A group of local Master Gardeners have begun meeting each month to discuss a gardening-related non-fiction book. A recent selection by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants (published in 2014), focuses on sustainable practices that promote healthy people, healthy communities, and a healthy planet. The essays and anecdotes in Braiding Sweetgrass speak to the mind, body, and spirit in powerful ways that encourage us to consider our place in, and responsibility to, the natural world. It is a fine book to add to a gardener's winter reading list!
The book is divided into five sections, each of which represents a stage in the life cycle of the sweetgrass plant (wiingaaashk in the language of Kimmerer's people): planting, tending, picking, braiding, and burning. Sweetgrass is aromatic, and like the plant these stories, braided together, are savory and evoke thoughtfulness about our relationship with the natural world. In many indigenous communities sweetgrass is given as a gift (it is always given, never taken). Braided together, the three strands of sweetgrass represent the unity of mind, body, and spirit. The essays and stories in Braiding Sweetgrass are Dr. Kimmerer's gift to her readers.
The first story in the book is a creation story. It tells of Skywoman falling from a hole in Skyworld. Down, down, she spirals until caught by the geese, then helped by all the other animals of the water. Turtle offers his back and Skywoman gratefully steps onto the dome of his back. The animals understand Skywoman's need for land for her home and discuss ways to accommodate Skywoman's need. All the animals dive beneath the water in search of soil. All fail except Muskrat, who gives up his life to help this woman. As Muskrat's limp body surfaces from the water, the other animals notice that his paw clutches a bit of dirt. This dirt is put on the back of Turtle, and Skywoman spreads it across his shell. Singing a song of Thanksgiving, Skywoman dances upon the mud on Turtle's back until the earth is made. The gratitude of Skywoman and the animals' gifts form Turtle Island, which becomes home. A bundle of fruits and seeds that Skywoman clutched in her hand as she fell from Skyworld are scattered upon the earth. She tends them as they grow: they provide food not only for Skywoman, but also for the animals. Many of the animals come to live with Skywoman on Turtle Island.
The theme of the tale of Skywoman Falling and the creation of Turtle Island is ecological consciousness -- the understanding and celebration of our reciprocity with the living world. Cooperation, collaboration, and reciprocity here are clear and instructive. Throughout the book these qualities are represented, as we are instructed to seek healthy relationships with our surroundings. Kimmerer reminds us that “becoming indigenous to a place means living as if your children's future mattered, to take care of the land as if our lives, both material and spiritual, depended on it.” The stories of many indigenous people tell us that sweetgrass was the first plant to grow on the land. Sweetgrass therefore holds a sacred role as a reminder of Skywoman, the creator.
Kimmerer's own early years were spent collecting seeds and flowers (which she pressed). This framed her thinking from an early age. She saw the natural world as beautiful and sacred. In college, she was advised by a counselor to study art, not science. But she pursued her love of beauty and the natural world by studying botany. Her belief that plants answer questions by their behaviors and physical responses, as well as the way they live and how they respond to change informs her teaching practice.
Kimmerer's stories about introducing students to the natural world remind us that engagement drives learning. By taking her students into the woods, she provides them with tools for exploring their five senses. She gifts them with opportunities to explain and evaluate the everyday things they see, touch, hear, smell, and taste. In one essay Kimmerer describes a student's newfound interest in regeneration and sustainability that arose from a class outing. After spending time with Kimmerer and the class in the woods, this student began a study of sweetgrass, and discovered that when it is properly harvested, sweetgrass stimulates new growth. If sweetgrass is not harvested, the plant will decline and may eventually die.
The greater understanding of this experiment is an applicable life lesson. The teachings of elders instruct the harvester never to take more than half of the plant, to make sure the sweetgrass continues to grow and thrive. Their understanding has been passed on through generations of watching and harvesting, harvesting and watching. As Kimmerer states, “Experiments are not about discovery but about listening and translating the knowledge of other beings.” She believes a paradigm shift is required of us; we must adopt the concept of a conscious and loving relationship with the natural world.
Warnings are also woven throughout the book. For example, Wendigo, a malevolent monster in folklore familiar to Anishinaabe and other First Nations people living on the Plains, in the Great Lakes region, and around the East Coast of the United States and Canada, is a creature with a heart of ice, sunken eyes, and the stench of decay. Its lips are tattered and bloody. The Wendigo becomes a metaphor for our need to consume. The more a Wendigo eats, the more ravenous it becomes. Kimmerer directs her readers to see the darkness and recognize its power, but not feed it. Kimmerer asks us to consider the differing points of view between indigenous peoples and the colonizers who came after them. To First Nations people, the land is sacred. The reader is reminded to consider their own accountability and to strive to be a better citizen of the earth.
In this vein, Kimmerer introduces readers to the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Thanksgiving Address, often spoken in ceremonies, which begins as follows: “Today we have gathered, and we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So now, we bring our minds together as one as we give greeting and thanks to each other as people.” The Address then thanks the Earth Mother, the Waters, the Fish, the Plants, the Medicine Herbs, the Animals, the Trees, the Birds, the Four Winds, the Thunders, Grandmother Moon, the Stars, the Enlightened Teachers, and the Creator. The response from those attending the ceremony is “Now our minds are one,” repeated after each subject, a reminder to those who have gathered that they are a community made up of many different species, interconnected and relying on the care each gives to the others.
The lessons woven throughout Braiding Sweetgrass are steeped in the idea of reciprocity. The essays and anecdotes do not have to be read in order, but this not a book intended to be read lightly. It encourages us to give thanks to the natural world. Like sweetgrass, we are reminded that love, gratitude, and humility are gifts of the earth. Dr. Kimmerer provides a multitude of opportunities to pause, think, and consider our place in, and responsibility to, the natural world.
UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system. To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area, visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu (preferred) or call (530) 538-7201.