Reading Fresh Banana Leaves by Dr. Jessica Hernández

Indigenous science

I thought I had at least some notion of what “Indigenous science” meant, but turns out: I didn’t know the half of it. And I think one important step in beginning to learn more about this is letting go of the need to put everything into neat boxes and labels, which is also one of the things Dr. Hernández raises: western science is used to “taxonomizing” (if I may) everything, but Mother Earth is more interconnected than that. Human beings understood this for millennia, but somewhere along the way some/many of us lost touch with Nature and with the understanding that nothing exists in isolation.

I’ve seen many criticisms of this book from people who expected a sort of “how-to guide” for using Indigenous knowledge. But one of the points Dr. Jessica Hernández repeats throughout the book is exactly that Indigenous peoples are not a monolith. There is no universal practice that can simply be copied and pasted anywhere in the world as if it were a recipe. And we also cannot ignore how many times Indigenous knowledge has been stolen, appropriated, commercialized, and exploited without giving anything back.

Western conservation has racist origins. This is not a secret, and it is already recognized within conservation science itself—even if it still makes some people uncomfortable. Just like we talk about climate justice and understand that there is no climate solution without climate justice, the same applies to conservation: conservation of what, how, for whom, and by whom?

There is so much work to do in every part of the world that continuing with top-down, white savior approaches is just absurd. There already are inclusive, respectful, science-based and community-led approaches to conservation. This book brings forward perspectives that are still too often sidelined in academia, and which we should read more of.

I’m not an Indigenous person, but even simply for being Central American I was on the receiving end of some wildly ignorant comments during my brief academic experience in the EU. I can only imagine the experiences Indigenous peoples continue to face in Academia (and elsewhere). Through the lived experiences shared in this book by Dr. Hernández and the people she interviewed, I think many of us who are not Indigenous—but who still move through these academic and/or conservation spaces—must confront how often Indigenous scholars are expected to justify, translate, or reshape their knowledge so it can fit western academic frameworks before it is considered “valid” and “publishable”. And more importantly, it is also a reminder that people like you and I have work to do too.

Bananas and identities

Banana and plantain plants originated in tropical regions of Asia and were introduced to Central America in the 1500s. Despite that physical and temporal distance—and despite the deeply political and violent history of the banana industry in our region—Dr. Hernández uses this plant as the thread that weaves together this incredibly important book. This “foreign” plant, which helped save her father during the Salvadoran civil war, becomes a symbol of resilience, adaptability, migration, and identity.

And there’s one story I kept thinking about while reading this. In 2019, I took my partner to Guatemala for the first time and we visited Salto de Chilascó. From where we parked to the entrance of the park, we passed through some plantations. I translated our guide’s answers as he explained that all those fields were worked by people from the local community…but the land did not belong to them. And everything was for export.

There was broccoli everywhere at the time. My partner asked what kinds of dishes people cooked with broccoli in the region, a question that also left me wondering without a clue, then the guide answered: none. It all went abroad. Only a few months each year were they “allowed” (his literal words, nos permiten) to grow food for the community itself. This is the case for most of the country. Which brings me to another constant thought as a white-passing Central American living in Europe: what am I buying, and who is this harming? A question that goes around my head every time I’m in the supermarket, which frustratingly is not always straightforward to answer/trace. Maybe a question not everyone thinks about yet…until you’re there, asking a local person these questions…or reading books like this one.

Final thoughts…

There’s a “trend” at the moment that the author also contemplates and that is the romanticization of traditional Indigenous practices…while failing to repair something much more fundamental: land rights. Especially in the settler colonialism model that is still most of the American continent. Paraphrasing one idea from an interview quoted in the book: “faced with climate change, Indigenous communities are often asked: “why not return to your traditional practices?” But the real question is: “On what land?” “.

I’ve also read many complaints about the lack of editing in this book. Honestly, there are so many gems and important reflections in it that I hope that doesn’t stop people from sticking with it. And even that criticism made me think about something Dr. Hernández repeatedly asks throughout the book: why must knowledge always bend to western ways of communicating and structuring it? And to the people who finished this book wanting “tips” on how to use Indigenous knowledge for conservation or climate solutions…I think the point was entirely missed.

5/5 recommend. Everyone in Academia, conservation, and Central America (in any way and relation to the region) should read this.