CONVERSATION
CONVERSATION
CONVERSATION
HUMAN TRACES:
ETHIOPIA
HUMAN TRACES:
ETHIOPIA
THE BALANCE OF FACTS
THE BALANCE OF FACTS
THE BALANCE OF FACTS
THE BALANCE OF FACTS
DESTINATIONS
DESTINATIONS
The Dreamtime, or the Dreaming, portrays the Aboriginal beliefs in spiritual existence. According to the tribes that first settled down in the continent, the Dreaming's roots date all the way back to the very begging of the creation of the world. The meaning and ideology of the term is generally not so well-understood by non-indigenous people as it is referred to as part of the culture of one of the early nations, which differs from modern perceptions.
The Spirits were the creators of everything. They made the land and the seas, the rocks and the plants, the sky and the earth. They were the higher power and the Australian Aborigines spent their lifetimes honoring this power, which guided their path and shaped their way of thinking. Not only creators of everything, which could be seen as well as felt, the Spirits also gave the Aborigines the Dreaming.
The time when everything started existing according to the initial Australians, was called the Dreaming. This is the foundation of the continent's culture. The origin of the Dreaming goes way back - 65 000 years back in time to be exact. The Ancestors of the nation shaped the land, forming some parts of it as sacred. The Aborigines were very careful and overprotective of those places, strongly believing in their significance.
The Australian Aborigines are known to have believed that the world didn't have any shape and was therefore empty. Darkness dominated, and life was simply asleep, but this changed when the creation began happening. After the Dreaming and the influence of the Spirits, objects began taking shapes and came to be. They created the four elements: water, earth, air and fire, as well as all the planets, the Sun and the Moon. The Dreaming therefore is a continuous process, which never ended. It is a small cosmos on its own, unifying the past, present and the future into one.
The Australian Aborigines' home riches so many vivid areas of the continent, including Fraser Island, Tasmania, Palm Island, Groote Eylandt and Mornington Island. The Aborigines had very strong believes in relation to the powers of the land, claiming that they never owned it - it rather owned them. The only reason they were able to call it their home is because they were looking after it and the land was taking care of the people in return.
Equally important to the Dreaming was the tribes' understandings of the disappearance of the Spirits. There came a time, when the creators of everything vanished from sight. Some of them were thought to have started living in sacred places, which is why the Aborigines perceived their homeland to be so sacred. The ancestors of today's Australians used to believe that the creators started living in rocks, in water holes and some went up to the sky to guide the people from above and keep them safe. Others transformed completely, taking the forms of the rain, the lightnings and the thunderstorms so they could be part of peoples' life.
Among the hundred's different Aboriginal languages, there isn't a word to describe 'time', because to them this simply doesn't exist. Dreaming and Dreamtime are used to replace it and summarize the ideologies of the Aborigines about everything they knew, everything they could see, feel and experience. This is why the Dreaming has such a vivid, and overwhelming meaning and has survived the obstacles of time. For the past couple thousand years, the Dreaming has built a rich cultural heritage that can identify a whole nation.
Read more about the Land, its connection to people and the way it has been perceived from different generations in the very first print issue of ORIGIN. The Land Issue covers varied topics, most of which remain related to cultural aspects of the land and its importance.
A lot of people travel to explore places and learn about them which is the message that ORIGIN wants to spread. With traveling, however, comes certain responsibilities that we should all be aware of. Elephants riding has become a popular way to explore locations by land. People have been doing this as part of their trips, mostly to places such as Thailand, Nepal, Cambodia and other parts of Asia. It is a common thing to see in certain places in Africa as well. We investigated the activity to explain why it is wrong and riding elephants should be banned everywhere.
Our first print issue studies culture and traveling represented through the land. We explored various location around the globe and learned what makes the land so valuable, which nations cherish it and how it helps us establish an identity. Traveling is important to us but traveling responsibly and making an impact is what we feel proud to stand behind. This is why riding elephants as a way of amusement should be reconsidered.
Let’s talk about the details. Elephants are very caring and extremely intelligent animals. It is a well-known fact that they never forget anything. When kept in captivity instead of spending their life in the wild, elephants die younger. Unlike in other species, this is common for the gentle giants and is often a result for stress.
