The healing power of hemp
Four wahine Maori have a plan to create environmentally friendly housing and sustainable rural jobs, while uplifting Maori communities across Aotearoa. Benn Bathgate reports.
Te Rana Porter is on a mission to tackle problems on Tu¯ hoe’s doorstep, and she reckons hemp is the key.
She’s one of the directors of Hinemaia Hemp, which she described as ‘‘a group of women determined to address global issues, from a very local start’’.
In a nutshell, the plan is simple.
The start-up plans to grow and harvest hemp, which will then be processed and used as an environmentally friendly and sustainable house-building material, creating a tribal farming collective along the way.
The Sunday Star-Times caught up with Porter and fellow directors Gina Kora, Marewa Titoko and Emma Kutia at Tu¯ hoe’s Te Kura Whare, where they spelled out their vision for a thriving iwi hemp-farming sector.
Kora said the problems they saw on their doorstep such as a lack of jobs and homes, and the social ills that could follow, along with under-utilised land plus an increasing concern about the impacts of climate change, all led them to one possible solution: Hemp farming.
‘‘We see how this can transform our small, rural communities and people,’’ she said.
While they’re unapologetic about starting with Tu¯ hoe, the kaupapa is meant to be shared.
‘‘Iwi across the country are confronted with similar social and economic and environmental issues. We’re starting locally, but our vision will always be for all.’’
The wa¯ hine believe the plant can heal people through jobs and healthier homes, as well as the whenua.
‘‘It’s also about reconnecting our people to the land. We have a lot of land in Te Waimana underutilised,’’ said Kutia.
‘‘We’re known as tangata whenua, people of the land. It’s about retaining and reviving some of those concepts for us as a people when we used to live in a collective.’’
They have already harvested their first crop of hemp and plans are under way for a second, larger-scale planting in October or November, to be harvested by the following March.
They are also in the process of a capital raise of up to $400,000 to fund the processing machine that transforms the hemp stalk into Hempcrete, a bio-composite mix of hemp and lime that is used for construction and
The women had to jump through several regulatory hoops before being allowed to grow hemp by the Ministry of Health and MedSafe, because the plant is lumped in with cannabis and associated drug laws. First there was the $511 fee, then stipulations that the hemp couldn’t be grown where it could be seen from a road, couldn’t be within five kilometres of a school or residential home, and the process started anew for each new site.
‘‘They make it extremely hard to grow this amazing plant,’’ said Kora.
The regulatory blocks have also been noted by Manu Caddie, co-founder of Rua Bioscience and member of the Medicinal Cannabis Council.
‘‘There are some regulations that have no logical basis but are solely in place because officials have interpreted the international narcotics control agreements in one way instead of another,’’ he said.
‘‘For example, licensed industrial hemp growers can only use the stalk and de-hulled hemp seed, they have to destroy the rest of the flower where most of the cannabinoids reside.
‘‘On the other hand, medicinal cannabis growers cultivating identical plants cannot use the stalks or seeds for food or fibre – they can only produce medicines from the flower, and must destroy insulation. any unused plant material.
‘‘So the idea of dual cropping is extremely appealing for hemp growers and medicine manufacturers, as it would utilise a huge volume of precious cannabinoids that are currently just composted.’’
Regulations aside, the wa¯hine of Hinemaia Hemp felt their kaupapa was catching on.
Titoko said their first crop was grown on land offered by a Tu¯ hoe hapu, something she said was a significant sign of support, and talks are ongoing with Crown Research Institute Scion around alternative binders to lime.
NZ Hemp Industries Association chairman Richard Barge said if stumbling blocks were cleared the plant could be Aotearoa’s ‘‘next billion-dollar industry’’.
He said hemp had uses in construction, food and nutrition.
‘‘The clean green image, we can play on that.’’
For Joel van Riel, co-founder of Eckhard Construction, the country’s only commercial hemp builder, hemp is ‘‘an amazing, sustainable product’’.
‘‘It’s low-toxicity; everything is natural, breathable, [and] moderates humidity in a room.’’
Riel said one hemp-based home was in an area where temperatures can reach minus 6 degrees Celsius, but the house sat at 21 degrees.
He said hemp, thanks to the carbon it absorbed, was a ‘‘carbon-negative’’ product and prevented significant construction waste.
‘‘Research suggests this is a building material for the future.’’
‘‘The idea of dual cropping is extremely appealing for hemp growers and medicine manufacturers, as it would utilise a huge volume of precious cannabinoids that are currently just composted.’’ Manu Caddie
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