Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes through Indigenous Science

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I need to ponder how I present science lessons to students and if I am providing space to listen to their knowledge and experience rather than glorifying a Western science model. Permaculture is something that you can get certified in, but not necessarily understand that it is Indigenous knowledge. In certain areas of Thailand, most notably the southern regions, Banana Leaf features high on the list of staple ingredients used in the preparation of local dishes. She started by giving background about the hardships that indigenous people of Mexico and South America were facing and bringing in some of their environmental concepts and why those concepts aren’t taken seriously in todays society in relation to those hardships. The traditional Puerto Rican pasteles is an example of a recipe using banans leaves as a wrap, but other similar tamales throughout Latin America use these leaves as containers for grains, beans, meat, and vegetables.

Fresh Banana Leaves — An Indigenous Approach To Science Fresh Banana Leaves — An Indigenous Approach To Science

Before placing any food on a banana leaf or arranging some on the table, rinse well with hot water and pat dry. I am planning to pursue environmental studies and I was missing Indigenous perspectives in my education and overall major. Place enough filling for one serving in the center of the leaf, then fold like a handkerchief to make a square packet.

I know she is not necessarily wrong, but it is my opinion that when writing a book on an issue like conservation, that requires everyone’s attention and effort, we should not be discouraging entire groups of people. the pages are filled with lessons from nature and the wisdom of an author whose lived experience offers so much more than traditional Western schooling. Maybe if I could engage in some dialogue around this book with someone, I might feel more value from it. I found this book repetitive (with the same examples and explanations used in multiple chapters) and in need of more citations.

Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes through Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes through

Jessica Hernandez's new book examines the role of displacement — Indigenous peoples like her father, who was displaced by the civil war in El Salvador, and plants like the banana tree, brought from Asia to Central America — in science. I assumed it would be an overview of things we should be doing to correct our relationship with the environment across the board and in many different areas….

We have been displaced from our native and ancestral lands and forced to adapt to our new environments and form new kinships with our new land. I really did feel her stories on colonialism were valuable; in addition her vulnerable explanations on the spiritual connections she and her people have to plant-life.

Fresh Banana Leaves by Jessica Hernandez, Ph.D Fresh Banana Leaves by Jessica Hernandez, Ph.D

Hernandez discusses how conservation as a scientific field needs to acknowledge how colonialism makes these practices necessary and how it still informs methodology. Hernandez says “An example I want to share that demonstrates how our Indigenous science is different is how we view invasive species.Place a portion of the protein in the leaf, and add the veggies of your choice (sliced carrots, broccolini, cauliflower, peppers, onions). The child soldier, a member of the Maya Ch’orti’ group indigenous to the region, made a crutch from a branch of the tree and limped toward Guatemala, toward freedom. It also sometimes displaces many people because they have to leave their ancestral lands to find better economic opportunities.

Fresh Banana Leaves - Jessica Hernandez Fresh Banana Leaves - Jessica Hernandez

What I realized as I read the book was that from an Indigenous lens, things aren't easily put in boxes; the environment, gender, health, etc.

The sentence-level writing is hard to parse, a combination of academic obfuscation and malapropisms. Ultimately my biggest dislike was the blame game (and apparently everyone was to blame as well as everything) and at times this sounded like one of the politcal books I read from time to time where all the woes of the world came from the other guys.