Many African cultures respect elephants, believing they symbolize strength, loyalty and power. However, power can be a very tender concept. Elephant used as a tourism tool suffer from great pain daily. Elephants can be hurt very severely from the weight of carrying people and a trainer on their backs. The reason for this is the design of their spines. They have sharp protrusions, extending upwards from their spine instead of having round spinal disks. The protrusions and the tissue that serves to protect them can be harmed easily from weight pressure. Once a damage to their spine has been made, there is no going back and sometimes the harm can be irreversible. While this can’t be physically seen, the harm that the chairs can do to the elephants’ skin is. It is often the case that the chairs and the weight on their back can damage the animal’s skin and cause pain to their body. The chair, called Howdah, that gets attached to their backs, rubs on their skin and can cause blisters, which can sometimes get infected.
The training that elephants are required to go through when in captivity sometimes adopts a traditional Thai ‘phajaan’ or ‘crush’ technique. Explaining the technique would compare it to the animals’ spirits constantly and continuously being broken by the means of torture and social isolation. This is done in order to tame them. Elephants are wild animals, this is their nature as they are born in such conditions. Making them safe and obedient around people requires them to go through such training. As horrible as it sounds, in some places young elephants are taken away from their mothers to be abused with nails, bull hooks and bamboo sticks to make them obey rules, given by people. The animals often lack sleep and are starved to become submissive.
Actions from such nature are cruel and harmful as the technique is used to crash the animals’ spirit. Once wild and free, elephants become a source of tourism and entertainment. Nobody, who cared about sustainable tourism should ever ride an elephant.
In a sense, elephants have a human soul. They socialise and feel everything – pain, happiness, grief, sadness etc. They spend their life building families and finding friends. The largest land animals are a gift from nature and it is our responsibility to take special care of them and make sure they live according to their nature. Many animals, who are kept in captivity, are forced to live in isolation and carry heavy loads all day long, which is a wrong way to treat them. Their strength and power shouldn’t be abused but treated gently and celebrated by people. Elephants require minimal care to stay happy and healthy, which comes from giving them freedom to behave naturally and socialise. It is our responsibility to be culturally aware while traveling and make sure to spread awareness about the problem.
You can read the rest of the article as published in the LAND issue.
KeepCup - Co-FOUNDER ABIGAIL FORSYTH ON SUSTAINABILITY AND PURPOSE BEYOND PROFIT
This is NOMADSofORIGIN Magazine’s exclusive interview with Abigail Forsyth on creating the world’s first barista-standard reusable coffee cup and constantly changing consumers behaviour towards sustainability
It was 1998 in Melbourne, Australia. Jamie and Abigail Forsyth opened a café and quickly noticed how much their business was contributing to landfill. In their ambition to lower their environmental footprint was born the idea of a company, which would completely revolutionise the disposable cup narrative. Within years KeepCup evolved from an idea born out of necessity with a simple hand-painted prototype into a multimillion-dollar global company. Today the focus of the business falls on transparency and sustainability.
The coffee shop culture was taking over most developed countries across the globe. With that came an all-consuming waste, which was too hard for Abigail to ignore. At least 500 million disposable cups are used every year in the UK alone, and around one billion non-recyclable cups are wasted yearly in Australia. This is when the idea of KeepCup was brought to life, soon to turn into a reusable coffee-cup empire. Today one of Australia’s best-known and most beloved brands is a company that continues to challenge the status quo more than a decade after its foundation.
‘‘Many small acts make a phenomenal difference.’’
Abigail Forsyth, Co-founder and Managing Director of KeepCup
for NOMADSofORIGIN Magazine
KeepCup Co-founder and Managing Director, Abigail Forsyth, spoke to NOMADSofORIGIN Magazine's Editor-in-chief Aleksandra Georgieva about the business, sustainability and the company's future aspirations.
NOMADSofORIGIN: What were the difficulties you faced with sustainability and creating such an innovative business?
Abigail: It is a total myth that a responsible business is more difficult or less profitable than any other. However, endeavouring to doing the right thing is only part of the puzzle, you need to provide a product or service that is functional, beautiful, fit for purpose as well as solving a problem people care about. We’ve always approached the problem of disposable cup waste as one of education. I have great faith in my fellow humans and believe that once people understand the problem – that we use over a million disposable cups a minute and they are not recyclable or recycled – that they will want to do something about it.
Our strength is our future focus. We ask – what do we want the world to look like? By contrast to the age-old excuse for bad behaviour and pernicious marketing, ‘we’re just giving consumers what they want’. This is just not good enough. Our difficulties are the same faced by any business – finding the right people, growing the culture, staying nimble and finding the courage to let our principles guide the journey.
NOMADSofORIGIN: What are your plans for the company in the near future?
