Exploring Restoration and Reciprocity with Robin Wall Kimmerer

Robin Wall Kimmerer, acclaimed author of “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants” and her newest book, “The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World,” will share her thoughtful and powerful message about restoration, reciprocity and our connection to nature. A MacArthur Fellow, distinguished ecologist and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Kimmerer weaves together Indigenous wisdom and scientific knowledge in her storytelling that invites us to rethink how we care for the land and each other. Don’t miss this inspiring conversation with one of today’s most influential environmental voices.

A book signing will follow with copies of “The Serviceberry” available for purchase. 

Bur Oak Land Trust staff invite you to arrive early to connect with Robin at The Englert Lounge. Enjoy appetizers and a complimentary beverage along with a special book signing, and reserved seats for the talk. Books will be available for purchase.

This event is part of Bur Oak Land Trust’s Prairie Preview, celebrating 40 years of community building for environmental action in Iowa. Bur Oak Land Trust is an environmental nonprofit dedicated to preserving and restoring land in eastern Iowa, enhancing biodiversity for both people and wildlife. 

Robin bio:

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, which has earned Kimmerer wide acclaim. Her first book, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses, was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing, and her other work has appeared in Orion, Whole Terrain, and numerous scientific journals. In 2022, Braiding Sweetgrass was adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith. This new edition reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth’s oldest teachers: the plants around us. Robin’s newest book, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World (November 2024), is a bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world.

Robin tours widely and has been featured on NPR’s On Being with Krista Tippett and in 2015 addressed the general assembly of the United Nations on the topic of “Healing Our Relationship with Nature.” Kimmerer is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, whose mission is to create programs which draw on the wisdom of both indigenous and scientific knowledge for our shared goals of sustainability. In 2022 she was named a MacArthur Fellow.

As a writer and a scientist, her interests in restoration include not only restoration of ecological communities, but restoration of our relationships to land. She holds a BS in Botany from SUNY ESF, an MS and PhD in Botany from the University of Wisconsin and is the author of numerous scientific papers on plant ecology, bryophyte ecology, traditional knowledge and restoration ecology. As a writer and a scientist, her interests in restoration include not only restoration of ecological communities, but restoration of our relationships to land. She lives on an old farm in upstate New York, tending gardens both cultivated and wild.