Connect with us on social media or view all of our social media content in one place. Robin is a botanist and also a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Her first book, "Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses," was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for . And by exploit, I mean in a way that really, seriously degrades the land and the waters, because in fact, we have to consume. We have to analyze them as if they were just pure material, and not matter and spirit together. P 43, Kimmerer, R.W. I sense that photosynthesis,that we cant even photosynthesize, that this is a quality you covet in our botanical brothers and sisters. Connect with the author and related events. Im Krista Tippett, and this is On Being. Were exploring her sense of the intelligence in life we are used to seeing as inanimate. The On Being Project is located on Dakota land. Her time outdoors rooted a deep appreciation for the natural environment. Under the advice of Dr. Karin Limburg and Neil . She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, which has earned Kimmerer wide acclaim. So I think movements from tree planting to community gardens, farm-to-school, local, organic all of these things are just at the right scale, because the benefits come directly into you and to your family, and the benefits of your relationships to land are manifest right in your community, right in your patch of soil and what youre putting on your plate. And it was such an amazing experience four days of listening to people whose knowledge of the plant world was so much deeper than my own. So this notion of the earths animacy, of the animacy of the natural world and everything in it, including plants, is very pivotal to your thinking and to the way you explore the natural world, even scientifically, and draw conclusions, also, about our relationship to the natural world. My family holds strong titles within our confederacy. " Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open heart. Robin Wall 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. It is a prism through which to see the world. Tippett: One thing you say that Id like to understand better is, Science polishes the gift of seeing; Indigenous traditions work with gifts of listening and language. So Id love an example of something where what are the gifts of seeing that science offers, and then the gifts of listening and language, and how all of that gives you this rounded understanding of something. Im a Potawatomi scientist and a storyteller, working to create a respectful symbiosis between Indigenous and western ecological knowledges for care of lands and cultures. 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. Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, plant ecologist, nature writer, and Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology at the State University of New York's College of Environment and Forestry (SUNY ESF) in Syracuse, New York. is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. All of my teachings come from my late grandmother, Eel clan mother, Phoebe Hill, and my uncle is Tadodaho, Sidney Hill. Bryophyte facilitation of vegetation establishment on iron mine tailings in the Adirondack Mountains . And I have some reservations about using a word inspired from the Anishinaabe language, because I dont in any way want to engage in cultural appropriation. And it worries me greatly that todays children can recognize 100 corporate logos and fewer than 10 plants. 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. Tippett: Robin Wall Kimmerer is the State University of New York Distinguished Teaching Professor at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. I mean, you didnt use that language, but youre actually talking about a much more generous and expansive vision of relatedness between humans and the natural worlds and what we want to create. She is a botanist and also a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. and C.C. One of the leaders in this field is Robin Wall Kimmerer, a professor of environmental and forest biology at the State University of New York and the bestselling author of "Braiding Sweetgrass." She's also an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and she draws on Native traditions and the grammar of the Potawatomi language . And I just saw that their knowledge was so much more whole and rich and nurturing that I wanted to do everything that I could to bring those ways of knowing back into harmony. Kimmerer, R. W. 2011 Restoration and Reciprocity: The Contributions of Traditional Ecological Knowledge to the Philosophy and Practice of Ecological Restoration. in Human Dimensions of Ecological Restoration edited by David Egan. Kimmerer, R.W. High-resolution photos of MacArthur Fellows are available for download (right click and save), including use by media, in accordance with this copyright policy. 121:134-143. If citizenship means an oath of loyalty to a leader, then I choose the leader of the trees. I thank you in advance for this gift. The large framework of that is the renewal of the world for the privilege of breath. Thats right on the edge. And when I think about mosses in particular, as the most ancient of land plants, they have been here for a very long time. But I just sat there and soaked in this wonderful conversation, which interwove mythic knowledge and scientific knowledge into this beautiful, cultural, natural history. Today, Im with botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer. Kimmerer: It certainly does. When we forget, the dances well need will be for mourning, for the passing of polar bears, the silence of cranes, for the death of rivers, and the memory of snow.. And that shift in worldview was a big hurdle for me, in entering the field of science. And thats a question that science can address, certainly, as well as artists. 