Abigail: Our plan is to continue to challenge the primacy of convenience culture through beautiful, thoughtfully designed products that increase your enjoyment of the drinking experience. We will continue to campaign to ensure the world no longer wants, needs or uses single-use cups and continue to be an exemplar of what a responsible business with a great culture looks and feels like.
Keep up with the KeepCup story
KeepCup is all about inspiring people to reduce and reuse. In 2007 Abigail followed into the footsteps of existing reusable cup companies, only she aimed for appealing designs, usability and sustainability. Not without many challenges along the way, the vibrant colours and practical approach of KeepCup began changing the independent coffee scene across Melbourne. With the support of roasting communities and local cafés, the business began growing. The aesthetic designs and practicality influenced coffee lovers to change their consumer behaviour. Soon enough people started thinking about coffee on the go in close relation to sustainability. Today KeepCups are sold in over 65 countries across the world, inspiring more and more consumers to divert disposable cups from landfill.
In the beginning owning a KeepCup was like being part of a small secret community, a sign of support to sharing inspirational behaviour and creating positive habits. With the company making their way into the mainstream coffee scene, they took on a great responsibility to keep challenging the sustainability conversation in word. This is the story of a company founder with a purpose beyond profit and a mission to inspire consumer behaviour changes.
Since June 2009, over eight million KeepCups have been sold worldwide as the company is constantly expanding on their approach towards sustainability. The stylish and easy to wash KeepCup is not only barista-approved, but it also has a low break-even point, meaning that in 12 uses you have already saved the emissions and energy put into its manufacturing. According to Abigail there is enough plastic in the lids and lining of 20 disposable cups to make a single KeepCup. The company makes their cups to last long by using carefully considered materials with better lifespan. By featuring replaceable components, KeepCup lovers are also encouraged to create fewer waste.
KeepCup and sustainability
The reusable coffee-cup business embraces practices that testify for the company’s ongoing efforts to put a major focus on sustainability. In 2014 KeepCup became one the founding B Corporations in Australia, pursuing transparency, employee well being, improving communities and lowering consumers environmental footprint. Beyond the iconic cups is a functional and aesthetic design, achieved by precise engineering work, careful manufacturing and responsible supply chain.
KeepCups are the result of long-term relationships with suppliers and manufacturers alike. The company strives for assembling components in local hubs to build better communities and to reduce the environmental footprint of the business. Coffee lovers are also given the opportunity to visit the manufacturing warehouses in London, Los Angeles and Melbourne to see for themselves how the cups are assembled by hand with the intention of reuse and waste reducing. The company encourages customers to consider buying KeepCups in their local coffee shops rather that ordering from the official website, in attempt to reduce the delivery and shipping impact on the planet.
‘‘I have great faith in my fellow humans.’’
Abigail Forsyth, Co-founder and Managing Director of KeepCup
Alongside sustainable manufacturing and delivery practices, KeepCup goes above and beyond to ensure that the business complies with as many eco-friendly approaches as possible. They commissioned Edge Environmental to assess the company’s environmental footprint against single and multi-use alternative products. The Life Cycle Analysis study was conducted in mid-2018 and the results are now available online. According to the CEO Magazine, when compared to a disposable paper cup “a KeepCup brings about a 36–47-per-cent reduction in global-warming carbon emissions, a 64–85-per-cent reduction in water use, and a 91–92-per-cent reduction in landfill waste annually.”
KeepCup strives to reduce their environmental footprint not only through their products, but with everything they do. The company’s Australian office has been solar powered since 2015, and their UK office followed in the same footsteps in 2019. The retail boxes and brochures are also made from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified cardboard and paper, manufactured locally, in the UK and Australia. On their 10th anniversary KeepCup also joined 1% For The Planet, committed to donating a percent of their global sales revenue to charities that support biodiversity and the environment. Today positive changes happen around the world daily as more and more nations support the ban of plastic packaging, straws, bottles, disposable cups, bags, etc.
In a world where plastic went from miracle material to a global catastrophe, KeepCup continues to challenge the status quo. The company measures their multimillion-dollar success ‘in use and reuse’. Ten years in, KeepCup continues to thrive and above all to encourage sustainable practices. The reusable coffee-cup empire is proof that collective individual actions can change the world. They offer customers the means to shape the future by influencing consumer behaviour, culture and societies across the globe to believe in the power of impact.
Shop the products online
KeepCup also encourages customers to consider shopping locally to reduce their environmental impact.
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NOMADSofORIGIN is an independent annual publication with a focus on sustainable travelling and global cultural values. Each issue features interviews, engaging articles and photo guides, which take our nomadic readers through different destinations and introduce them to local people's perspectives.
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