Today I bring you another book review of a book I love: “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants” by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
This gentle book explores the deep knowledge coming out of the Indigenous way of living on the land. Using stories coming from her Potawatomi ancestors, Dr. Kimmerer shares traditional ways of gardening and harvesting, as well as some of the origin stories of her people. She then weaves these together with knowledge from botany and Western Science, showing us that both traditions have legitimacy. She underlines practices of gratitude in how we live on the land, and reminds us that we live in reciprocal relationships with our world. I especially love the chapter on language and how it holds the world view of the speaker.
Dr. Kimmerer lives in Syracuse, New York, where she is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.
I hope you enjoy this episode. Please, share it around, and if you’re of a mind, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts; and give us a review. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.
Episode links:
Chapman Coaching Inc. and the blog post I mentioned about how to find balance
Here’s Dr. Kimmerer talking about the spring, and in it she speaks in her Anishinaabe language
“Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma