"Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Have any of you read this book already? If not, I’d highly recommend you do! Full of good medicine for mind, body and spirit. Makes you get out your sweetgrass, maple syrup, ash splint basket, and lots of other things to join the celebration.

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I’m reading it now and it’s fantastic!

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Thanks for reminding me, Anneke. I read most of it a few months ago but forgot to finish it. She has a wonderful refreshing voice.

Definitely one to add the the Rewilder’s Required Reading List!
I am especially in love with the chapter where she takes her biology grad students to the cattail marsh, and teaches them (coyote-style) to develop a rich reciprocal relationship with the cattails.
This book also models a beautiful path of healing between indigenous and settler culture.

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It is a good book. I feel it has a lot important points and perspectives. My only concern is that I sometimes wonder if it doesn’t smooth over some issues of ecology and culture. There are some places where I feel she takes it a little easy on white people, as well as some places where it seems to me that she accepts civilization’s land management as being closer to indigenous management than they really are. It has been a while since I read it though.

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Inspired by “Braiding Sweetgrass”, and seeing that the cattails prepared to cover all of our pond next year, a friend of mine and myself harvested lots of cattails yesterday. Today we had our first experience with them, cutting off the roots, separating the leaves, and so on. A lovely weekend altogether, where we learned much about the cattails’ softness in many respects, and discovered their intricate patterns inside the leaves. Next task: to dry and store the leaves properly. But where?! (Almost all places to dry stuff already contain something!)

Did anyone else get inspired by this book to try their hand at some new skill?