Knowledge takes three forms. Syracuse University. Kimmerer, R.W. I wonder, what is happening in that conversation? Kimmerer, R.W. You talked about goldenrods and asters a minute ago, and you said, When I am in their presence, their beauty asks me for reciprocity, to be the complementary color, to make something beautiful in response.. She is the author of numerous scientific articles, and the books Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses (2003), and Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants (2013). Is there a guest, an idea, or a moment from an episode that has made a difference, that has stayed with you across days, months, possibly years? 2004 Interview with a watershed LTER Forest Log. Kimmerer: One of the difficulties of moving in the scientific world is that when we name something, often with a scientific name, this name becomes almost an end to inquiry. I agree with you that the language of sustainability is pretty limited. Her time outdoors rooted a deep appreciation for the natural environment. Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer is published by Penguin (9.99). I created this show at American Public Media. An integral part of her life and identity as a mother, scientist, member of a first nation, and writer, is her social activism for environmental causes, Native American issues, democracy and social justice: Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. Or . But this is why Ive been thinking a lot about, are there ways to bring this notion of animacy into the English language, because so many of us that Ive talked to about this feel really deeply uncomfortable calling the living world it, and yet, we dont have an alternative, other than he or she. And Ive been thinking about the inspiration that the Anishinaabe language offers in this way, and contemplating new pronouns. Robin Wall Kimmerer, 66, an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi nation, is the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at the State University of New York. and R.W. It's more like a tapestry, or a braid of interwoven strands. Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. The Bryologist 94(3):255-260. 2008. In Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (2013), Kimmerer employs the metaphor of braiding wiingaashk, a sacred plant in Native cultures, to express the intertwined relationship between three types of knowledge: TEK, the Western scientific tradition, and the lessons plants have to offer if we pay close attention to them. 39:4 pp.50-56. ~ Robin Wall Kimmerer. It doesnt work as well when that gift is missing. It ignores all of its relationships. So one of the things that I continue to learn about and need to learn more about is the transformation of love to grief to even stronger love, and the interplay of love and grief that we feel for the world. Find them at fetzer.org; Kalliopeia Foundation, dedicated to reconnecting ecology, culture, and spirituality, supporting organizations and initiatives that uphold a sacred relationship with life on Earth. So we cant just rely on a single way of knowing that explicitly excludes values and ethics. One of the things that I would especially like to highlight about that is I really think of our work as in a sense trying to indigenize science education within the academy, because as a young person, as a student entering into that world, and understanding that the Indigenous ways of knowing, these organic ways of knowing, are really absent from academia, I think that we can train better scientists, train better environmental professionals, when theres a plurality of these ways of knowing, when Indigenous knowledge is present in the discussion. Not only to humans but to many other citizens. But in Indigenous ways of knowing, we say that we know a thing when we know it not only with our physical senses, with our intellect, but also when we engage our intuitive ways of knowing of emotional knowledge and spiritual knowledge. Because those are not part of the scientific method. Adirondack Life. TEK refers to the body of knowledge Indigenous peoples cultivate through their relationship with the natural world. She writes about the natural world from a place of such abundant passion that one can never quite see the world in the same way after having seen it though Kimmerers eyes. Top 120 Robin Wall Kimmerer Quotes (2023 Update) 1. Are there communities you think of when you think of this kind of communal love of place where you see new models happening? It turns out that, of course, its an alternate pronunciation for chi, for life force, for life energy. Are we even allowed to talk about that? The Michigan Botanist. Today, Im with botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer. Robin Wall Kimmerer was born in 1953 in Upstate New York to Robert and Patricia Wall. Volume 1 pp 1-17. They are like the coral reefs of the forest. Lets talk some more about mosses, because you did write this beautiful book about it, and you are a bryologist. Mosses build soil, they purify water. Kimmerer, R.W. Winds of Change. And it comes from my years as a scientist, of deep paying attention to the living world, and not only to their names, but to their songs. The Bryologist 98:149-153. Shes