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An ambitious, earnest, heart-felt treatise on the much-needed ecological redemption of our planet – not based on a restorative tunnel-visioned scientific dogma which is destined to fail (as it has been, repeatedly), but integrating a newly-integrated indigenous perspective in which we, the Humans, (caretakers of old), live out our healing, (of both ourselves, and our surroundings), through a primal and recognized shared mutual relationship with our lands and waters.

“What would ancestral wisdom tell us about healing our planet if we listened and allowed ourselves to see beyond the confines of a singular worldview?”

Instead of relying on polarizing theoretical environmental stances on native plants (good), invasive weeds (bad), and the restoration plans and ecological goals to achieve this, the author, an academic and field practitioner in the science of ecology, as well as an indigenous woman, urges the reader to step back and listen – to Nature, to the web of dynamic relations existing within it, to the ancient stories we have access to, to respect and honor and gratitude, and to all the senses invoked as we allow feelings, intuition and spirit (long regarded as non-scientific, therefore invalid) to inform our experiential knowledge, and ultimately enable the wisdom to allow healing.

With this lens, ecological conversations expand to encompass community needs, nutritional content, aesthetic beauty, pollinators and their food, medicinal value, birds and butterflies and other animals, the influence of the sun, fish-seeding of our rivers, as we, ‘“bringers of balance, shapers of land and waters” take on a shared and now expanded role long carried by our indigenous partners before the environmental devastation preceded by colonization, and capitalism.

Whew. It’s an incredible read, and a point of view which is impossible to forget, once you’ve taken the time to take it in. And really taking it in requires listening, and being ready, to consider this issue seriously and holistically, as the author so passionately explains and advocates.

Highly recommended, this is a challenging read but an essential one, geared to all who are interested in a full-spectrum healing mindset. If we let it in, this long overdue and not-to-be-missed reset may fundamentally change the way we experience ourselves and our planet, – a stewardship we must take on, with the humility of our “beginner’s mind”, for our most intimate, and intrinsic life-partner.

“We don’t save the environment like a mission or hobby. We are the environment.”

A great big thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.