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Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'
Geflochtenes Süßgras. Die Weisheit der Pflanzen by Robin Wall Kimmerer
96 reviews
zazasaad's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
This is one of my favorite books and I’ve read it a couple times now. I pick it up any time I need a reminder to stay hopeful and continue the important work I’m doing with nature and my community.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Colonisation, Racism, and Genocide
mnboyer's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
I did not expect this to have as much "memoir" as it did, but it was a good read/listen. Very informative. Great example of indigenous knowledge being applied to contemporary situations.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation
Moderate: Animal death
eden_autumn's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Colonisation, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Grief, Hate crime, Death, Physical abuse, Cultural appropriation, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, and Racism
Minor: Ableism and Violence
biobeetle's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation and Xenophobia
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Pregnancy
the_reading_wren's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
Genuinely a life-changing book. Inspires me and shows me new way for me to return to studying and practicing ecology.
I highly recommend the audiobook because it is read wonderfully by the author.
I highly recommend the audiobook because it is read wonderfully by the author.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Racism, and Kidnapping
Minor: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Vomit, Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, Cannibalism, Addiction, Slavery, Stalking, Cancer, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, and Sexual content
maeverose's review against another edition
4.0
This is a collection of essays about Indigenous peoples’ relationship to plants and what we can learn from it to have a better relationship to the earth, and help heal the damage that’s been done to it. As well as some cool plant science sprinkled throughout.
I think this book should be required reading for every non-Indigenous American. I’ve always loved nature, but this book really helped me appreciate elements of nature that I took for granted or never really thought about. Who knew cattails were so cool? This book shows how amazing and intelligent plants are. Robin Wall Kimmerer’s writing is very vivid and beautiful, and the plant science is written in an easy to understand way.
I did have two small issues with it:
Some of the language she uses when talking about women made me a bit uncomfortable. She talks a lot about motherhood in relation to womanhood, which is always a bit of a terfy red flag for me. Not to mention it’s also just regressive even when talking strictly about women. This isn’t about the parts where she writes about her own experience as a mother, of course, she’s more than allowed to do that in her own memoir lol. I understand that this could also be a matter of cultural difference, as I’m a white, so I’ll leave it at that.
Because this is a collection of essays, a lot of them are a bit repetitive. I ended up putting myself into a reading slump by reading too much of this in a short span of time, as I’m really sensitive to repetition and it started to feel tedious to read. I really should’ve read an essay a week and just gone through the book really slowly. That likely would’ve worked better for me.
Those things aside, I still think this book is really good and would strongly recommend it.
My favorite essays:
•The Counsel of Pecans
•An Offering
•Learning the Grammar of Animacy
•Maple Sugar Moon
•Witch Hazel
•Mishkos Kenomagwen: The Teachings of Grass
•Sitting in a Circle
•Defeating Windigo
Some of my favorite quotes:
“Listening in wild places, we are audience to conversations in a language not our own.”
“When we tell them that a tree is not a who, but an it, we make that maple an object; we put a barrier between us, absolving ourselves of moral responsibility and opening the door to exploitation. Saying it makes a living land into “natural resources.” If a maple is an it, we can take up a chainsaw. If a maple is a her, we think twice.”
“In a consumer society, contentment is a radical proposition. Recognizing abundance rather than scarcity undermines an economy that thrives by creating unmet desires.”
“What would it be like, I wondered, to live with that heightened sensitivity to the lives given for ours? To consider the tree in the kleenex, the algae in the toothpaste, the oaks in the floor, the grapes in the wine; to follow back the thread of life in everything and pay it respect?”
“Experiments are not about discovery but about listening and translating the knowledge of other beings.”
“It is an odd dichotomy we have set for ourselves, between loving people and loving land. We know that loving a person has agency and power—we know it can change everything. Yet we act as if loving the land is an internal affair that has no energy outside the confines of our head and heart.”
“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.”
I think this book should be required reading for every non-Indigenous American. I’ve always loved nature, but this book really helped me appreciate elements of nature that I took for granted or never really thought about. Who knew cattails were so cool? This book shows how amazing and intelligent plants are. Robin Wall Kimmerer’s writing is very vivid and beautiful, and the plant science is written in an easy to understand way.
I did have two small issues with it:
Some of the language she uses when talking about women made me a bit uncomfortable. She talks a lot about motherhood in relation to womanhood, which is always a bit of a terfy red flag for me. Not to mention it’s also just regressive even when talking strictly about women. This isn’t about the parts where she writes about her own experience as a mother, of course, she’s more than allowed to do that in her own memoir lol. I understand that this could also be a matter of cultural difference, as I’m a white, so I’ll leave it at that.
