Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Kimmerer, Robin Wall

Recommended by: Alexandra Foradas

“A ritual can be a lesson (or many), a balm to soothe and even heal old wounds, a map to find one’s way out of a place of harm. In Braiding Sweet Grass, Kimerer writes, ‘ceremony focuses attention so that attention becomes intention,” (249). And, ‘Ceremony is a vehicle for belonging–to a family, to a people, and to the land,’ (37). And, ‘our elders say that ceremony is the way we can remember to remember,’ (383). The remembrances and rites that Kimerer relates center an indigenous approach to land science rooted in a ‘covenant of reciprocity’ (382) with the other beings that populate our (finite) planet. This scientific practice is a stark contrast to the extractive practices that characterize capitalist approaches to agriculture and land management.”