Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask

Anishinaabe Botanical Teachings

By: Mary Siisip Geniusz, Wendy Makoons Geniusz - editor

Narrated by: Wendy Makoons Geniusz

Mary Siisip Geniusz has spent more than thirty years working with, living with, and using the Anishinaabe teachings, recipes, and botanical information, she shares in Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask. Geniusz gained much of the knowledge she writes about from her years as an oshkaabewis, a traditionally trained apprentice, and as friend to the late Keewaydinoquay, an Anishinaabe medicine woman from the Leelanau Peninsula in Michigan and a scholar, teacher, and practitioner in the field of native ethnobotany. Keewaydinoquay published little in her lifetime, yet Geniusz has carried on her legacy by making this body of knowledge accessible to a broader audience.

Geniusz teaches the ways she was taught-through stories. Sharing the traditional stories she learned at Keewaydinoquay's side as well as stories from other American Indian traditions and her own experiences, Geniusz brings the plants to life with narratives that explain their uses, meaning, and history. Covering a wide range of plants, from conifers to cattails to medicinal uses of yarrow, mullein, and dandelion, she explains how we can work with those beings to create food, simple medicines, and practical botanical tools.

©2015 Mary Siisip Geniusz (P)2023 Tantor

Clear understanding of the presented material

This book was a joy to listen to. Facts presented with much overlapping of source material. Mary Siisip Geniusz’s Anishinaabe teachings come to life in her stories intertwined with the facts and uses of native plants. Good source of teaching information for outdoor travels.

Use of plants

I’d like to see pictures of the plants. The pictures would help to see what the plants look like.

The reader was terrific and gave life to simple statements with her voice inflections and enthusiasm.

I liked knowing more about individual plants of Eastern North America.I also enjoyed the authors fantastical stories containing the lore of the indigenous tribes.

I learned so much!

I learned so much about botany and herbology, plus I finally understand how knowledge can be passed through stories so I learned about people too. I just wish the audio book had a PDF with the recipes! It's spring and now I find myself looking closely at every little plant and seeing white pine trees as graceful ladies. I've studied nature all my life but this book has really made my relationship with plants more meaningful. Thanks grandmother!

Performance is by her daughter so it’s a very genuine telling of the stories.

Really an incredible book all around. 10/10 The knowledge in this book is worth its weight in gold.