Mining rewards?
What is mining and how is it affecting our lives in Australia? Seems an awkward thing for a weaver to be thinking about, so I’m weaving a series of textiles about ‘mining’.
We are very near to some of the mining which has overtuned our beautiful valleys into denuded landscapes, taking what lies below the ground by digging open cut on the surface. It’s brutal, painful to see. There is a alot of history and political entanglements which have brought this, or similar, to us repeatedly in some form. It’s about how the land is seen, often as only an opportunity for financial investment and how we view ourselves in the mix. Hopefully some good will come from it and these things can be passed to our future communities. I am frightened that it won’t be the case.
Interestingly, my first scarf off the loom is lovely. It’s soft and very light weighing only 70g. Woven and ‘painted’ in silk, hand dyed silk, wool and stainless steel/wool. Perhaps the steel came from an Australian mine. It’s part of the warp or ‘land’ structure with entines of wool, and even cloth fully formed. It’s full of hope and beauty.
Not a day goes by without our hearing how much better life is in Australia because of your mining these days. I don’t mind it if it’s whole families having a lovely life, but too often it’s families separated just while Dad makes enough money to they can buy a house or start a fam of because there are no jobs in NZ. This government wants to mine NZ, and are almost targeting Conservation land. Our PM is also our tourist minister, but he’s far more interested in NZ Inc improving its balance sheet by creating opportunities for his mates to buy up bits of NZ. While NZ wants to catch up with Oz, apparently there’s resistance to being your 8th (??) state.
I don’t think there is enough emphasis/efforts going into reducing the use of natural resources in general, though. Such a lovely scarf from an ugly subject!!