This week on The Write Question, host Lauren Korn speaks with Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (Milkweed Editions).
Drawing on her life as an Indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Robin shows how other living beings—asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass—offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices. In a rich braid of reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.
This conversation was coordinated with the help of University of Montana’s President’s Lecture Series and Rob Saldin. Braiding Sweetgrass is UM’s 2023 “Griz Read,” and Robin will deliver this year’s Brennan Guth Memorial Lecture in Environmental Philosophy on Tuesday, October 10, 2023, in the University Ballroom (Missoula, Montana).
About Robin:
Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling collection of essays Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants as well as Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. Kimmerer is a 2022 MacArthur Fellow. She lives in Syracuse, New York, where she is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.
Robin Wall Kimmerer recommends:
The Urgency of Indigenous Values by Philip P. Arnold (Syracuse University Press)
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperCollins)
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich (HarperCollins)
Lauren Korn recommends:
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (Milkweed Editions) and Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses (Oregon State University Press) by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning by Karen Barad (Duke University Press)
The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World by David Abram (Vintage Books)
Dart by Alice Oswald (Faber & Faber)
The Book of Feral Flora by Amanda Ackerman (Les Figues Press)
—
The Write Question team for this episode was Lauren Korn, host, co-producer, and editor; and Jake Birch, co-producer and editor; and Aidan McMahan, sound engineer. This episode was supported by Fact & Fiction, an independent bookstore located in the heart of downtown Missoula, Montana, providing books for all ages and supporting the literary community in Montana and beyond. More information can be found at factandfictionbooks.com.
The Write Question logo and brand (2022) was designed by Molly Russell. You can see more of her work at iamthemollruss.com and on Instagram @iamthemollruss. Our music was written and recorded by John Floridis.
Funding for The Write Question comes from Humanities Montana; members of Montana Public Radio; and from the Greater Montana Foundation—encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.
The Write Question is a production of Montana Public Radio.
