Braiding Sweetgrass

by

Robin Wall Kimmerer

Braiding Sweetgrass Symbols

Sweetgrass

Sweetgrass represents a way of looking at the world as a system of reciprocity between people and land, and the mutual love and nourishment that comes from such a generous two-way relationship. Sweetgrass’s scientific name…

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Onondaga Lake

In Braiding Sweetgrass, the history of Onondaga Lake represents two different ways of interacting with the world and the consequences of these disparate philosophies: one worldview sees the physical earth as a sacred place…

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The Windigo

Braiding Sweetgrass presents the mythical figure of the Windigo as “that within us which cares more for its own survival than for anything else”—the greedy part of ourselves that a capitalist society encourages to consume…

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