While I think this book can be enjoyed in any format, I felt my best personal reading experience was via audio. I can’t think of a better companion for long morning trail walks with my dog than this essay collection.

An enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Kimmerer blends her worlds of Indigenous history and teaching with science (botany) to create a fluid dialogue between the reader and the land. Through her own reflections on her research and life in academia, raising her two daughters, tending her homestead and her relationships with Indigenous elders, craftspeople and more, Kimmerer shows us the many ways in which western culture and language limit our understanding of the natural world. This is a collection of essays that can each stand alone, but together build a sweeping narrative through loose thematic groupings within the life cycle of sweetgrass: planting, tending, picking, braiding and burning. As sweetgrass teaches us, all life cycles require give-and-take, and it’s the balance between the two that brings us into greater harmony with ourselves and the land and enables sustainable communities and habitats. 

At the heart of this collection is a reflection on what it means to be Indigenous to a land, and how the first people can teach those of us who are not Indigenous to this land how to be in better relationship to it. To this end, Kimmerer breaks down Indigenous traditions of reciprocity, helps us to understand a natural language of animacy and intimacy, teaches us the principles of the honorable harvest and cautions us against the devastating hunger of our modern-day Wendigo, a capitalist beast threatening the longevity of our most critically-needed gifts of soil, air and water. 

I highly recommend this collection to any reader - it is both timeless and incredibly timely as we rally ourselves to speak out against the inherent violence of settler colonialism globally and work to protect the land and its native peoples.