Reciprocity also finds form in cultural practices such as polyculture farming, where plants that exchange nutrients and offer natural pest control are cultivated together. Kimmerer explains how reciprocity is reflected in Native languages, which impart animacy to natural entities such as bodies of water and forests, thus reinforcing respect for nature. The sun and the moon are acknowledged, for instance. One chapter is devoted to the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address, a formal expression of gratitude for the roles played by all living and non-living entities in maintaining a habitable environment. She shares the many ways Indigenous peoples enact reciprocity, that is, foster a mutually beneficial relationship with their surroundings. Moving deftly between scientific evidence and storytelling, Kimmerer reorients our understanding of the natural world. In Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (2013), Kimmerer employs the metaphor of braiding wiingaashk, a sacred plant in Native cultures, to express the intertwined relationship between three types of knowledge: TEK, the Western scientific tradition, and the lessons plants have to offer if we pay close attention to them. As such, humans' relationship with the natural world must be based in reciprocity, gratitude, and practices that sustain the Earth, just as it sustains us. It is centered on the interdependency between all living beings and their habitats and on humans’ inherent kinship with the animals and plants around them. TEK refers to the body of knowledge Indigenous peoples cultivate through their relationship with the natural world.
She brings to her scientific research and writing her lived experience as a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and the principles of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK).
Trained as a botanist, Kimmerer is an expert in the ecology of mosses and the restoration of ecological communities. Robin Wall Kimmerer is a plant ecologist, educator, and writer articulating a vision of environmental stewardship grounded in scientific and Indigenous knowledge.
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