In Potawatomi, the word “Aakibmaadiziiwin” translates into “being of the Earth.” There is no equivalent word in English. Potawatomi Indigenous woman and botany professor Robin Kimmerer explains how the nearly extinct language is a language of animacy — a semantic and grammatical concept that expresses language according to how alive the noun is. Kimmerer explains that listening to a bird occurs with a different verb than hearing a plane, however insects, berries and animals are referred to with the same grammatical value as a human. Unlike English, a language whose grammatical principals have worked to objectify, extract from, and colonize the Earth and the animal world, Potawatomi does not refer to nature, critters, and plants as “it.” Historically, these same English grammatical mechanisms aided in determining slaves as three-fifths human and women less human than men. Instead, Kimmerer provides an outstanding articulation of the revolutionary potential an Indigenous language brings to human and environmental life. Photo credit: Simen Johan, Courtesy Yossi Gallery, New York