written, Science polishes the gift of seeing; Indigenous traditions work with gifts of listening and language. An expert in moss, a bryologist, she describes mosses as the coral reefs of the forest. She opens a sense of wonder and humility for the intelligence in all kinds of life that we are used to naming and imagining as inanimate. Her latest book Braiding Sweetgrass: indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants was released in 2013 and was awarded the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award. Tippett: And I have to say and Im sure you know this, because Im sure you get this reaction a lot, especially in scientific circles its unfamiliar and slightly uncomfortable in Western ears, to hear someone refer to plants as persons. Were able to systematize it and put a Latin binomial on it, so its ours. 2005 The role of dispersal limitation in community structure of bryophytes colonizing treefall mounds. Its always the opposite, right? ". Im Krista Tippett, and this is On Being. And thank you so much. She did not ever imagine in that childhood that she would one day be known as a climate activist. To be with Colette, and experience her brilliance of mind and spirit and action, is to open up all the ways the words we use and the stories we tell about the transformation of the natural world that is upon us blunt us to the courage were called to and the joy we must nurture as our primary energy and motivation. November/December 59-63. Please credit: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She serves as the founding Director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment whose mission is to create programs which draw on the wisdom of both . Dr. Kimmerer serves as a Senior Fellow for the Center for Nature and Humans. Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, botanist, writer, and Distinguished Teaching Professor at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York, and the founding Director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. Kimmerer,R.W. Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Registration is required.. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants and Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. [9] Her first book, it incorporated her experience as a plant ecologist and her understanding of traditional knowledge about nature. Kimmerer also has authored two award-winning books of nature writing that combine science with traditional teachings, her personal experiences in the natural world, and family and tribal relationships. Krista Tippett, host: Few books have been more eagerly passed from hand to hand with delight in these last years than Robin Wall Kimmerers Braiding Sweetgrass. That is onbeing.org/staywithus. Oregon State University Press. Wisdom about the natural world delivered by an able writer who is both Indigenous and an academic scientist. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. We want to nurture them. As a writer and a scientist, her interests in restoration include not only restoration of ecological communities, but restoration of our relationships to land. Kimmerer, R.W. "Witch-hazels are a genus of flowering plants in the family Hamamelidaceae, with three species in North America, and one each in Japan and China. In aYes! "Another Frame of Mind". November 3, 2015 SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry professor Robin Wall Kimmerer, Ph.D. is a leading indigenous environmental scientist and writer in indigenous studies and environmental science at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. [laughs]. So I think, culturally, we are incrementally moving more towards the worldview that you come from. Kimmerer 2002. Dr. Kimmerer is the author of numerous scientific papers on the ecology of mosses and restoration ecology and on the contributions of traditional ecological knowledge to our understanding of the natural world. Center for Humans and Nature, Kimmerer, R.W, 2014. So it delights me that I can be learning an ancient language by completely modern technologies, sitting at my office, eating lunch, learning Potawatomi grammar. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants, which has earned Kimmerer wide acclaim. Ransom and R. Smardon 2001. It is a preferred browse of Deer and Moose, a vital source . For Kimmerer, however, sustainability is not the end goal; its merely the first step of returning humans to relationships with creation based in regeneration and reciprocity, Kimmerer uses her science, writing and activism to support the hunger expressed by so many people for a belonging in relationship to [the] land that will sustain us all. And now people are reading those same texts differently. [music: All Things Transient by Maybeshewill]. And so this, then, of course, acknowledges the being-ness of that tree, and we dont reduce it it to an object. and Kimmerer, R.W. Mosses have, in the ecological sense, very low competitive ability, because theyre small, because they dont grab resources very efficiently. Kimmerer: I cant think of a single scientific study in the last few decades that has demonstrated that plants or animals are dumber than we think. The center has become a vital site of interaction among Indigenous and Western scientists and scholars. Restoration Ecology 13(2):256-263, McGee, G.G. McGee, G.G. But reciprocity, again, takes that a step farther, right? 