Braiding Sweetgrass

Kimmerer spends a lot of time in this book comparing and contrasting Western science to indigenous ways of knowing, specifically from the Potawatomi tradition. As she's someone formally trained in western science, I understood her thesis being that indigenous ways of knowing can coexist with western science, but more than anything, I felt that this book did a really good job justifying why we shouldn't treat science as the end all be all of knowledge.

On one hand, I think this book reintroduced my very secular mind to the ways in which having a spiritual connection to nature can be extremely enriching and can add to our collective understanding of the natural world

On the other hand, it provides a basis for understanding where exactly science falls short in its attempt to catalogue the universe, as well as exposing its "objectivity" for the many ways in which it is actually ideologically motivated.

All in all, this book is definitely going to be a cornerstone of my worldview with respect to knowledge for the foreseeable future. Not to mention the fact that Kimmerer is just a really awesome writer in general

I'm glad that I decided to listen to the audiobook. You can hear the care and passion in Robin's voice as she tells her stories.

This book made me want to reconnect with nature. It brought to light so many things that I never would have even considered as someone who was raised without nature being a regular thing in my life. There was an abundance of information to be found in this book, from why the cost of Native-made goods is on the higher side (spoiler, it's because they don't take from the earth before it's ok to) to how a swamp ecosystem would have provided enough nutrients for people to survive without even needing to hunt. I had no idea that cattails could be used in so many ways.

I have a feeling this is an audiobook that I will be listening to a few times over the years.