BOOKS

BraidingSweetgrass

Curator Reviews

Lily Cole

Braiding Sweetgrass offers an indigenous window onto our world. As a scientist and a poet, Kimmerer holds our hand, and gently leads us barefoot down a meandering path that inevitably questions our understanding of science, the economy, nature, and ultimately ourselves. There is so much we can learn from indigenous communities, and this book offers a beautiful entry point to that journey.

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Ari Shapiro

Kimmerer was torn over whether to pursue a career in botany or poetry. Although she chose science, this book shows how easily she could have gone the other direction. In chapters devoted to specific plants (strawberries, cedar, and cattails, for instance), she explores the relationship between scientific learning and the teachings of her own Native American heritage - along with larger questions, like whether a group of immigrant people, or plants, can ever become indigenous.

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