Robin Wall Kimmerer has given readers gift after gift in her 2013 book “Braiding Sweetgrass”. I first read it in 2016 after reading a review by a staff member of an outdoor gear company. I’ve gone on to recommend it many times in the years since and have enjoyed every word the second time through.
The complete title is “Braiding Sweetgrass, Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants.” All of those things are encompassed but there’s so much more in the 300+ pages of this beautiful book. The author speaks from her perspective as an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation who was raised with an intricate connection to the land and the stories therein.
The creation story her ancestors passed on of Sky Woman and the animals who
sheltered and assisted her sets the tone for the main theme - the interconnectedness of the web of life, all life.
This book will teach you important, evidence-based science while simultaneously asking the question “How can humans re-establish a loving relationship with our planet?” Since we’re rooted in interdependence humans must find ways to support and nurture flora and fauna. The author embraces the concept of Traditional Ecological Knowledge and it serves her well in life, writing and in her classroom and field studies. She would be my favorite professor, hands down.
A deep current running through the book is mothering and being a good mother. Earth as mother and human mothers trying to nurture their children as our planet nurtures us and holds us close. A mother knows what her children need to grow strong and eventually leave home and gives her best effort to provide that for them. And when children do leave, we need the reassurance of nature to soften their absence.
One chapter is written from a daughter’s perspective about the friendship the family forms with an elderly neighbor in Kentucky. The women give each other small, homemade gifts of great value and the author’s two daughters, who are young at the time, learn the all-important lessons of how to care for others in the most heartfelt ways. Many times while reading I realized tears streamed down my cheeks unbidden, brought to the surface easily by the simple goodness of the storytelling.
I think one reason for my reaction is that my own childhood included volumes of country wisdom courtesy of the women who’ve gone before me. My maternal grandmother was like a pioneer in many ways and I spent weeks with her every summer until I was age ten. She and my grandfather lived on a very remote ranch in southeastern Oregon. Water was drawn from a well in the middle of a large, screened porch, she created unbelievably delicious meals on a huge Monarch wood stove and electricity came on when Grampa started the generator as night fell.
So, the simple comforts of home and knowledge of surrounding plants and animals were central to my upbringing. When the author writes of maple syrup, invasive species and counting populations she shines a light on a higher level of knowing and acknowledging the world around us. I’m sure her classes are always full and no students miss lessons.
In my opinion, this book is a must read. Perfect for the young and science-minded and
enlightening for anyone who’s never studied pond ecology or the need for wildlife overpasses no matter what age they are.
I’m Linda Allen in Amarillo for High Plains Radio Readers Fall Read.
