mp3 cd
Published July 5, 2016 by Tantor Audio.
Braiding Sweetgrass
Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
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. In 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 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.
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. In 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 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.
A spiritual guide
5 stars
If I had to choose one book to keep with me this would be it. I spent six years listening to the audio book because each chapter, each paragraph really, is transformational. I'll likely start the book over again on paper, and read the young adult version. It's a religious experience. It offers a new way to live that is so against the grain that you need to read and reread to keep shifting into this new mindset.
Every chapter is important but the last is so so relevant to today's fascist world.
What's amazing is that it's not framed as spiritual or self-help, although I can see that other reviewers felt the same way I do about it being a spiritually transformative experience. Kimmerer is a scientist, an indigenous scientist with a wide lens, and the book is chock full of scientific observations and surprising, beautiful facts.
…If I had to choose one book to keep with me this would be it. I spent six years listening to the audio book because each chapter, each paragraph really, is transformational. I'll likely start the book over again on paper, and read the young adult version. It's a religious experience. It offers a new way to live that is so against the grain that you need to read and reread to keep shifting into this new mindset.
Every chapter is important but the last is so so relevant to today's fascist world.
What's amazing is that it's not framed as spiritual or self-help, although I can see that other reviewers felt the same way I do about it being a spiritually transformative experience. Kimmerer is a scientist, an indigenous scientist with a wide lens, and the book is chock full of scientific observations and surprising, beautiful facts.
In a way this is about wandering in the woods like Mary Oliver. It's also a mythological text. It's also a reflection on what it means to be an indigenous academic, or to be indigenous at all. It's also a review of her academic and personal life's work. It's an exploration mainly of the U.S. natural world. It's delicious description. It's an environmentalist's handbook.
It's also incredibly soothing to listen too. I kept coming back to listen to the next chapter when I wanted something that felt so true I could melt into the words.
forpeterssake reviewed Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Thoughtful, beautiful prose about people and place
5 stars
Blending her plant science and indigenous backgrounds, Robin Wall Kimmerer writes about people and their place in the world, about reciprocity between people and nature, and about what she calls the "Wendigo economy." I am going to be thinking about this book for a long time, and I was almost sorry to finish it.
Blending her plant science and indigenous backgrounds, Robin Wall Kimmerer writes about people and their place in the world, about reciprocity between people and nature, and about what she calls the "Wendigo economy." I am going to be thinking about this book for a long time, and I was almost sorry to finish it.
Nano Book Review reviewed Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Scientific and Spiritual
5 stars
Robin writes of her life as an ecologist and a native American. Her appreciation for plants and animals blends scientific rigor with spiritual connection and stewardship. The book is a memoir of her attempts to reconcile science, capitalism, and her native understanding of our world. The other living beings around us have so much to teach, and we have a responsibility to learn.
