What can the Indigenous American worldview teach outsiders about sustainability? A lot, it turns out. Our Planet Our Future’s Book Club’s latest pick was Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. A beautifully written series of essays, the book explores how Indigenous American wisdom goes hand in hand with ecological stewardship.
Kimmerer is a botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, the keepers of the sacred fire. This gives her writing a unique perspective as she blends scientific knowledge with Indigenous teachings, opening our eyes to a different way of relating to the natural world.
The law of reciprocity
One of the book’s key themes is the law of reciprocity. The Indigenous peoples follow the principle of only taking what they need from the Earth and giving back in return. We discussed how this philosophy contrasts sharply with the European settler mentality described in the book (and experienced in our own society), where nature is a resource to be taken without obligation.
Take salmon fishing, for example. In Indigenous societies, most salmon were allowed to swim upstream to ensure the survival of the species. Only the few that were needed were caught. Compare that to the modern commercial approach of maximising short-term gain, often at the long-term expense of the local ecosystem.
This Indigenous law, we reflected, was most likely how pre-industrial Europe operated, with people living by similar principles until industrialisation severed many ties to the land.
Sweetgrass and the gift economy
Sweetgrass, in many ways the book’s protagonist, is a plant sacred to many Native American cultures. Interestingly, Kimmerer writes that in areas where sweetgrass is sustainably harvested for weaving, the plant population tends to be healthier than those left untouched. This principle is known as the honourable harvest. The local communities look after and tend to the sweetgrass to ensure it flourishes, flipping the common Western assumption that human involvement is always harmful.
We discussed how we could incorporate this spirit of giving into our own lives, from planting trees to feeding birds.
How language shapes our worldview
Language has the power to shape our worldview, as this book revealed. Losing a language, Kimmerer argues, means losing an entire way of seeing the world.
Potawatomi is dominated by verbs rather than nouns: the Potawatomi talk about ‘hilling’ (kpkwenmik, to make a hill around you). This word carries a sense of caring for the plants, expressing a relationship within which we protect and support the plant as it grows.
In a similar vein, plants and animals are described as beings rather than ‘things’. A tree actively engages in ‘treeing’ – the status of being a tree. This shapes the way we view and relate to them, making us more likely to invest effort into nurturing them. As one reader pointed out, English could benefit from language that connects us emotionally to the environment.
While most of us found the book lyrical and thought-provoking, some readers found the prose unnecessarily long-winded. Another commented that in the past they’d struggled to connect with some of the Indigenous origin stories, but Kimmerer’s retelling made them more relatable.
‘A very mature vision for the future’
Along with language loss, we also touched on the book’s more painful chapters: the forced assimilation of Indigenous children and the taking of Native lands. Despite this, we found Kimmerer’s tone hopeful and focused on healing and cooperation rather than bitterness.
We were struck by the remarkable maturity of Indigenous approaches to treaties. Instead of revenge, which we might have expected, the nations looked for reconciliation and shared stewardship of the land with non-Indigenous communities. Some members compared this vision to the Welsh Future Generations Law.
We also likened the bartering economy Kimmerer described with the Totnes Pound, and local schemes where people trade time and skills instead of money.
Further reading
Robin Wall Kimmerer has also written Gathering Moss and The Serviceberry: An Economy of Abundance. Some of us are keen to read these after Braiding Sweetgrass.
Our next event
Want to broaden your knowledge of sustainability challenges and solutions while meeting like-minded readers?
On the 26th June, we’ll discuss Prosperity Without Growth by Tim Jackson at the Cross Keys pub in Harpenden. Book your free spot here. The book is available on Hive and Audible.
About Our Planet Our Future’s Environment Book Club
Our Planet Our Future, our landmark series of talks and events, launched an Environment Book Club in 2023, meeting in Harpenden to discuss sustainability-related reads.