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Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
Audiobook16 hours

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

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

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About this audiobook

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.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJul 5, 2016
ISBN9781515975908
Author

Robin Wall Kimmerer

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Her first book, Gathering Moss, was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing. Her writings have appeared in Orion, Whole Terrain, and numerous scientific journals. She lives in Syracuse, New York, where she is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.

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Reviews for Braiding Sweetgrass

Rating: 4.667723699788583 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

1,419 ratings106 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Authors soothing voice made this read even more special. Great balance of science and a the spiritual.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book is generous and gives a lot of knowledge, wisdom, respect, and love. Listen.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was a great read. I read the audio book along side the physical book. I will recommend this every single time.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Completely changed the way I look at the world and has given me so much hope for the future I never knew I could have again

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Best book i ever listened to, I am crying with joy

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    inspiring! so much information, I will be reading it again.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Wonderful nonfiction covering the relationship plants and humans have sustained for generations before agricultural and industrial overload. A book to return to.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Heartbreaking to think of the things that are gone from this earth and terrifying to know we are on the brink of losing so much more. In the end the author gives a ray of hope. From the author - "Weep! Weep! calls a toad from the waters edge. And I do. If grief can be a doorway to love, then let us all weep for the world we are breaking apart so we can love it back to wholeness again"

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I love when authors read their own books, the expressions, their pauses ...all add so much to experencing the book, to me, as closely as the author intended it to be.
    This is a book I know I will re-read multiple times to be able to absorb and cherish all that's been shared. But I did get lost at times as there is a lot to process. Maybe should have been split in two books. One about Sweetgrass and one about the author's learnings!

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    My favorite plant author, Robin writes warmly and personally about her relationship with plants and the world around her. She stimulates us to question our cultural bias of distancing ourselves from the natural world and suggests that acting with reciprocity, sharing our gifts in exchange for the gifts nature gives us, will enhance the survival of all species (including humans).A few of her chapters get a bit more preachy, on issues that are currently overwhelming our environment, but on the whole this book speaks on a family level: Robin writes of cleaning up a pond in her attempt to be a good mother and provide a swimming area for her daughters; she writes of gardening, of listening to grade schoolers say a Thanksgiving in their native language, of boiling maple sap, of teaching college students to consider how they would feel if the earth loved them back. She shares some traditional Native American practices but cautions us to all find our own ceremonies that upwell from our own situations.The title honors a plant which embodies the different approaches to knowledge which she takes as a scientist and a Potawatomi.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Everything! The wisest book I've read on living with grace and respect on Mother Earth. I hope she will write another. Thank you Robin Wall Kimmerer.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Robin Wall-Kimmerer is the professor I needed during my biology studies. I empathize completely with her analyses and the deep connection to the natural world I have experienced since learning more of their structure and physiology. She weaves intergenerational wisdom, scientific knowledge, and a mutual way of living with the environment that is sorely needed for the future of our mutual humanity. I cannot recommend this book enough.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Braiding Sweetgrass is for me the most important book I have read in decades, possibly in my life. Kimmerer's messages are giving me strength, and a sense of purpose. As an ecologist who sees the world through the lens of science but knows that science alone cannot save the Earth from ourselves, I have unknowingly been seeking the path of healing through traditional ways. The words and spirit are so beautifully conveyed in the author's narration that I have been allowing myself only small portions of its balm at a time, fearing to arrive at the end. But here I am, still suffused with the joy of validation of a way of seeing the world in all its complexity and beauty and resilience, and a smidgen of hope that all is not lost to the Windigo. I have been urging my friends, colleagues, and students to read (or listen to) this book so that more and more of us can help lead our peoples towards the green path for the future.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Amazing writing which is delivered naturally as poetry. I love her writing and her calm voice.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Such a pretty book. Expect to shed lots of tears of heartache for the damage we have done to and on this beautiful world, but also tears of awe at how wonderful the world treats us. Provides a lot of guidance and thought to how we should be better living our lives. And fills me with gratitude.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I found it very enlightening on many things in our world plus learning the past history of how indigenous people were treated so badly in North America by our government. It was interesting to learn their beliefs and way of life. Enjoyed the book as well as the narration by the author. Hearing her own voice narrating brought such a personal element to it. I enjoyed it very much. What she has written also makes me appreciate the natural environment around me more than I ever have.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    One of the most soul-filling and beautiful books, shared with care and beauty and honesty. All humans would benefit from reading the wisdom shared here from Indigenous peoples, and nature. So much gratitude and respect for the author for sharing her people’s wisdom with such care and beauty ????
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is an amazing book, exceptionally written. Changed my life. Read it.

    Thank you Robin.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Incredibly beautiful and powerful. Being a native Hawaiian Robin’s stories and descriptions resonate deeply with me.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Excellent nonfiction audio book narrated by the author herself. It provide a great scope of information as well as author’s personal stories.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved this book. Full of wisdom, humour and inspiration. Thank you.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved this book, it has so many things to offer and learn from. Thank you.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was a recommended read for my herbal class ... I loved every minute of listening!! Highly highly recommend for your herbal library ?
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This Might be the most inspirational and insightful book yet.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Amazing! Such an incredible story, told by an incredible story teller. So many life lessons interwoven in stories which leave you inspired to lead a more honorable path. Great read/listen
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Her voice is very soothing, prefect for this book. As she spoke she drew a picture. What a great book, what a life, so different from anything I ever read. She taught me so much about nature and the glorious earth, it really touched me. I will never forget this book. Thank you for sharing your life.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I love the beautiful writing in this book! It really is a work of art.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Exquisite. No other book has so profoundly changed the way I see the world. This review could never do it justice.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great read that has enlightened me to the many teachings I never learned and am thinking about more now.

    Thank you
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was a great book. The audio by the author was extra special and gave great feeling and insight into the indigenous people and their ways. If everyone read this book, the world would be in a better place.