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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
4.25
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.
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
4.75
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
5.0
I highly recommend the audiobook because it is read wonderfully by the author.
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
5.0
Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Genocide, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Colonisation, Grief, Death, and Racism
hailstorm3812's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Genocide and Colonisation
Moderate: Cultural appropriation
Minor: Violence, Religious bigotry, War, and Sexism
madzie's review against another edition
4.5
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
Graphic: Genocide
Moderate: Cultural appropriation
waybeyondblue's review against another edition
4.5
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
3.75
Minor: Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Violence, and Xenophobia
dontwritedown's review against another edition
2.75
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.
Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Religious bigotry, Racism, and Colonisation