah Taber
“Yeah that's because most of those books are actually just sanctimonious classists pretending they're trying to fix problems. That's why they're depressing If you want a book that's actually about moving forward, "Braiding Sweetgrass" is FANTASTIC.”↗
Laura Roeder
“I love this book”↗
Dave Chase
“@nickisnpdx @nickdawson @ShereeseMayMba @megan_janas @Mehdiyac @BrennenHodge @clayforsberg @DrDixonFtW @BrianSachs @mass_marion @JoeBabaian @FennerMichelle @MartyMakary @misterchambo @NextSkinHealth @jamcbride @MatthewRehrl @Dan_Jeffries1 @shaylynromney The book was like one giant, beautiful poem. Hard to describe without reading the book. Great commentary on how our linear, extractive, silo’ed economy fails in comparison to the regenerative, circular, reciprocity-based model that has been timeless. Her metaphors are unreal.”↗
