The storytellers begin by calling upon those who. For me, it was that exceptional of a read. In winter, when the green earth lies resting beneath a blanket of snow, this is the time for storytelling.

Alone is a word without meaning in this forest. Braiding Sweetgrass is one of those books that I recommend to everyone: I first read it in 2021 and it’s stayed in my mind ever since. This seeming chaos belies the tight web of inter-connections between them all, stitched with filaments of fungi, silk of spiders, and silver threads of water.

The canopy is a multi-layered sculpture of vertical complexity from the lowest moss on the forest floor to the wisps of lichen hanging high in the treetops, raggedy and uneven from the gaps produced by centuries of windthrow, disease, and storms. It's hard to write without running out of superlatives, for these were among the greatest forests on earth, forests peopled with centuries of past lives, enormous logs and snags that foster more life after their death than before. The numbers of species of mammals, birds, amphibians, wildflowers, ferns, mosses, lichens, fungi, and insects are staggering. Trees that were born before Columbus sailed.Īnd trees are just the beginning. Here is where the moisture-laden air from the pacific rises against the mountains to produce upward of one hundred inches of rain a year, watering an ecosystem rivaled nowhere else on earth. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer - Penguin Books Australia Books Features Authors Events Read an extract Published: 23 April 2020 ISBN: 9780141991955 Imprint: Penguin Press Format: Paperback Pages: 400 RRP: 24. (Goodreads)įor our first meeting, we will read the first two sections, Planting Sweetgrass and Tending Sweetgrass, pages 1-105.“In those days, the ancient rainforests spread from Northern California to southeastern Alaska in a band between the mountains and the sea. 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. Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants Library Binding Novemby Robin Wall Kimmerer (Author), Monique Gray Smith (Author), Nicole Neidhardt (Illustrator) 99 ratings See all formats and editions Kindle 13. 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. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. Her book has made it onto the best seller list this year for the first time despite being published in 2013.Īs a botanist, she has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. Robin is a mother, scientist, and decorated professor. Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.

Braiding sweetgrass goodreads