Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

About Book

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 lenses of knowledge together to show 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 are we capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learning to give our own gifts in return.

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About Author

…is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, which has earned Kimmerer wide acclaim. Her first book, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses, was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing, and her other work has appeared in Orion, Whole Terrain, and numerous scientific journals. In 2022, Braiding Sweetgrass was adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith. This new edition reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth’s oldest teachers: the plants around us.

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Quotes by Robin Wall Kimmerer

“For what good is knowing, unless it is coupled with caring? Science homes in knowing, but caring comes from someplace else “ Pg. 345

“The very facts of the world are a poem. Light is turned to sugar. Salamanders find their way to ancestral ponds following magnetic lines radiating from the earth. The saliva of grazing Buffalo causes the grass to grow taller. Tobacco seeds germinate when they smell smoke. Microbes in industrial water can destroy mercury. Aren’t these stories we should all know?” Pg. 345

“Joanna Macy writes that until we can grieve for our planet we cannot love it-grieving is a sign of spiritual health. But it is not enough to weep for our landscapes; we have to put our hands in the earth to make ourselves whole again. Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift.” Pg. 327

“Our indigenous herbalists say to pay attention when plants come to you; they’re bringing you something you need to learn.” Pg.275

“Plants are also integral to reweaving the connection between land and people. A place becomes a home when it sustains you, when it’s feeds you in body as well as spirit. “ Pg.259

“When a language dies, so much more than words are lost. Language is the dwelling place of ideas that do not exist anywhere else. It is a prism through which to see the world.” Pg.258