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The Earth's Blanket: Traditional Teachings for Sustainable Living. By Nancy J. Turner. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2005. 298 pp., $29.95, hardback, ISBN 0-295-98474-0.
Nancy J. Turner's most recent book, The Earth's Blanket is an excellent distillation of traditional teachings and narratives. This thoroughly researched book, divided into eight chapters and beautifully illustrated with images and sketches, is the result of her longtime work with aboriginal elders and cultural specialists in British Columbia, in which she artfully weaves in tales and examples from the seasonal calendars of indigenous societies throughout North America.
The traditional world views she presents are in conflict with many of the myths, ideologies, policies, and practices of industrial society. Her main purpose in writing is to describe critical cultural knowledge and information, as she did so eloquently in Plants of Haida Gwaii, and to translate the ethical approaches into life lessons for kincentric living. She realizes that, "As a non-indigenous person . . . [she] will never be able to achieve a perfect understanding" and recognizes "the need to avoid appropriating or assuming the knowledge of others [by] properly recognizing and acknowledging...