This important passage distills some of the themes of
Braiding Sweetgrass: one being that scientific work is important, but it should not and cannot be the end of our relationship to the earth. That requires active reciprocity, the giving of our own gifts, and the humble awareness that we are just one part of the democracy of species, the younger siblings of creation. The quotation from the Indigenous Environmental Network is then a reminder that these are not Kimmerer’s own ideas: she is passing on established wisdom, and there are many others who share her worldview.