Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer  

“A hymn of love to the world” is how Elizabeth Gilbert summarized Braiding Sweetgrass for its interweaving of indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants. Author Robin Wall Kimmerer is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, a professor of botany, and founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. 

In the preface, Kimmerer describes Braiding Sweetgrass as “an intertwining of science, spirit, and story—old stories and new ones that can be medicine for our broken relationship with earth, a pharmacopoeia of healing stories that allow us to imagine a different relationship, in which people and land are good medicine for each other.” 

Kimmerer describes both the scientific and the sacred significance of sweetgrass, identified by its scientific name as Hierochloe odorata -- “the fragrant, holy grass.” In Potawatomi language “it is called wiingaashk – the sweet-smelling hair of Mother Earth. Breathe it in and you start to remember things you didn’t know you’d forgotten.” (Preface)

Registration is open for an on-line Zoom reader’s group that will discuss Braiding Sweetgrass in six Tuesday evening sessions, 7:00 to 8:30, September 12, 26, October 10, 24, November 7 & 21. Sessions will feature a combination of presentations and small group explorations. There is no charge for the series, but registration is required. 

All are welcome to this reader’s group sponsored by the Greater Kansas City Justice and Peace Action Team of Central and Midlands mission centers, Community of Christ. Further information will be available on the team’s web site, jpatkc.org. Early registration is recommended.

You do not have to have read or finished the book to participate in the discussion!

Registration is Required. Registration is for all six sessions. Register Here