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- NYT Best-Selling Author and Scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer Gives Free Lecture at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts
NYT Best-Selling Author and Scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer Gives Free Lecture at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts
Author of Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer blends scientific and Indigenous knowledge as a solution to ecological restoration
The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, Museum of Anthropology, Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies at UBC and the Vancouver Institute announced today that botanist, scientist, professor, and author Robin Wall Kimmerer will be a keynote speaker for the Dal Grauer Memorial Lecture on Thursday, September 26, 2024 at 6PM. For this event, Kimmerer will give a lecture and engage in a moderated Q & A at the Chan Centre. Tickets for the event are free, but registration is required. An enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Kimmerer has garnered worldwide acclaim for her holistic approach to ecological restoration, drawing on Indigenous knowledge and scientific research to frame sustainable solutions.
“It will be an honour to hear the healing words of Robin Wall Kimmerer. As an Indigenous person who also navigates the world of academia, I have found it gratifying to see Dr. Kimmerer’s ethos and framework being celebrated across the globe. Her teachings offer a beacon of hope for a sustainable future that not only listens to Indigenous voices, but champions them.”
Chan Centre director Pat Carrabré
A MacArthur Fellow, Kimmerer is best known for Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants. Originally published in 2013 by Milkweed Editions, the book became a hit almost entirely through word-of-mouth. Seven years after its publication, it landed on The New York Times best-selling paperback nonfiction list and remained there for an astonishing three years. To date, it has sold nearly 2 million copies and been translated into 20 languages. Forbes describes the book as a “must read for moving into our future.”
Kimmerer’s first book, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses, was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing, and has been adapted into an acclaimed book for young adults. Her latest book, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, is set for release in November 2024. As a professor and scientist, she has written numerous papers and books, and is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology. Using much of her own funding, Kimmerer founded the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. The Center’s mission is to create programs that draw on the wisdom of both Indigenous and scientific knowledge for our shared goals of sustainability.
Reserve your tickets here.
