Better Ancestors Than Descendants

Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, botanist, ecology professor and noted science writer came to Santa Fe for a speaking tour and book signing. She is an author I have loved reading for years. 

From the author's bio

What fascinates me about her writing is the way she balances her native botanical knowledge (she is an enrolled Citizen Potawatomi member in upstate New York) with rigorous scientific evidence and study. She got her undergraduate degree at the school of forestry in Syracuse and further degrees at the University of Wisconsin, but never stopped using traditional Indian methods of acute observation and oral histories of how people and land exist together. 

She is such a fabulous story teller that she can make dry scientific facts and history sing, and she can elevate indigenous observations of the land and nature to complement the dry facts in a way that surprises.

Her first book, a slim volume about mosses, stunned me. Mosses? Really? But it was her acute observational detail and her story telling gift that made this book catch my attention. I have never forgotten it. 

She signed my copy as I chatted with her briefly.

After discovering mosses, I went on to read Braiding Sweetgrass which was a much larger and more comprehensive book about ecology and plants and land stewardship, but just as impactful in her storytelling and in the surprise moments she brings to scientific observation.

The talk was hosted by IAIA, the Institute of American Indian Arts, a tribal land grant college in Santa Fe that focuses on artistic studies. My old friend Becky (old, as in we go back a long way, not that we are elderly or anything) flew in for the talk and stayed with me for days of catching up and visiting. 

We both were fascinated by Dr. Kimmerer's talk, and then we got to see her again as she participated in a panel discussion the next day at the stone amphitheater in the botanical garden. It was such a great week for both of us, we loved the experience.

The amphitheater at the garden, where Robin and the panel spoke. Beautiful setting.

Dr. Kimmerer's talent is blending and contrasting native science with western science, but at the IAIA talk her audience was largely native and she tailored it to their expectations. She had spent the day before her presentation in the classroom with students, teaching. A young Kickapoo student at the college introduced her, and a lovely young Paiute student closed the talk with a beautiful drum honor song. 

In between, Dr. Kimmerer's topics were focused on the traditional worldview of "what do we give the earth" -- the indigenous relationship to earth's botanical resources -- and less on "what can we take from the earth and use" -- the capitalistic way ecology serves us. But it was no screed or ecological doomsday discussion about planet earth. Her talent is bringing those two worldviews together, especially for native students who walk in two very different cultures. 

Mosaic mural behind the amphitheater at the botanical garden

I can't and won't summarize what we heard at her talk and then at the botanical garden the next day -- it's way too complex and you really should go read her books. 

But I'll quote one thing she said about the earth and our time on it that is bouncing around my head:

We must become better ancestors than we are descendants.