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A review by reading_between_the_trees
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
This should be required reading, specifically for settlers, but also for anyone feeling extremely rooted in science and thinking that it is the solution to everything. I read this in my Environmental Ethics class, and it presents such a beautiful outline of an ethic based on gratitude and ecological consciousness.
Kimmerer writes beautifully about plants and the natural world, and puts indigenous knowledge into conversation with western science and capitalism while seriously critiquing both of the latter. After reading this I have a much better understanding of both the knowledge that was thriving before colonization and is still persevering today, as well as the ways that settler culture has systemically suppressed it and the people that create and propagate it. This book is both a call to action and a re-grounding in the ways that people used to connect with the world and see their place within it rather than in opposition to it.
Kimmerer writes beautifully about plants and the natural world, and puts indigenous knowledge into conversation with western science and capitalism while seriously critiquing both of the latter. After reading this I have a much better understanding of both the knowledge that was thriving before colonization and is still persevering today, as well as the ways that settler culture has systemically suppressed it and the people that create and propagate it. This book is both a call to action and a re-grounding in the ways that people used to connect with the world and see their place within it rather than in opposition to it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide and Sexism
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Genocide, Racial slurs, and Racism
Minor: Grief