Braiding Sweetgrass

Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

De: Robin Wall Kimmerer

Narrado por: Robin Wall Kimmerer

As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers.

In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowing together to reveal what it means to see humans as "the younger brothers of creation". As she explores these themes, she circles toward a central argument: The awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgement and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the world. Once we begin to listen for the languages of other beings, we can begin to understand the innumerable life-giving gifts the world provides us and learn to offer our thanks, our care, and our own gifts in return.

©2013 Robin Wall Kimmerer (P)2016 Tantor

Finally, Words

When Kimmerer spoke the words "This concludes Braiding Sweetgrass" I wept. It was like someone finally spoke in a language I could understand, spoken with such a gentle power, I could not help but smile. And sometimes seethe. And sometimes cry, whether the tears were from joy or sadness or frustration or maybe compositions of those and other things.

Far from being an imitation New Age "feathers and buckskin" kind of book, Kimmerer brings the gifts of science and poetry, traditional story and new experiences braided in the motif of the books name, woven with such care and skill as to be all, sometimes simultaneously. Her themes of gratitude and gift, reciprocation and responsibility, also bring forth new insight, but stirs something ancient and right in the depths of my bones as if I new these teachings and stories before.

I am always grateful when an author reads their own book, but Kimmerer is a delight to listen to, not just because as the author, she puts the inflections and emphasis in the right places, but also because I can feel her smile when she talks of berries, or her sadness at the squish of salamanders or the humility of inundated waders.

When my aunt died of cancer, my last link to my own people was broken, distant cousins north and west of the Potawatomi and Ojibwe whose Algonquian-speaking ancestors also told about Muskrat and Turtle. My grandmother was one of the casualties of the wihtikow, assimilated such that the government decided she was no longer "Indian". I cannot call myself indigenous, nor do I feel I have the right to, regardless of DNA or blood quanta--the tools governments use to decide identities for you. But Kimmerer reminds me that I still have responsibilities. Her recounting of her own language renewed my interest in learning mine, because, after all, nēhiyawēwin means to be the people who speak the same language.

I wept when the book was finished, not sad because it was over. Unlike my aunt and grandmother, I am going to start from the beginning right after this review, in gratitude because it feels like, for the first time, Kimmerer brought together the right words at the right time to inspire more life-giving to come.

The world sorely needs books and worldviews and gifts like these. Thank you, Robin, for the courage and wisdom and joy and responsibility for the gift of your words, wisdom, work, and life.

Deeply moving and inspiring

This book touches my heart in a way that few others ever have. Robin Wall Kimmerer is offering us, who so sorely need it, a light of hope; a path, both physically and for the heart; a path to navigate through these times, to a way of inhabiting the earth with gratitude and reciprocity. Please read this book. It is so important and so very relevant. It will touch your heart and stole the fire that is burning there.

Full song of vital understanding

How joyful and sad, this beautiful work of poetic biology and scientific deep understanding is. We as a species are connected with and estranged from all that matters and through these stories of love we are uplifted to feel with our ancestors' wisdom. Wow. What a good job this author listener woman is sharing!

Beautifully written, informational and inspirational.

This book is thought provoking, heart changing, and inspirational. The author marries the ideas of science and indigenous practices in such a beautiful and elegant way will fill your heart with gratitude for the gifts that mother earth provides as well as grief and remorse for how she has been raped and taken advantage of. This book will ignite a passion to get back to the earth and create a true desire to establish a "give and take" relationship with her. Along with being truly informational it is incredibly touching. I would recommend this book to anybody.

Thoughtful and Lovely

I quite enjoyed this book. It is a lovely blend of scientific knowledge and native wisdom. Robin Wall Kimmerer does a wonderful job narrating her own book. She has a soothing voice and accurately pronounces scientific terms that could have been a problem for others. This book is a welcome antidote to our consumerist culture. I do not hold to all of Ms. Kimmerer's philosophies, but then again, do I ever agree with everything an author says? My one complaint about the book is that it is too long. I felt like the author had said all she had to say in about the first nine or ten hours, making the last few hours a bit of a slog. All-in-all, I would recommend this book. I am currently regretting not placing some bookmarks because there are passages I would love to hear again, but I am doubtful that I will listen to the entire book again.