A review by displacedcactus
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

This book is a modern classic, so I don't really know what I can say in a review that hasn't already been said! I really enjoyed how Kimmerer combines her knowledge as a biologist/conservationist and her knowledge as an Indigenous woman. There were a lot of highs and lows in this book, and like any book about the environment, I swung between hope and despair.

I could have done without the whiff of gender essentialism, with men as fire keepers and women as water bearers, and motherhood as one of the essential stages of a woman's life. But other than that one small complaint, this book was awesome.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Animal death, and Death

The racism is all in discussions of the history of how America has treated our Indigenous people, especially with regards to residential schools, reservations, the Trail of Tears, etc.