Q & A With Robin Wall Kimmerer, Ph.D. Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Robin Wall Kimmerer received a BS (1975) from the State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and an MS (1979) and PhD (1983) from the University of Wisconsin. And its a really liberating idea, to think that the Earth could love us back, but it also opens the notion of reciprocity that with that love and regard from the Earth comes a real deep responsibility. Human ecology Literacy: The role of traditional indigenous and scientific knowledge in community environmental work. Knowing how important it is to maintain the traditional language of the Potawatomi, Kimmerer attends a class to learn how to speak the traditional language because "when a language dies, so much more than words are lost."[5][6]. She was born on 1953, in SUNY-ESF MS, PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is a botanist and also a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. The Pause is our Saturday morning ritual of a newsletter. And so this, then, of course, acknowledges the being-ness of that tree, and we dont reduce it it to an object. Theres good reason for that, and much of the power of the scientific method comes from the rationality and the objectivity. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants, which has earned Kimmerer wide acclaim. 10. And so thats a specialty, even within plant biology. 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. We sort of say, Well, we know it now. The role of dispersal limitation in bryophyte communities colonizing treefall mounds in northern hardwood forests. ". Kimmerer, R.W. Kimmerer: Yes. Robin Wall Kimmerer was born in 1953 in Upstate New York to Robert and Patricia Wall. 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. And some of our oldest teachings are saying that what does it mean to be an educated person? But when I ask them the question of, does the Earth love you back?,theres a great deal of hesitation and reluctance and eyes cast down, like, oh gosh, I dont know. 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. But that, to me, is different than really rampant exploitation. On the Ridge in In the Blast Zone edited by K.Moore, C. Goodrich, Oregon State University Press. An audiobook version was released in 2016, narrated by the author. Director of the newly established Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at ESF, which is part of her work to provide programs that allow for greater access for Indigenous students to study environmental science, and for science to benefit from the wisdom of Native philosophy to reach the common goal of sustainability.[4]. . -by Robin Wall Kimmerer from the her book Braiding Sweetgrass. So each of those plants benefits by combining its beauty with the beauty of the other. Kimmerer is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She describes this kinship poetically: Wood thrush received the gift of song; its his responsibility to say the evening prayer. Tippett: And you say they take possession of spaces that are too small. 2008. This beautiful creative nonfiction book is written by writer and scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer who is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. But the botany that I encountered there was so different than the way that I understood plants. It means that you know what your gift is and how to give it, on behalf of the land and of the people, just like every single species has its own gift. 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.. The Bryologist 108(3):391-401. 98(8):4-9. 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. Kimmerer, R.W. 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. 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. : integration of traditional and scientific ecological knowledge. So we cant just rely on a single way of knowing that explicitly excludes values and ethics. Kimmerer: Yes. In aYes! Thats not going to move us forward. 24 (1):345-352. We've updated our privacy policies in response to General Data Protection Regulation. 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. 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. Robin Wall Kimmerer, American environmentalist Country: United States Birthday: 1953 Age : 70 years old Birth Sign : Capricorn About Biography . Are there communities you think of when you think of this kind of communal love of place where you see new models happening? Kimmerer: Yes. 2008. They have to live in places where the dominant competitive plants cant live. The Bryologist 94(3):255-260. In Braiding Sweetgrass, she takes us on a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise. I have photosynthesis envy. We know what we need to know. These are these amazing displays of this bright, chrome yellow, and deep purple of New England aster, and they look stunning together. and Kimmerer, R.W. XLIV no 4 p. 3641, Kimmerer, R.W. She is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation,[1] and combines her heritage with her scientific and environmental passions. in, Contemporary Studies in Environmental and Indigenous Pedagogies (Sense Publishers) edited by Kelley Young and Dan Longboat. (22 February 2007). And the two plants so often intermingle, rather than living apart from one another, and I wanted to know why that was. 39:4 pp.50-56. She is the co-founder and past president of the Traditional Ecological Knowledge section of the Ecological Society of America. Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, which has earned Kimmerer wide acclaim.Her first book, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses, was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for . Kimmerer, R.W. In winter, when the green earth lies resting beneath a blanket of snow, this is the time for storytelling. Center for Humans and Nature Questions for a Resilient Future, Address to the United Nations in Commemoration of International Mother Earth Day, Profiles of Ecologists at Ecological Society of America. Tippett: Like a table, something like that? An example of what I mean by this is in their simplicity, in the power of being small. 2013 Where the Land is the Teacher Adirondack Life Vol. Robin Wall Kimmerer She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge/ and The Teaching of Plants , which has earned Kimmerer wide acclaim. NY, USA. Image by Tailyr Irvine/Tailyr Irvine, All Rights Reserved. Lake 2001. 55 talking about this. I created this show at American Public Media. 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. is a question that we all ought to be embracing. (30 November 2004). She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, which has earned Kimmerer wide acclaim. The On Being Project is located on Dakota land. All of my teachings come from my late grandmother, Eel clan mother, Phoebe Hill, and my uncle is Tadodaho, Sidney Hill. On Being is an independent, nonprofit production of The On Being Project. 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. In the English language, if we want to speak of that sugar maple or that salamander, the only grammar that we have to do so is to call those beings an it. And if I called my grandmother or the person sitting across the room from me an it, that would be so rude, right? But I just sat there and soaked in this wonderful conversation, which interwove mythic knowledge and scientific knowledge into this beautiful, cultural, natural history. A 23 year assessment of vegetation composition and change in the Adirondack alpine zone, New York State. Tippett: After a short break, more with Robin Wall Kimmerer. Vol. P 43, Kimmerer, R.W. Robin is a botanist and also a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. 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. Drew, R. Kimmerer, N. Richards, B. Nordenstam, J. "One thing that frustrates me, over a lifetime of being involved in the environmental movement, is that so much of it is propelled by fear," says Robin Wall Kimmerer. The Rights of the Land. Allen (1982) The Role of Disturbance in the Pattern of Riparian Bryophyte Community. Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. So reciprocity actually kind of broadens this notion to say that not only does the Earth sustain us, but that we have the capacity and the responsibility to sustain her in return. By Robin Wall Kimmerer. She has served on the advisory board of the Strategies for Ecology Education, Development and Sustainability (SEEDS) program, a program to increase the number of minority ecologists. And the last voice that you hear singing at the end of our show is Cameron Kinghorn. Kimmerer: It certainly does. The notion of reciprocity is really different from that. The program provides students with real-world experiences that involve complex problem-solving. Kimmerer, R.W. TEK is a deeply empirical scientific approach and is based on long-term observation. Shebitz ,D.J. Im Krista Tippett, and this is On Being. (1984) Vegetation Development on a Dated Series of Abandoned Lead-Zinc Mines in Southwestern Wisconsin. Kimmerer, R.W. She fell like a maple seed, pirouetting on an . So much of what we do as environmental scientists if we take a strictly scientific approach, we have to exclude values and ethics, right? And its, I think, very, very exciting to think about these ways of being, which happen on completely different scales, and so exciting to think about what we might learn from them. Muir, P.S., T.R. She is founding director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. Retrieved April 4, 2021, from, Sultzman, L. (December 18, 1998). 2011 Witness to the Rain in The way of Natural History edited by T.P. Native Knowledge for Native Ecosystems. Faust, B., C. Kyrou, K. Ettenger, A. Forest age and management effects on epiphytic bryophyte communities in Adirondack northern hardwood forests. Musings and tools to take into your week. In 2022, Braiding Sweetgrass was adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith. It's more like a tapestry, or a braid of interwoven strands. 