Dybiosis to Pluriversebiosis Blog #3

      The chapter Mishkos Kenomagwen: The Teachings of Grass in Robin Wall-Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass shows how Western-based the scientific community is. The research project described in the chapter is based on traditional knowledge of the importance of harvesting sweetgrass. When the research proposal was submitted, lots of criticism was placed on the fact that the background information came from oral knowledge and that it seemed to rehash established science. This criticism comes from the fact that 'science' comes from Western ideas of data and objectivity. 
       The results showed that research based off of traditional information, conducted with Western methods of measurements, control variables, etc... is feasible. In fact, we need to move away from not just a single disciplinary view to a transdisciplinary view but also to a non-Western view. Traditional views such as Native American knowledge is often not even counted as a discipline despite the hundreds of years of observations and knowledge sharing.

-Sean Kraemer