Lessons from Sweetgrass: Indigenous Stewardship of Adirondack Plants

Photograph of Robin Wall Kimmerer
Robin Wall Kimmerer

Monday, January 16, 2017 • 5:30 TO 6:30 PM  Nott Memorial • Free and open to the public 

A lecture by Robin Wall Kimmerer

This talk introduces the wealth of culturally significant plants of the Adirondack region, from forest to wetlands. Kimmerer will explore the philosophy and practices of indigenous stewardship, which creates and maintains biodiversity. The lessons of traditional ecological knowledge continue to be a source of guidance for renewing a respectful relationship with the natural world.

Dr. Kimmerer is a mother, plant ecologist, writer and SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York. She serves as the founding Director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, whose mission is to create programs that draw on the wisdom of both indigenous and scientific knowledge for our shared goals of sustainability, and is engaged in programs that introduce the benefits of traditional ecological knowledge to the scientific community in a way that respects and protects indigenous knowledge.
 
She is the author of Gathering Moss which incorporates both traditional indigenous knowledge and scientific perspectives and was awarded the prestigious John Burroughs Medal for Nature Writing in 2005. Her latest book Braiding Sweetgrass: indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants was released in 2013 and was awarded the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award. She has served as writer in residence at the Andrews Experimental Forest, Blue Mountain Center, the Sitka Center and the Mesa Refuge. 
 
As a writer and a scientist, her interests in restoration include not only restoration of ecological communities, but restoration of our relationships to land.
Photo courtesy of Andrea McDonald