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. Kimmerer explains how reciprocity is reflected in Native languages, which impart animacy to natural entities such as bodies of water and forests, thus reinforcing respect for nature. Winner of the 2005 John Burroughs Medal. at the All Nations Boxing Club in Browning, Montana, a town on the Blackfeet Reservation, on March 26, 2019. In "The Mind of Plants: Narratives of Vegetal Intelligence" scientists and writers consider the connection and communication between plants. The On Being Project is located on Dakota land. 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. Robin Wall Kimmerer ["Two Ways of Knowing," interview by Leath Tonino, April 2016] reminded me that if we go back far enough, everyone comes from an ancestral culture that revered the earth. She lives on an old farm in upstate New York, tending gardens both cultivated and wild. You went into a more traditional scientific endeavor. XLIV no 8 p. 1822, Kimmerer, R. W. 2013 What does the Earth Ask of Us? Center for Humans and Nature, Questions for a Resilient Future. If good citizens agree to uphold the laws of the nation, then I choose natural law, the law of reciprocity, of regeneration, of mutual flourishing., Robin Wall Kimmereris a mother, plant ecologist, nature writer, and Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology at the State University of New Yorks College of Environment and Forestry (SUNY ESF) in Syracuse, New York. Come back soon. She was born on January 01, 1953 in . Registration is required.. We dont call anything we love and want to protect and would work to protect it. That language distances us. and Kimmerer, R.W. The public is invited to attend the free virtual event at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 21. She lives on an old farm in upstate New York, tending gardens both cultivated and wild. And having told you that, I never knew or learned anything about what that word meant, much less the people and the culture it described. It could be bland and boring, but it isnt. But again, all these things you live with and learn, how do they start to shift the way you think about what it means to be human? and Kimmerer, R.W. She is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and a student of the plant nations. Center for Humans and Nature, Kimmerer, R.W, 2014. 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. Copyright 2023, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. 2011. In part to share a potential source of meaning, Kimmerer, who is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and a professor at the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science. Kimmerer is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, a Native American people originally from the Great Lakes region. She is currently Distinguished Teaching Professor and Director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at the State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Kimmerer, R.W. 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. My family holds strong titles within our confederacy. Amy Samuels, thesis topic: The impact of Rhamnus cathartica on native plant communities in the Chaumont Barrens, 2023State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cumEQcRMY3c, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4nUobJEEWQ, http://harmonywithnatureun.org/content/documents/302Correcta.kimmererpresentationHwN.pdf, http://www.northland.edu/commencement2015, http://www.esa.org/education/ecologists_profile/EcologistsProfileDirectory/, http://64.171.10.183/biography/Biography.asp?mem=133&type=2, https://www.facebook.com/braidingsweetgrass?ref=bookmarks, Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, http://www.humansandnature.org/earth-ethic---robin-kimmerer response-80.php, Bioneers 2014 Keynote Address: Mishkos Kenomagwen: The Teachings of Grass, What Does the Earth Ask of Us? Ransom and R. Smardon 2001. An herb native to North America, sweetgrass is sacred to Indigenous people in the United States and Canada. "Another Frame of Mind". Kimmerer, D.B. Journal of Forestry. High-resolution photos of MacArthur Fellows are available for download (right click and save), including use by media, in accordance with this copyright policy. Her time outdoors rooted a deep appreciation for the natural environment. Weve created a place where you can share that simply, and at the same time sign up to be the first to receive invitations and updates about whats happening next. Modern America and her family's tribe were - and, to a . "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. Kimmerer, R.W. She spent two years working for Bausch & Lomb as a microbiologist. Were able to systematize it and put a Latin binomial on it, so its ours. What were revealing is the fact that they have extraordinary capacities, which are so unlike our own, but we dismiss them because, well, if they dont do it like animals do it, then they must not be doing anything, when in fact, theyre sensing their environment, responding to their environment, in incredibly sophisticated ways. Its that which I can give. In a consumer society, contentment is a radical idea. The On Being Project They work with the natural forces that lie over every little surface of the world, and to me they are exemplars of not only surviving, but flourishing, by working with natural processes.