When I first heard about the new book Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask; Anishinaabe Botanical Teachings by Mary Siisip Geniusz, Wendy Makoons Geniusz, and Annmarie Geniusz, my mind immediately lept back to a previous ethnobotanical work I read a few years ago: Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Gathering Moss; A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses – a book I found both fascinating and profound.
So when a copy of Plants arrived on my desk from the University of Minnesota Press, I was not entirely surprised to discover that the top laudatory comment printed across its back cover was from none other than Professor Kimmerer herself (although referenced as the author of her most recent book Braiding Sweetgrass).
Needless to state, with a recommendation from an author whose knowledge and writing skills on the same subject as this present book I very much respect, I am indeed very eager to get reading Plants to see what its authors have to say about the Anishinaabe tradition and its use of native plants.