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. Born into an upstate New York farm family, Jordan attended Cornell and then became an itinerant scholar and field researcher until he landed at Indiana University, where his . Kimmerer has helped sponsor the Undergraduate Mentoring in Environmental Biology (UMEB) project, which pairs students of color with faculty members in the enviro-bio sciences while they work together to research environmental biology. Robin tours widely and has been featured on NPRs On Being with Krista Tippett and in 2015 addressed the general assembly of the United Nations on the topic of Healing Our Relationship with Nature. Kimmerer is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, whose mission is to create programs which draw on the wisdom of both indigenous and scientific knowledge for our shared goals of sustainability. Kimmerer is also the former chair of the Ecological Society of America Traditional Ecological Knowledge Section. She holds a BS in Botany from SUNY ESF, an MS and PhD in Botany from the University of Wisconsin and is the author of numerous scientific papers on plant ecology, bryophyte ecology, traditional knowledge and restoration ecology. (1989) Environmental Determinants of Spatial Pattern in the Vegetation of Abandoned Lead-Zinc Mines. (1982) A Quantitative Analysis of the Flora of Abandoned Lead-Zinc Mines in Southwestern Wisconsin. Moving deftly between scientific evidence and storytelling, Kimmerer reorients our understanding of the natural world. Shes a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and she joins scientific and Indigenous ways of seeing, in her research and in her writing for a broad audience. Shebitz ,D.J. 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. The Bryologist 96(1)73-79. Ses textes ont t publis dans de nombreuses revues scientifi ques. Illustration by Jos Mara Pout Lezaun Her enthusiasm for the environment was encouraged by her parents, who began to reconnect with their own Potawatomi heritage while living in upstate New York. Potawatomi History. Modern America and her family's tribe were - and, to a . 2004 Interview with a watershed LTER Forest Log. According to our Database, She has no children. Kimmerer, R.W. She said it was a . She is pleased to be learning a traditional language with the latest technology, and knows how important it is for the traditional language to continue to be known and used by people: When a language dies, so much more than words are lost. She works with tribal nations on environmental problem-solving and sustainability. Kimmerer also uses traditional knowledge and science collectively for ecological restoration in research. Krista interviewed her in 2015, and it quickly became a much-loved show as her voice was just rising in common life. Her books include Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses and Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Son premier livre, Gathering Moss, a t rcompens par la John Burroughs Medail pour ses crits exceptionnels sur la nature. You wrote, We are all bound by a covenant of reciprocity. A mother of two daughters, and a grandmother, Kimmerer's voice is mellifluous over the video call, animated with warmth and wonderment. Kimmerer: Thats right. I wonder, what is happening in that conversation? Kimmerer likens braiding sweetgrass into baskets to her braiding together three narrative strands: "indigenous ways of knowing, scientific knowledge, and the story of an Anishinaabekwe scientist trying to bring them together" (x). Copyright 2023, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. It ignores all of its relationships. and T.F.H. Were these Indigenous teachers? Intellectual Diversity: bringing the Native perspective into Natural Resources Education. Robin Wall Kimmerer (born 1953) is an American Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental and Forest Biology; and Director, Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF). And theres a way in which just growing up in the woods and the fields, they really became my doorway into culture. Mauricio Velasquez, thesis topic: The role of fire in plant biodiversity in the Antisana paramo, Ecuador. I honor the ways that my community of thinkers and practitioners are already enacting this cultural change on the ground. Im Krista Tippett, and this is On Being. is a question that we all ought to be embracing. Tippett: And inanimate would be, what, materials? And now people are reading those same texts differently. NY, USA. She has spoken out publicly for recognition of indigenous science and for environmental justice to stop global climate chaos, including support for the Water Protectors at Standing Rock who are working to stop the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline (DAPL) from cutting through sovereign territory of the Standing Rock Sioux. As an alternative to consumerism, she offers an Indigenous mindset that embraces gratitude for the gifts of nature, which feeds and shelters us, and that acknowledges the role that humans play in responsible land stewardship and ecosystem restoration. So it broadens the notion of what it is to be a human person, not just a consumer. Just as the land shares food with us, we share food with each other and then contribute to the flourishing of that place that feeds us. Robin Wall Kimmerer is a plant ecologist, educator, and writer articulating a vision of environmental stewardship grounded in scientific and Indigenous knowledge. I hope that co-creatingor perhaps rememberinga new narrative to guide our relationship with the Earth calls to all of us in these urgent times. Leadership Initiative for Minority Female Environmental Faculty (LIMFEF), May Memorial Unitarian Universalist Society Podcast featuring, This page was last edited on 15 February 2023, at 04:07. And so there was no question but that Id study botany in college. And so this means that they have to live in the interstices.
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