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Reviews tagging 'Cultural appropriation'
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
16 reviews
bashsbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
4.25
I buddy-read Braiding Sweetgrass with my dear and beloved friend @emakay... which means I've already commented on it extensively in a private setting. So I will do my best to summarize my thoughts, but apologies if this review reads a little more scattershot than some of my others.
All-in-all, Braiding Sweetgrass is a fantastic personal essay collection about nature, culture, and our interpersonal (person here including nonhumans!) connections. I can understand perfectly why it is so popular and widely recommended. My friend and I listened the audiobook, so we not only appreciated the descriptions as written, but also, Kimmerer's steady and soothing voice as she read through the text she so lovingly crafted. My favorite takeaways from Braiding Sweetgrass were: the obvious and unabashed love Kimmerer has for the natural world, her willingness to combine traditional wisdom and hard science, her gentle encouragement to consider the world from a different perspective (especially that of a plant or an animal), and her fierce love and appreciate for her Potawatomi culture and heritage. I was also deeply compelled by her rumination on how to become indigenous to place and what obligations we have to others (both human and not). What I liked less was relatively minor by comparison; I thought she was a little uncomfortably committed to gender roles as 'natural' from time to time, and I wished that she came out and actually expanded on her issues with 'technology' rather than taking vague pot-shots at it here and there. Adjacently, my friend pointed out that the anecdote about an ex's attempted suicide in his car to make a point about human disconnectedness with nature was... messy, at best. But those were small moments, and with a book as long and expansive as this one, there were bound to be hangups here and there. Overall, fantastic book, and I highly recommend listening to the audiobook.
All-in-all, Braiding Sweetgrass is a fantastic personal essay collection about nature, culture, and our interpersonal (person here including nonhumans!) connections. I can understand perfectly why it is so popular and widely recommended. My friend and I listened the audiobook, so we not only appreciated the descriptions as written, but also, Kimmerer's steady and soothing voice as she read through the text she so lovingly crafted. My favorite takeaways from Braiding Sweetgrass were: the obvious and unabashed love Kimmerer has for the natural world, her willingness to combine traditional wisdom and hard science, her gentle encouragement to consider the world from a different perspective (especially that of a plant or an animal), and her fierce love and appreciate for her Potawatomi culture and heritage. I was also deeply compelled by her rumination on how to become indigenous to place and what obligations we have to others (both human and not). What I liked less was relatively minor by comparison; I thought she was a little uncomfortably committed to gender roles as 'natural' from time to time, and I wished that she came out and actually expanded on her issues with 'technology' rather than taking vague pot-shots at it here and there. Adjacently, my friend pointed out that the anecdote about an ex's attempted suicide in his car to make a point about human disconnectedness with nature was... messy, at best. But those were small moments, and with a book as long and expansive as this one, there were bound to be hangups here and there. Overall, fantastic book, and I highly recommend listening to the audiobook.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Colonisation
Moderate: Animal death, Racism, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Genocide, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Cannibalism, Cultural appropriation, Fire/Fire injury, and Suicide attempt
Graphic descriptions of environmental disasters, pollution, and other eco-destructive activities.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
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
parasolcrafter's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
5.0
this really is one of those books someone like me cant really add anything to; all i can say is that its an INCREDIBLE book that i think almost everyone should read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Genocide, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Colonisation, Grief, Death, and Racism
hailstorm3812's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
This book is so so good. I don't have the words to describe it. It is such a good blend of information and heart. She knows exactly when to pull from her degree, her heritage, and her lived experience. It is such a perspective shifter of a book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide and Colonisation
Moderate: Cultural appropriation
Minor: Violence, Religious bigotry, War, and Sexism
madzie's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
A very insightful and significant book. Kimmerer offers a lot of insights into plants, cultures, and our modern world, helping readers to examine the world they live in every day. Kimmerer has such a profound voice in her writing that is wonderful to read. She has wonderful, emotion-provoking descriptions throughout the novel that makes you truly feel these lessons. Toward the middle of the book, I felt like there was a lag in the flow of information where parts seemed not to fit together as well as in the beginning and end. Fundamentally, this is a well-written and important book that I would highly suggest to others.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, Animal death, Vomit, and Colonisation
Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Genocide, and Death
Minor: Cannibalism
This book goes into graphic depth about climate change and the death of nature and our planet.indigoriverboat's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
slow-paced
I read this book very slowly, over a long period of time, because the ideas within it were so novel and engaging that I needed to pause and think. If you are interested in ecology or concerned about climate change, I urge you to read this book. It is an exploration of culture, relationship to land, botany, history, and mythology. I also highly recommend the audio book, as it is narrated by the author and hearing her voice adds to the experience.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide
Moderate: Cultural appropriation
waybeyondblue's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Colonisation, and Death
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cultural appropriation, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Fire/Fire injury
kshertz's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
3.75
I’m glad I switched to audiobook! It is sooo much information! I did learn a lot but it’s hard to stay engaged the whole time. It’s a completely different way of looking at the world from what I’m used to so that makes sense. I was most interested in her personal story. I think if you’re interested in native knowledge of nature and all that it can be used for, you’d love this book. I took away from this book that native people know everything about the world and if we would just listen, we could too.