9. Tippett: One way youve said it is that that science was asking different questions, and you had other questions, other language, and other protocol that came from Indigenous culture. Kimmerer, R.W. The Bryologist 96(1)73-79. -by Robin Wall Kimmerer from the her book Braiding Sweetgrass. Traditional knowledge is particularly useful in identifying reference ecosystems and in illuminating cultural ties to the land. Occasional Paper No. 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. Tippett: And you say they take possession of spaces that are too small. Dr. Kimmerer has taught courses in botany, ecology, ethnobotany, indigenous environmental issues as well as a seminar in application of traditional ecological knowledge to conservation. Tippett:I was intrigued to see that, just a mention, somewhere in your writing, that you take part in a Potawatomi language lunchtime class that actually happens in Oklahoma, and youre there via the internet, because I grew up, actually, in Potawatomi County in Oklahoma. 16 (3):1207-1221. So that every time we speak of the living world, we can embody our relatedness to them. And yes, as it turns out, theres a very good biophysical explanation for why those plants grow together, so its a matter of aesthetics, and its a matter of ecology. Kimmerer: What were trying to do at the Center For Native Peoples and the Environment is to bring together the tools of Western science, but to employ them, or maybe deploy them, in the context of some of the Indigenous philosophy and ethical frameworks about our relationship to the Earth. Mosses become so successful all over the world because they live in these tiny little layers, on rocks, on logs, and on trees. Milkweed Editions. And I just think that Why is the world so beautiful? American Midland Naturalist. Kimmerer, R.W. The science which is showing that plants have capacity to learn, to have memory were at the edge of a wonderful revolution in really understanding the sentience of other beings. I think the place that it became most important to me to start to bring these ways of knowing back together again is when, as a young Ph.D. botanist, I was invited to a gathering of traditional plant knowledge holders. 55 talking about this. And theres a beautiful word bimaadiziaki, which one of my elders kindly shared with me. Kimmerer,R.W. My family holds strong titles within our confederacy. Kimmerer, R. W. 2010 The Giveaway in Moral Ground: ethical action for a planet in peril edited by Kathleen Moore and Michael Nelson. And so there was no question but that Id study botany in college. By Robin Wall Kimmerer. 3. Im Krista Tippett, and this is On Being. By Robin Wall Kimmerer 7 MIN READ Oct 29, 2021 Scientific research supports the idea of plant intelligence. And by exploit, I mean in a way that really, seriously degrades the land and the waters, because in fact, we have to consume. Tippett: And were these elders? Thats not going to move us forward. Her second book, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, received the 2014 Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award. Its good for land. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, which has earned Kimmerer wide acclaim. Kimmerer, R.W. 2003. And I think that that longing and the materiality of the need for redefining our relationship with place is being taught to us by the land, isnt it? World in Miniature . Im thinking of how, for all the public debates we have about our relationship with the natural world and whether its climate change or not, or man-made, theres also the reality that very few people living anywhere dont have some experience of the natural world changing in ways that they often dont recognize. It means a living being of the earth. But could we be inspired by that little sound at the end of that word, the ki, and use ki as a pronoun, a respectful pronoun inspired by this language, as an alternative to he, she, or it so that when Im tapping my maples in the springtime, I can say, Were going to go hang the bucket on ki. Her books include Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses and Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Generally, the inanimate grammar is reserved for those things which humans have created. Do you ever have those conversations with people? [2], Kimmerer remained near home for college, attending State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and receiving a bachelor's degree in botany in 1975. Ki is giving us maple syrup this springtime? She is founding director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. And theres such joy in being able to do that, to have it be a mutual flourishing instead of the more narrow definition of sustainability so that we can just keep on taking. Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, plant ecologist, writer and SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York. She won a second Burroughs award for an essay, "Council of the Pecans," that appeared in Orion magazine in 2013. Your donations to AWTT help us promote engaged citizenship. So I think of them as just being stronger and have this ability for what has been called two-eyed seeing, seeing the world through both of these lenses, and in that way have a bigger toolset for environmental problem-solving. She writes books that join new scientific and ancient Indigenous knowledge, including Gathering Moss and Braiding Sweetgrass. She is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation,[1] and combines her heritage with her scientific and environmental passions. Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses (2005) and Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (2013) are collections of linked personal essays about the natural world described by one reviewer as coming from a place of such abundant passion that one can never quite see the world the same way after having seen it through her eyes. So thats a very concrete way of illustrating this. As a writer and a scientist, her interests in restoration include not only restoration of ecological communities, but restoration of our relationships to land. She lives on an old farm in upstate New York, tending gardens both cultivated and wild. Tippett: In your book Braiding Sweetgrass, theres this line: It came to me while picking beans, the secret of happiness. [laughs] And you talk about gardening, which is actually something that many people do, and I think more people are doing. Kimmerer also uses traditional knowledge and science collectively for ecological restoration in research. The privacy of your data is important to us. She describes this kinship poetically: Wood thrush received the gift of song; its his responsibility to say the evening prayer. AWTT encourages community engagement programs and exhibits accompanied by public events that stimulate dialogue around citizenship, education, and activism. Robin Wall Kimmerer . Shes written, Science polishes the gift of seeing, Indigenous traditions work with gifts of listening and language. An expert in moss a bryologist she describes mosses as the coral reefs of the forest. Robin Wall Kimmerer opens a sense of wonder and humility for the intelligence in all kinds of life we are used to naming and imagining as inanimate. Weve seen that, in a way, weve been captured by a worldview of dominion that does not serve our species well in the long term, and moreover, it doesnt serve all the other beings in creation well at all. Americans Who Tell the Truth (AWTT) offers a variety of ways to engage with its portraits and portrait subjects. From Wisconsin, Kimmerer moved to Kentucky, where she briefly taught at Transylvania University in Lexington before moving to Danville, Kentucky where she taught biology, botany, and ecology at Centre College. Food could taste bad. The On Being Project But this word, this sound, ki, is, of course, also the word for who in Spanish and in French. I thank you in advance for this gift. To stop objectifying nature, Kimmerer suggests we adopt the word ki, a new pronoun to refer to any living being, whether human, another animal, a plant, or any part of creation. Rhodora 112: 43-51. And I sense from your writing and especially from your Indigenous tradition that sustainability really is not big enough and that it might even be a cop-out. And one of those somethings I think has to do with their ability to cooperate with one another, to share the limited resources that they have, to really give more than they take. Kimmerer: Thats right. Image by Tailyr Irvine/Tailyr Irvine, All Rights Reserved. Biodiversity loss and the climate crisis make it clear that its not only the land that is broken, but our relationship to land. But that, to me, is different than really rampant exploitation. She is a vivid embodiment, too, of the new forms societal shift is taking in our world led by visionary pragmatists close to the ground, in particular places, persistently and lovingly learning and leading the way for us all. I think so many of them are rooted in the food movement. She is a great teacher, and her words are a hymn of love to the world. Elizabeth Gilbert, Robin Wall Kimmerer has written an extraordinary book, showing how the factual, objective approach of science can be enriched by the ancient knowledge of the indigenous people. Learning the Grammar of Animacy in The Colors of Nature, culture, identity and the natural world. . She is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and a student of the plant nations. 2011 Witness to the Rain in The way of Natural History edited by T.P. The storytellers begin by calling upon those who came before who passed the stories down to us, for we are only messengers. (1994) Ecological Consequences of Sexual vs. Asexual reproduction in Dicranum flagellare. But the botany that I encountered there was so different than the way that I understood plants. Tippett: Heres something beautiful that you wrote in your book Gathering Moss, just as an example. Robin Wall Kimmerer, a scientist, MacArthur "genius grant" Fellow 2022, member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and author of the 2022 Buffs One Read selection "Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants" will speak at the Boulder Theater on Thursday, December 1 from 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.