Growing Papaya Trees

Leading Binnizá and Maya Ch''orti'' scientist Jessica Hernandez, PhD, weaves together Indigenous knowledge, environmental science, and personal family stories in her highly anticipated follow-up to the LA Times best-seller Fresh Banana Leaves.

Not every environmental problem is a result of climate change, but every environmental and climate change problem is a result of colonialism.

Dr. Jessica Hernandez offers readers an Indigenous, Global-South lens on the climate crisis, delivering a compelling and urgent exploration of its causes—and its costs. She shares how the impacts of colonial climate catastrophe—from warming oceans to forced displacement of settler ontologies—can only be addressed at the root if we reorient toward Indigenous science and follow the lead of Indigenous peoples and communities.

Growing Papaya Trees explores:

• Energy as a sociopolitical issue
• The interconnectedness of natural disasters, sociopolitical turmoil, and forced migration
• Our oceans, our forests, and our Indigenous futures
• Moving Indigenous science from mere acknowledgement into real action
• How to nourish Indigenous roots when displaced beyond borders