Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
Robin Wall Kimmerer
'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.
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About Robin Wall Kimmerer
Reviews for Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
Caroline Lucas
Guardian
It is beautiful and unusual, the rare book that might cause you to forever see the world a little differently
Sophie McBain
Observer
Remarkable, wise and potentially paradigm-shifting
Guardian
Braiding Sweetgrass is the book we all need right now. It is a vision of a new world, of reciprocity, gratitude and seeing the living world for what it is: an abundance of gifts. Kimmerer is uniquely placed to braid indigenous knowledge with scientific learnings and she does it with kindness, ingenuity and a poet's prose. It is truly the text for our times.
Lucy Jones
author of Losing Eden
An extraordinary book, showing how the factual, objective approach of science can be enriched by the ancient knowledge of the indigenous people. It is the way she captures beauty that I love the most - the images of giant cedars and wild strawberries, a forest in the rain and a meadow of fragrant sweetgrass will stay with you long after you read the last page
Jane Goodall One of the most beautiful books I've ever read.
Daily Herald
I give daily thanks for Robin Wall Kimmerer for being a font of endless knowledge, both mental and spiritual.
Richard Powers
The New York Times
Reading this book was like looking at the world afresh. Radical, hopeful, honest and wise, Robin Wall Kimmerer has woven us a precious heartsong for difficult times
Helen Jukes 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 Robin Wall Kimmerer opens a sense of wonder and humility for the intelligence in all kinds of life we are used to naming and imagining as inanimate.
Krista Tippett