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

Product Information

Perhaps some readers may be turned off by the way she can anthropomorphize the environment, but her background as an indigenous woman and respect for her tradition brings a new light to how we—or at least I, as a white male—view the world. As a botanist and indigenous person you'd think this would be right up my alley, but there was something about the description that made it sound it was going to be a lot of new-age spiritual non-sense, and it was a bit of that, but mostly I was pleasantly surprised that it was a more "serious" book than I thought it'd be. Our work and our joy is to pass along the gift and to trust that what we put into the universe will always come back. Those who value the indigenous teachings of gratitude to the earth for all it provides would also find this book worthwhile.

The author’s journey to relearn her Potawatomi heritage and synthesize it with her scientific/teaching career in plant ecology was the perfect format for a reader even more disconnected from the land and culture. Somehow, all the pecan trees in a whole state will withhold seeds for years on end, until they all, one year, decide it's time. I felt euphoric inhaling the intense fragrance, and truly understood why the author would name a book after this plant.From 'Witness to Rain' [essay], BRAIDING SWEETGRASS: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer, 2015 by Milkweed Editions. Anyone who enjoys being outdoors and thinks we can do more to respect the natural world would enjoy this book. While reading this, I thought of how my mother had had asthma as a child but my grandfather, who was very familiar with traditional African medicine (which was of course seen as backwards by Western medicine) knew which plant medicine to give my mother.

I also realize her purpose in writing this book may not have been to give answers to the dire environmental issues we are facing. Robin Wall Kimmerer argues that science can be infused with folklore, stories, and history to enrich it and enhance it. Kimmerer was told in college that her reason for wanting to be a botanist was aesthetic rather than scientific. I would read a couple of essays, find my mind wandering, and then put the book down for a couple of weeks. This does nothing other than make her feel better about herself (and in fact, is probably worse than nothing, since the tobacco farming required to make this offering is so harmful to soil health).

Powerful book with lots of indigenous wisdom related to science, gratitude, and how we relate to the land. If you've never heard of the Indian Removal Act Braiding Sweetgrass may do some good by providing a third-hand account of some of its consequences, but for the most part it's just an aggravating waste of time. Seen through the eyes of a botanist and Native American, this non-fiction book asks many questions about botany, while looking to Native American traditions and Western science for the answers.

Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as 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. Her writing about the importance of maintaining indigenous language and culture also elicited feelings of tenderness and sadness from me. Through Kimmerer, I have learned to be more present with plants, with mosses—to learn from and with them. Numerous times, I found myself thinking, “if I were reading this, I’d be highlighting this passage”. Updated with a new introduction from Robin Wall Kimmerer, the special edition of Braiding Sweetgrass, reissued in honor of the fortieth anniversary of Milkweed Editions, celebrates the book as an object of meaning that will last the ages.Rather than a linear story, each chapter is like an essay, and some blew me apart; others were more quiet and horrifying. Interestingly, regarding that ritual, Kimmerer says that her father made it up in one part of the book (p 37), yet in another part alludes to it as the Potawatomi “sunrise ceremony” (p 106). So, even though she wants to make her visiting daughters this meal that would remind them of childhood meals they made together in spring, she puts them back, tucks them back into the earth, and leaves. Five stars for the author's honest telling of her growth as a learner and a professor, and the impressions she must have made on college students unaccustomed to observing or interacting with nature.

As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. My grandfather also helped with my sister’s anaemia (by boiling guava leaves in water and giving her the liquid to drink - this helps to replenish iron levels). The other direction is the realm of harmony with nature, the inhospitable realm of minimal impact, where I cannot visit Milwaukee unless I want to spend a week walking there; where I can't eat bananas because they're shipped from central America; where I might afford one or two pairs of clothing; where gas furnaces do not exist.In Braiding Sweetgrass, botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer tackles everything from sustainable agriculture to pond scum as a reflection of her Potawatomi heritage, which carries a stewardship ‘which could not be taken by history: the knowing that we belonged to the land. But I believe it is my job to walk as close to this latter world as I can without destroying my relationship with the former world. She offers a salve to the despair we feel when it comes to facing this issue through wisdom, science and tradition that must be carried forward by the next generation, as she carries her people's stories on through her work. The gift of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book is that she provides readers the ability to see a very common world in uncommon ways, or, rather, in ways that have been commonly held but have recently been largely discarded. The series of essays in five sections begins with "Planting Sweetgrass", and progresses through "Tending," "Picking," "Braiding," and "Burning Sweetgrass.