Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants is a profound exploration of the interconnectedness between humans and nature. Blending indigenous wisdom with her background as a botanist, Kimmerer shares lessons from the natural world that inspire a sense of gratitude, reciprocity, and respect for the Earth. Through storytelling and scientific insight, the course encourages participants to see plants and ecosystems as teachers, helping them to reconnect with the environment and cultivate a deep ecological awareness. Ideal for those interested in sustainability, environmental science, and indigenous perspectives, this course provides a unique lens on how we can live in harmony with the natural world.

As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowing together to reveal what it means to see humans as “the younger brothers of creation.”

As she explores these themes, she circles toward a central argument: The awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgement and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the world. Once we begin to listen for the languages of other beings, we can begin to understand the innumerable life-giving gifts the world provides us and learn to offer our thanks, our care, and our own gifts in return.