Growing Papaya Trees: Nurturing Indigenous Roots During Climate Displacement

By Jessica Hernandez Ph.D.

Leading Binniz 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 issueThe interconnectedness of natural disasters, sociopolitical turmoil, and forced migrationOur oceans, our forests, and our Indigenous futuresMoving Indigenous science from mere acknowledgement into real actionHow to nourish Indigenous roots when displaced beyond borders
Dr. Hernandez asks: what does it mean to be Indigenous when we're separated from our lands? How do we nurture future generations knowing they, too, will have to live away from their ancestral places? She illuminates that cultures are not lost, even amid genocide, turmoil, war, and climate displacement--and shows us how to be better kin to each other against the ecological violence, colonial oppression, and distorted status quo of the Global North.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0DWWCN64Y
• ISBN13: 9798889840978
• Release Date: November 2025
• Publisher: North Atlantic Books
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 8.9"