Pixelated Semantics

The house that hemp built, on the land that we keep stealing

There is a the hemp house industry developing quietly in Australia. The project organiser points out it's not a new product; ancient Egyptians used to seal tombs with hemp. The hemp is ground to powder and mixed with lime to create concrete, then poured into formwork where the mix sets, apparently similar to a rammed-earth style of building. It's clearly a more environmentally sustainable method of building than current construction methods. On the other side of sustainability however is the news that the Federal pseudo-Government's "National Indigenous Council" yesterday reportedly discussed giving Aboriginal people private ownership of communal land, leading to concern that this may be the first sign of a lack of representation of Aboriginal people since the abolition of ATSIC in favour of the new council. Private ownership in this context represents the destruction of thousands of years of tribal and cultural law and custom, and would probably see the complete disappearance of Kooris as distinct people in fairly short order.

Item posted by AutoEditor at 9:52 am ::