Learning from the land and from the arts

Abstract

Author, botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Robin Wall Kimmerer looks at the world both through the lens of a scientist and through the more spiritual lens of indigenous knowledge. Her short chapter ‘Epiphany in the Beans’ in her book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the eachings of Plants (2013) begins by telling readers that the author discovered “the secret of happiness” (p. 121) while picking beans. Kimmerer compares the land to a mother who “loves us with beans and tomatoes, with roasting ears and blackberries and birdsongs” (p. 122). She goes on: “This is why I made my daughters learn to garden—so they would always have a mother to love them, long after I am gone” (p.122). This deep understanding of the ‘motherly’ nature of the land leads the author to reflect in this chapter about scientific esearch and its quest for certainty. In principle, her scientific self would be expected to avoid discussions of ‘love’ and focus instead on hard evidence, cause and effect and the manipulation of environmental conditions. Yet, the author’s conviction that gardens “are simultaneously a material and a spiritual undertaking” (p. 123) sustains a broader worldview, coloured by the belief that plants have domesticated humans just as much as humans have domesticated plants over the centuries. It is this special and ancient bond built out of a sense of reciprocity and partnership that makes Kimmerer think of the land as a loving mother. As we maintain and nurture gardens, they reciprocate by nurturing our health and well-being. Plants are nurses and also teachers.