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| Jennifer Grenz, PhD | |
Working toward ecological healing requires awareness of how Indigenous ancestral knowledge and living ways can complement Western scientific approaches to environmental restoration and protection practices. Dr. Jennifer Grenz (Nlaxa’pamux mixed ancestry) worked for more than two decades as a field researcher and practitioner for environmental nonprofit organizations, where she worked with different levels of government, including First Nations in Canada. "Medicine Wheel for the Planet" compiles Grenz’s most potent realizations about the lack of forward movement in addressing an impending ecological catastrophe.
A warming climate impacts not only human lives but also the natural balance that relies on reciprocal relationships rooted in deep connections to the land. She uses the metaphor of the four directions of the Indigenous “medicine wheel” to invite openness to Indigenous teachings, letting go of colonial narratives, merging lessons from new and old ways, and applying a relational approach to ecological healing. Grenz has important lessons to share with practitioners in her field and with the rest of us who care deeply about climate change. She challenges the notion of a dominant, singular solution to caring for the planet.
Against Western practices in her field, she contrasts the Indigenous worldviews that value purposeful relationships and interdependence. I reviewed the book from the lens of my own decolonial journey, making sense of my complicity in settler colonial structures that uphold harmful systems that undermine progress toward ecological healing. Grenz walks us through her process of unlearning the constraints of her Western education and its emphasis on objectivity and neutrality. Those charged with protecting land and waters must practice humility and learn from Indigenous elders and communities. The medicine wheel requires expanding our field of view from a human-centric approach that prizes scientific knowledge at the expense of ancestral ways of knowing. Grenz challenges readers to consider a decolonial, Indigenized worldview that decenters human needs and takes important lessons from plant and animal communities.
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