{"id":2325,"date":"2022-09-19T17:17:27","date_gmt":"2022-09-19T17:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hmy.bcd.temporary.site\/optima\/?p=2325"},"modified":"2025-10-10T21:13:40","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T21:13:40","slug":"braiding-sweetgrass-book-review-by-peggy-hansen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/braiding-sweetgrass-book-review-by-peggy-hansen\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review- Braiding Sweetgrass"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\"\"Review by Peggy Hansen<\/h5>\n

In the preface, Robin Wall Kimmerer writes: \u201cI could hand\u00a0you a braid of sweetgrass, as thick and shining as the plait that\u00a0hung down my grandmother\u2019s back. But it is not mine to give,\u00a0nor yours to take. Wiingaashk belongs to herself. So I offer, in\u00a0its place, a braid of stories meant to heal our relationship with
\nthe world. This braid is woven from three strands: Indigenous\u00a0ways of knowing, scientific knowledge, and the story of an Anishinabekwe scientist trying to bring them together in service\u00a0to what matters most.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this beautifully written book, Kimmerer moves back and forth between stories of relationships with her family and her students, very detailed and scholarly descriptions of the plants she loves and their (and our) endangered environment, and the beloved traditions and wisdom of her elders. She describes the ceremonial giveaway, the minidewak, one of her peoples\u2019 oldest teachings.\u201d Generosity is simultaneously a moral and a material imperative, especially among people who live close to the land and know its waves of plenty and scarcity. Where the well-being of one is linked to the well-being of all. Wealth among traditional people is measured by having enough to give away\u2026. In a culture of gratitude, everyone knows that gifts will follow the circle of reciprocity and flow back to you again. This time you give and next time you receive. Both the honor of giving and humility of receiving are necessary halves of the equation.\u201d<\/p>\n

She introduces us to the Thanksgiving Address, which embodies the Onondaga relationship with the world. \u201dEach part of Creation is thanked in turn for fulfilling its Creator-given duty to the others. It reminds you every day that you have enough,\u201d she writes, drawing on the words of Freida Jacques, a teacher at the Onondaga Nation School. \u201cGratitude,\u201d says Kimmerer, \u201cdoesn\u2019t send you out shopping to find satisfaction, it comes as a gift rather than a commodity, subverting the foundation of the whole economy. That\u2019s good medicine for land and people alike.\u201d The recognition of loss is also a theme of her book, as she recounts the taking of children from their tribe and families, isolating them in boarding schools and forbidding them to speak their native language. She mourns the ecological destruction that has changed her beloved Onondaga Lake into \u201cthe most chemically contaminated lake in the United States.\u201d But she says: \u201cDespair is paralysis. It robs us of agency. It blinds us to our own power and the power of the earth. Environmental despair is a poison every bit as destructive as the methylated mercury\u00a0in the bottom of Onondaga Lake\u2026. Restoration is a powerful antidote to despair. Restoration offers concrete means by\u00a0which humans can once again enter into positive, creative relationship with the more-than-human world, meeting responsibilities that are simultaneously material and spiritual.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robin Wall Kimmerer writes: \u201cI could hand you a braid of sweetgrass…. But it is not mine to give, nor yours to take.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2325"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2761,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325\/revisions\/2761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}