The BCIT Unlearning Club Month Five: May

Worldview tensions and a book review 

This month we were invited to reflect on tensions between Indigenous worldviews and settler colonial worldviews. Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass is a wonderful window into the authors personal struggles with a system that by design excludes Indigenous ways of knowing. As a member of the Potawatomi nation as well as a botanist and professor of plant ecology Kimmerer examines both identities and “reveals what it means to see humans as “the younger brothers of creation.” 

Braiding Sweetgrass is a poetic blend of Indigenous wisdom and scientific insight that invites readers to see nature not as a resource, but as a relative. Through vivid storytelling and botanical knowledge, Kimmerer explores three powerful themes really spoke to me: 

Nature as relationship — not a thing to study, but a community we belong to. 

Gifts as the foundation of ecological ethics — receiving from the Earth means we must give back in gratitude and care. 

Being a good ancestor – living today in ways that honour generations past and protect generations to come. 

This book is a love letter to the Earth and a call to live with reciprocity, reverence, and responsibility. A must-read for anyone seeking hope and purpose in the face of ecological crisis. I also recommend the YA version: Braiding sweetgrass for young adults: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants. 

Thank you for continuing on this journey with me. The content can sometimes bring up uncomfortable feelings. Acknowledging these feelings and being curious about them is an important piece. Find friends or colleagues who share your curiosity and willingness to learn. Unlearning happens when there is a community working towards positive change together.  At least, that is my experience. 

Resources for month five 

Deep dive 

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Kimmerer https://bcit.on.worldcat.org/oclc/829743464 

Quick dip 

Lekwungen: Place to Smoke Herring (video, 14m48s) https://vimeo.com/275788251 

Related resources 

Therapeutic Nations: Healing in an Age of Indigenous Human Rights, (book) by Dian Million https://vpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S38C3566127 

Practising sustainable self-determination: Indigenous approaches to cultural restoration and revitalization (article) https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:1078716/PDF/