MARQUETTE, Mich.— Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants, will participate in an evening of storytelling and give a keynote presentation at Northern Michigan University. Her book is the featured selection for NMU’s Diversity Common Reader Program.

Kimmerer and local storytellers will participate in a special session of “Storytelling by Native American Women” from 6-9 p.m. Monday, March 30, in the Whitman Hall commons.  She will deliver a keynote presentation titled “The Honorable Harvest: Indigenous Knowledge and Conservation” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 31 in 1100 Jamrich Hall. Both events are free and open to the public.

Kimmerer is an enrolled member of Citizen Band Potawatomi and distinguished professor of environmental biology at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. She is founding director of the SUNY-ESF Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, whose mission is to create programs that draw on the wisdom of both indigenous and scientific knowledge for shared goals of sustainability. 

Her previous writings include Gathering Moss, which incorporates both traditional indigenous knowledge and scientific perspectives and was awarded the prestigious John Burroughs Medal for Nature Writing in 2005.