By Mackenzie Davis
On Thursday, March 20 the Woodrick Center for Inclusion and Multicultural Affairs at Grand Rapids Community College hosted their last speaker in the Diversity Lecture Series, Robin Wall Kimmerer.
Author of popular books including “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants” and “The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the natural world.” Kimmerer, a distinguished environmental biology professor, is enrolled in the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. Kimmerer’s stories and teachings have opened the minds of people everywhere to another way of life, one that supports the plants and animals on Earth as fellow neighbors and protects them as they allow us to live.
The virtual event commenced with an introduction from support professional of the Woodrick Center, Susy Chavez, with the Land Acknowledgement statement. This statement is used in the beginning of events to recognize that Indigenous peoples were the original stewards of the lands in which we now live.
“We honor the original people, the Anishinaabe – Three Fires Confederacy of Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi peoples. We recognize that Grand Rapids Community College is located on the land ceded to the United States in the Chicago Treaty of 1821. We also recognize the Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians as the descendants of original tribes represented at this treaty’s signing. We express our gratitude to the original peoples, past, present, and future, who have stewarded this land for generations,” Chavez said. “We understand this acknowledgment must be coupled with a relationship of advocacy and support for Indigenous peoples. We recognize our responsibility to continuously uphold our commitments toward Indigenous communities. This land acknowledgment recognizes the sovereignty of Indigenous peoples and affirms their history and our efforts to be accountable to their needs.
Listeners were then sent a link and encouraged to watch a pre-recorded video of Kimmerer sharing her knowledge, gratitude for the Earth, culture and warnings of how our actions are impacting the natural world.
“Gratitude might seem like weak tea given the challenges that we face but it is powerful medicine. Much more than a simple thank you, because gratitude pulls us into relation with other entities. Reminding us that our very existence relies on the gifts of others,” Kimmerer said in her video.
In the closing of her video, Kimmerer shares a story she first heard by Tom Porter (Sakokwenionkwas, meaning “The One Who Wins”), a spokesperson and spiritual leader of the Mohawk Community of Kanatsiohareke. The story follows the Haudenosaunee Creation Story and includes themes of good vs. evil and the always prevailing strength of the natural world. Although strong, Kimmerer warns of the destruction negative actions by humans have caused on the environment and calls for change.
The event was then shifted back to the Zoom where Lisa Carlson (Waabshka Memengwan, meaning “White Butterfly”), tribal member of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa and enrollment specialist at GRCC, read questions from the audience and talked with Kimmerer.
Below are the questions and answers that stood out throughout the meeting.
Can you share the importance of writing ”Braiding Sweetgrass” and what were some of the motivating factors of why you chose to write the book? Please reflect on how writing BSG has transformed your own relationship with nature and influenced your current work?
“After a career in trying to find and make a place for indigenous knowledge as a partner to western science in terms of ecology and the land stewardship, I was deeply aware of the erassure of our knowledge in academia and so one of my motivations was to write in such a way that students, faculty and the general public really could have a better appreciation for how indigenous ethics and values could guide some tools of western science so we could care better for mother Earth,” Kimmerer said. “It has very much changed my work…in that I am a scientist, I’m not doing scientific research at this point. It seems too urgent to share the message around indigenous guidance for sustainability.”
Why do you think some academics are adverse to creating knowledge, doing research, or learning about the world in non-Western or from cultural traditions?
“This is a question that- you know throughout my academic career of many decades now I have wondered about. You know, in their entire academic training as scientists, for the most part, they’ve never even been taught the correct history. But there is also undeniably, a kernel of arrogance of the Western tradition of scientism,” Kimmerer said. “I like to differentiate science from scientism. To me, science is a way of knowing of curiosity and questioning and evidence building about the nature of the living world. In science, we should be open to all explanations. Let’s look at them. Let’s try to understand how they might work and what they offer. But scientism is this biased perspective that says western science is the only and most valid way to understand the living world. And so oftentimes I think science and scientism get entangled with one another. And so I think it’s the job of scientific institutions, academia. To really call out scientism. And open the door to consideration of multiple ways of knowing.”
Do you have any advice for the backyard botanist for friends and neighbors that want to get out into their local habitat and acknowledge plants who live there?
“You know, I think maybe the answer one expects from a botany professor is to say, ‘Oh, go get a field guide and learn the names of all the plants well’. That’s an awesome thing to do. But what I tell my own students is ‘Let’s not go there quite yet. Let’s get to know them first…’. So I would say full sensory engagement with the plants in your backyard. And I’m not against having a field guide to then learn their names. One of the reasons for that is that It helps you look more closely,” Kimmerer said.
What advice do you have for advocates and allies who would like to push this work forward?
“Yeah, great. I think the advice that I would have… especially right now, there are, you know, a wonderful emergence of native writers on this topic. And so I would encourage everybody to go reading,” Kimmerer said. “Groups of all sorts who want to embrace Indigenous science knowledge and land management. To not only read, but also to listen to the practices of the people who are the original stewards of the land in your place. And because as we all know, indigenous knowledge is incredibly place-based. And so the people of the place are going to have a really different perspective on that.”
The event was closed with a final question about the impact Kimmerer has made on her readers and how she manages to keep going in these times of environmental change.
Hello, I’m an average Joe type from Southern California. I have read “Braiding Sweetgrass,” “Gathering Moss,” “Serviceberry,” and am currently reading “The Democracy of Species.” These works have made me fall in love with Mother Earth and her gifts. How do you keep positive with so much destruction and powers working against our Earth? P.S., you have changed my life in so many ways. I am so grateful to you.
“I want to acknowledge that you changed your life. Stories changed your life, right? And that you were courageous enough to open your mind and experience to another way of knowing. And that’s what I hope my writing and my work does is to help expand our imaginations of what is possible,” Kimmerer said. “How do I keep positive? Well… there’s a lot to love about the Earth . How can you not be positive when the Earth is so joyful and resilient and full of gifts? It just gives me, I don’t know, I feel sometimes kind of like I can photosynthesize in the gifts, you know? That the land gives so much, that it gives me what I need to keep going. Even in times of profound discouragement and despair, like in the moment we are living in right now. The things that I have dedicated my career to are of course under fire at this exact moment. More than under fire, they’ve been thrown in the dumpster. And I could be in despair about that, sometimes I am. But in fact, really what it does is makes me feel even more empowered to do the work, to do the work on behalf of the living world. We live in a time of great crisis. We live in a time when the choices that we make matter. That really helps me as well. Thanks for asking.
