The Skywoman story, shared by the original people's throughout the Greak Lakes, is a constant star in the constellation of teachings we call the Original Instructions. These are not 'instructions' like commandments, though, or rules; rather they are like a compass: they provide an orientation but not a map.
-Braiding Sweetgrass, Skywoman Falling (p.7).
Métis/Cree singer-songwriter Cheryl L’Hirondelle’s "gchi-miigwech maskihkiya" music video was directed by Shane Belcourt, produced by Michelle St. John and Jeremy Edwardes, shot by Sean Stiller, and edited by Francis Laliberte. The video features art work projects by acclaimed Métis artist Christi Belcourt. The work was inspired by Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass. (This music video is an excerpt from the TV documentary series AMPLIFY.)
Braiding: Lessons from Braiding Sweetgrass for Oboe and Electronics is a 10-minute work for oboe, electronics, and natural sounds, based on the writing of Robin Wall Kimmerer in Braiding Sweetgrass. It was composed by Asha Srinivasan and commissioned by oboist Sara Fraker, who premiered it in 2017.
Image of a portrait, "Skywoman, Moment in Flight" by Bruce King (Oneida) from the SUNY College for Environmental Science and Forestry website
"The mythic story of Skywoman Falling is the heartbeat of Braiding Sweetgrass, both an opening and a closing, enfolding the stories between. The version shared in the first edition is the most widely told account of the epic, but it is not the only one. There is always the deep diving Muskrat and the earth on Turtle’s back. The rescue by the Geese and the gifts of the animals are a constant, as are the seeds Skywoman brings, initiating the covenant of reciprocity between newcomer humans and our ancient relatives. The detail that varies from one telling to another is just how Skywoman finds herself falling from one world to the next. The common version is that she slips, the earth giving way at the edge of the hole in the sky where the great Tree of Life had fallen. It is an accident, with mythic consequences — and so it begins."
For those who would like to access an electronic version of the book.
Braiding Sweetgrass by For those who would like a physical copy of the book.
Braiding Sweetgrass by
As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. InBraiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on "a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise" (Elizabeth Gilbert). Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings--asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass--offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgmentand celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.
For those who would like to listen to the book.
Braiding Sweetgrass by
As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowing together to reveal what it means to see humans as "the younger brothers of creation." As she explores these themes, she circles toward a central argument: The awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgement and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the world. Once we begin to listen for the languages of other beings, we can begin to understand the innumerable life-giving gifts the world provides us and learn to offer our thanks, our care, and our own gifts in return.
Eugene Public Library provides unlimited access to the eBook and eAudiobook on Hoopla and Library2Go (via the Libby or OverDrive apps) as well as the print book. Anyone who lives within City of Eugene limits can get a free library card!
Students at our PDX campus may be able to get a Multnomah Library Card.
Students at UO's OIMB campus in Charleston may be able to get a Coos Bay Public Library card.
If any of the available formats do not meet your needs, please email altformat@uoregon.edu with an accessible alternate format request that specifies your preferred format.
For any access issues or questions, please get in touch with your librarians here at UO Libraries!
"All My Relations is a podcast hosted by Matika Wilbur (Swinomish and Tulalip) and Adrienne Keene (Cherokee Nation) to explore our relationships— relationships to land, to our creatural relatives, and to one another."
“Plants of the Gods: Hallucinogens, Healing, Culture and Conservation” is a new and unique podcast focusing on the hallucinogenic plants and fungi whose impact on world culture and religion – and healing potential - is only now beginning to be appreciated as never before. Unlike other podcasts relating to these issues, “Plants of the Gods” is hosted by renowned ethnobotanist Dr. Mark Plotkin, a Harvard and Yale-trained scientist who has been studying the healing plants and shamans of the Amazon rainforest for almost four decades. An award-winning scientist and best selling author, Dr, Plotkin is a spellbinding storyteller who will be speaking from personal experience and will be joined by other leaders in the field.
In each episode of this podcast (adapted from his popular YouTube and Facebook video series), James Vukelich Kaagegaabaw teaches one word, phrase, or concept from the Ojibwe language, and explores the Ojibwe spiritual and cultural perspectives that inform that term.
This Land is an award-winning documentary podcast about Native American tribal rights, treaties, and U.S. case law, hosted by Cherokee journalist Rebecca Nagle. Season 1 explored the history of tribal land allotments in Oklahoma and a 1999 murder that ultimately led to the landmark 2020 Supreme Court case McGirt v. Oklahoma, in which the court ruled that much of eastern Oklahoma remains Native American land. Season 2 investigates how the far right is using Native children to quietly dismantle American Indian tribes, through legal precedents aimed at challenging the Indian Child Welfare Act.
Kanien’kehá:ka actress Kaniehti:io Horn (Letterkenny, The Man in the High Castle) interviews her mom, Kahentinetha Horn, about her experiences as a First Nations activist in Canada, founding Canada's Indian Legal Defence Committee, and working with Marlon Brando in the 1970s.
Métis In Space hilariously deconstructs the science fiction genre through a decolonial lens. Join hosts Molly Swain & Chelsea Vowel as they review a sci-fi movie or television episode featuring Indigenous Peoples, tropes & themes, from a decolonial perspective.
1501 Kincaid Street
Eugene, OR 97403
P: 541-346-3053
F: 541-346-3485
