Howard E. Woodin ES Colloquium Series

“The Honorable Harvest: Indigenous Knowledge for Biodiversity Conservation” by Robin Kimmerer, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental and Forest Biology and Director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.

The most pressing environmental challenges we face, as a global society, lie at the intersection of natural ecosystems and human cultures. There is growing evidence that the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of indigenous peoples offers concepts, models, philosophies and practices which can inform the design of new sustainability solutions. Drawing on her life as an indigenous plant scientist, a teacher, a writer and a mother, Kimmerer will lecture on topics found in her award-winning book “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants” in which she shows how plants offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices. In traditional ecological knowledge, plants are regarded not only as persons, but as among our oldest teachers. If plants are our teachers, what are they teaching us and how can we be better students? In a rich braid of ecological science, indigenous philosophy and literary reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she explores and celebrates the material and cultural gifts of plants and our responsibilities for reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world.

Sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program, the Franklin Environmental Center, and the Breadloaf Environmental Writers’ Conference