I was drawn to this book because she was interviewed in one of Jonathan Van Ness' podcast episodes, where she presents a much kinder view of invasive species - that of a displaced relative, which makes much more sense in the settler-indigenous landscape we occupy. I really enjoyed how it also did not romanticize Indigenous communities like other Indigenous environmental books I have read before. I was expecting to learn more about what I, as a white person living on indigenous land, could do to “heal indigenous landscapes through indigenous sciences.

Jessica Hernandez - HOME

Adding to the problem, Hernandez puts Desmond Tutu's quote about swapping the land for the Bible, along with less well attributed truisms, into the mouth of her wise grandmother; and she translates interviews with her father into English nearly literally, making him sound ignorant and fractured in ways I'm sure he didn't in the original.Partly this is due to the apparent lack of an editor, both at the line level and at chapter/book level.

Fresh Thai Banana Leaf (leaves) 200g Imported Weekly from Fresh Thai Banana Leaf (leaves) 200g Imported Weekly from

The western sciences teach us that invasive plants are pests, unwanted, or do not belong in this landscape. Here, Jessica Hernandez–Maya Ch’orti’ and Zapotec environmental scientist and founder of environmental agency Piña Soul–introduces and contextualizes Indigenous environmental knowledge and proposes a vision of land stewardship that heals rather than displaces, that generates rather than destroys. Hernandez also claims at one point that she cannot speak for all indigenous people, but that's kind of what she seems to do at multiple points in the book (e. i found it really jarring at times and had to go back multiple times to reread passages to make sense of the narrative. During the civil war in El Salvador that began in the 1970s, an injured Victor Hernandez hid from falling bombs beneath the fronds of a banana tree.

Look at the contributors of why a certain species is declining, and sometimes it’s not even that people are overharvesting — it’s climate change and other environmental impacts we tend to ignore. Hernandez has a lot of good information and important points packed in here, but they are presented in a repetitive, disorganized, and confusing manner. I do realize that racial issues need to be talked about, but in the case of this book, all conservation issues were dropped to speak about racism, which in that case then this book should have been marketed as one on race with a bit of conservation thrown in there, not the other way around.

Fresh Banana Leaves‘ shows how conservation has harmed ‘Fresh Banana Leaves‘ shows how conservation has harmed

She also talks more about the classic construct of conservation as we know it today saying, “conservation is a western construct that was created as a result of settlers over exploiting indigenous lands, natural resources, and depleting entire ecosystems. She has a wealth of knowledge and a perspective I have not heard nearly enough from so I will look forward to what she does next. The example I brought up in the book is how a white man went to the Aboriginal community [in Australia], learned about “permaculture” [a type of self-sustaining farming system that requires minimal input from people, unlike labor-intensive, single-crop agriculture] and came back and was deemed a “founder. I know the author discusses (twice) that she doesn't believe that her personal experience as an Indigenous woman needs citations, and I agree!Wrap the pouch in a square and secure the packet with toothpicks, or simply place the packet "seam-side" down to keep it from opening while baking.

Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes Thro… Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes Thro…

An Indigenous environmental scientist breaks down why western conservationism isn't working--and offers Indigenous models informed by case studies, personal stories, and family histories that center the voices of Latin American women and land protectors.

All I can think of is that, like me and many Indigenous peoples in the diaspora, banana trees have also been displaced. For example, they may be used to wrap fish before it is barbequed or to hold rice which is being steamed or baked.