Book Club Guide

Braiding Sweetgrass

by Robin Wall Kimmerer · 2013 · Popular Science

Key themes

Reciprocity as an alternative to extraction
The grammar of animacy — what changes when we call a plant 'it'
Indigenous science and Western science in conversation, not conflict

About this book

A botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation weaves together Indigenous plant knowledge, scientific botany and memoir to argue that plants are not passive objects but beings with gifts to offer, and that reciprocity — not extraction — is the proper relationship between humans and the living world. One of the most-read works of nature writing in recent years.

Published in 2013, Braiding Sweetgrass became a word-of-mouth phenomenon, selling over a million copies largely through reader recommendation and course assignment. Kimmerer is a professor of environmental biology at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Discussion questions

Kimmerer argues that the English grammar of plants — calling them 'it' rather than 'ki' — is part of the problem, encoding the view that plants are objects rather than subjects. How does language shape relationship to the natural world?
She is both a Western-trained botanist and a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. How does she navigate between these epistemologies — does she present them as complementary, contradictory, or both?
The concept of the 'Honourable Harvest' — taking only what you need, giving back — runs through the book. What would it mean to apply this principle to how humans currently relate to the planet?
Braiding Sweetgrass has become one of the most-assigned books in university ecology courses. What does it offer that a standard ecology textbook cannot?
The book is a mixture of science, memoir, folklore and philosophy. Does this mixture work — or does it ask too much of readers trained in only one of these modes?