Santa Fe Botanical Garden and Institute of American Indian Arts welcome well-known author Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer to Santa Fe

July 1, 2022

Robin Wall Kimmerer

The Santa Fe Botanical Garden and Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) are honored to welcome well-known author Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer to Santa Fe for in-person events on Wednesday, August 31, and Thursday, September 1, 2022. She will visit the IAIA campus on August 31 and speak there that evening in the Performing Arts and Fitness Center; her talk will be livestreamed. On Sept. 1 she will visit Santa Fe Botanical Garden at Museum Hill for engaging outdoor conversations surrounding the themes of her book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.

Dr. Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, best-selling author, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She lives in Fabius, NY, where she is a State University of New York (SUNY) Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.

As a botanist, Dr. Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature, using the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers.

Her insights merge these two lenses of knowledge to “illuminate the path to an expanded ecological consciousness by acknowledging and celebrating our reciprocal relationship with the entirety of the living world.”

Only when we awaken to hear the languages and teachings of other beings can we begin to understand the generosity of the earth, while humbly learning to give in return.

The Santa Fe Botanical Garden, IAIA, and our sponsors hope you will join us in welcoming Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer for an extraordinary opportunity to listen and learn as we acknowledge the imperative of “embracing new medicine” to heal our broken relationship with the world. We seek to imagine a relationship in which people and land are good medicine for each other.

Dr. Kimmerer’s visit to Santa Fe, as our friend, teacher, and guest, is generously underwritten by Paul Eitner and Denise Roy, the Garden, IAIA and other supporters in our community. Please follow the social media of the Garden and IAIA the next several weeks as details of this special occasion unfold.