Content Warnings
Minor: Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Violence, and Xenophobia
dontwritedown's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
2.75
I have really mixed feelings about "Braiding Sweetgrass". It is quickly becoming the new "Teachings of Little Tree" minus the fact that the author's actually Native. You see it on every Native American Heritage Month reading list and if you're a voracious reader that happens to be Native, people either ask your opinion about it or just straight up tell you your opinion.
I had only read sections of the book in college, as this particular field doesn't interest me, like I care about the Earth, but I don't care so much that I'd be sharing closed tribal secrets to make you care unless I was dating you. Now this may also come from the fact that I am Haudenosaunee and she is Anishnaabe, but I do have a problem with her sharing so much more of Haud culture that Nish, especially without directly citing which elder told her what and gave her permission to include in her book, a problem that many before me have spoken up about. Like I never really understood why other Natives had an issue with the book from the excerpts I read, until I really got into it and was like.....yeah I see why it's a problem and I see why so many people want more diversity on these book reading lists.
Which brings me to the topic I had an issue with: the w*nd*go chapters and references. It's clear Robin is a Native woman of science who probably does not view that entity with as much respect as she should, but I personally felt very violated reading that chapter as you are NEVER supposed to use their name. And she used it SEVERAL times and it was an audiobook that I was listening to. There needs to be a censored version, in my opinion, for those of us who want to follow the traditional way of not naming these entities. I am not sure if she actually ran into one or just used one as a metaphor but bro that ain't cool (like I'm not trying to doubt her run in but as someone who has experience with scary, ancient supernatural entities this was the wrong way to address her experience in my opinion). And the way she used the entity in the epilogue just.....look I get it you want nonNatives to care about the Earth the way we care for the Earth but come on there had to be a better way than THAT!
Overall, if this book is at the top of your list for NAHM, please find a Native who will give you better book reccs. They're out there. Can we retire this one for a bit? Please I'm begging you.
I had only read sections of the book in college, as this particular field doesn't interest me, like I care about the Earth, but I don't care so much that I'd be sharing closed tribal secrets to make you care unless I was dating you. Now this may also come from the fact that I am Haudenosaunee and she is Anishnaabe, but I do have a problem with her sharing so much more of Haud culture that Nish, especially without directly citing which elder told her what and gave her permission to include in her book, a problem that many before me have spoken up about. Like I never really understood why other Natives had an issue with the book from the excerpts I read, until I really got into it and was like.....yeah I see why it's a problem and I see why so many people want more diversity on these book reading lists.
Which brings me to the topic I had an issue with: the w*nd*go chapters and references. It's clear Robin is a Native woman of science who probably does not view that entity with as much respect as she should, but I personally felt very violated reading that chapter as you are NEVER supposed to use their name. And she used it SEVERAL times and it was an audiobook that I was listening to. There needs to be a censored version, in my opinion, for those of us who want to follow the traditional way of not naming these entities. I am not sure if she actually ran into one or just used one as a metaphor but bro that ain't cool (like I'm not trying to doubt her run in but as someone who has experience with scary, ancient supernatural entities this was the wrong way to address her experience in my opinion). And the way she used the entity in the epilogue just.....look I get it you want nonNatives to care about the Earth the way we care for the Earth but come on there had to be a better way than THAT!
Overall, if this book is at the top of your list for NAHM, please find a Native who will give you better book reccs. They're out there. Can we retire this one for a bit? Please I'm begging you.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Religious bigotry, Racism, and Colonisation