Because this is a collection of essays, a lot of them are a bit repetitive. I ended up putting myself into a reading slump by reading too much of this in a short span of time, as I’m really sensitive to repetition and it started to feel tedious to read. I really should’ve read an essay a week and just gone through the book really slowly. That likely would’ve worked better for me.
Those things aside, I still think this book is really good and would strongly recommend it.
My favorite essays:
•The Counsel of Pecans
•An Offering
•Learning the Grammar of Animacy
•Maple Sugar Moon
•Witch Hazel
•Mishkos Kenomagwen: The Teachings of Grass
•Sitting in a Circle
•Defeating Windigo
Some of my favorite quotes:
“Listening in wild places, we are audience to conversations in a language not our own.”
“When we tell them that a tree is not a who, but an it, we make that maple an object; we put a barrier between us, absolving ourselves of moral responsibility and opening the door to exploitation. Saying it makes a living land into “natural resources.” If a maple is an it, we can take up a chainsaw. If a maple is a her, we think twice.”
“In a consumer society, contentment is a radical proposition. Recognizing abundance rather than scarcity undermines an economy that thrives by creating unmet desires.”
“What would it be like, I wondered, to live with that heightened sensitivity to the lives given for ours? To consider the tree in the kleenex, the algae in the toothpaste, the oaks in the floor, the grapes in the wine; to follow back the thread of life in everything and pay it respect?”
“Experiments are not about discovery but about listening and translating the knowledge of other beings.”
“It is an odd dichotomy we have set for ourselves, between loving people and loving land. We know that loving a person has agency and power—we know it can change everything. Yet we act as if loving the land is an internal affair that has no energy outside the confines of our head and heart.”
“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.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Colonisation, Excrement, Racism, Animal cruelty, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Vomit, and Gore
Minor: Cannibalism and Ableism
Graphic: destruction of ecosystems and nature, climate change Moderate: baby/motherhood talk, animal goregardens_and_dragons's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
4.0
Hard to rate a non-fiction book, but this was a great read. I like how it simultaneously interwove traditional native knowledge with the authors botany knowledge. It was full of great lessons and wisdom as much as it was informative.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Colonisation
yourbookishbff's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
While I think this book can be enjoyed in any format, I felt my best personal reading experience was via audio. I can’t think of a better companion for long morning trail walks with my dog than this essay collection.
An enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Kimmerer blends her worlds of Indigenous history and teaching with science (botany) to create a fluid dialogue between the reader and the land. Through her own reflections on her research and life in academia, raising her two daughters, tending her homestead and her relationships with Indigenous elders, craftspeople and more, Kimmerer shows us the many ways in which western culture and language limit our understanding of the natural world. This is a collection of essays that can each stand alone, but together build a sweeping narrative through loose thematic groupings within the life cycle of sweetgrass: planting, tending, picking, braiding and burning. As sweetgrass teaches us, all life cycles require give-and-take, and it’s the balance between the two that brings us into greater harmony with ourselves and the land and enables sustainable communities and habitats.
At the heart of this collection is a reflection on what it means to be Indigenous to a land, and how the first people can teach those of us who are not Indigenous to this land how to be in better relationship to it. To this end, Kimmerer breaks down Indigenous traditions of reciprocity, helps us to understand a natural language of animacy and intimacy, teaches us the principles of the honorable harvest and cautions us against the devastating hunger of our modern-day Wendigo, a capitalist beast threatening the longevity of our most critically-needed gifts of soil, air and water.
I highly recommend this collection to any reader - it is both timeless and incredibly timely as we rally ourselves to speak out against the inherent violence of settler colonialism globally and work to protect the land and its native peoples.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Colonisation
bookshelfmystic's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
Braiding Sweetgrass held the reverence of a holy text, the wisdom of generations, and the seeds of a new worldview. It's an incredible book that lends itself to slow reading, deep thinking, and long walks while listening.
This book both fits into and expands my spiritual world. Robin Wall Kimmerer's cultural and scientific knowledge was new to me but is taught by a loving teacher (and Kimmerer's own voice in the audiobook added warmth to the lesson). I cried, I smiled, I thought of the Lorax, and I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who walks on this earth.
This book both fits into and expands my spiritual world. Robin Wall Kimmerer's cultural and scientific knowledge was new to me but is taught by a loving teacher (and Kimmerer's own voice in the audiobook added warmth to the lesson). I cried, I smiled, I thought of the Lorax, and I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who walks on this earth.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation
Moderate: Racism
achingallover's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, Genocide, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, and Religious bigotry