Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

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And it blends into the land, does not crowd out indigenous species, unlike Kudzu and other plants that destroy the ecosystems they invade. I read this book in a book club, and one of the others brought some braided Sweetgrass to our meeting. Environmental Philosophy says that this progression of headings "signals how Kimmerer's book functions not only as natural history but also as ceremony, the latter of which plays a decisive role in how Kimmerer comes to know the living world. Volume 3 of the Kinship series revolves around the question of interspecies relations How do relations between and among different species foster a sense of responsibility and belonging in us?

Kimmerer) (born 1953) is Associate Professor of Environmental and Forest Biology at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF). The book has also received best-seller awards amongst the New York Times Bestseller, the Washington Post Bestseller, and the Los Angeles Times Bestseller lists.

After all, according to most Indigenous oral traditions, if you are a part, meaning a relative, of any Indigenous community, then you know that your people’s teachings are meant only for you and your tribe. She puts forth the notion that we ought to be interacting in such a way that the land should be thankful for the people. With deep compassion and graceful prose, Robin Wall Kimmerer encourages readers to consider the ways that our lives and language weave through the natural world. Beautifully bound with a new cover featuring an engraving by Tony Drehfal, this edition includes a bookmark ribbon, a deckled edge, and five brilliantly colored illustrations by artist Nate Christopherson; this is a book you are going to want to gift - either to yourself or those you love. Five stars for introducing me to Sweetgrass, its many Native American traditions, and her message of caring for and showing gratitude for the Earth.

In the same way that when I spent a little time with Robin, I wanted to walk behind her with a sign saying "This is the most wise and powerful person you will ever meet," because with her quiet, kind demeanor, I fear others won't listen, will look right past her like they look past the plants and animals she studies.David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas has a part where a book written from an earlier time is taken as a founding spiritual text for a future rebellion -- that's a feeling I got while reading this now. That is, she acknowledges their personhood, and that it is a gift they are giving in being our food. This book contains one exceptional essay that I would highly recommend to everyone, "The Sacred and the Superfund. Braiding Sweetgrass blew my head apart, and along with that, decimated the carefully constructed guard walls around my heart.