Weeds Etc
My 2010 audio piece, Weeds Etc, is getting another airing on ABC Radio National’s World Docs slot. It goes to air Saturday 13 June at 7:00 pm and on Sunday 14 June at 4:00 pm. And for any night owls—or overseas listeners—it’s repeated on Tuesday 16 June at 1:00 am. Details here.
What is a weed? For me, the generally favoured definition of ‘a plant growing in the wrong place’ seems inadequate, only part of the story. Because if weeds themselves are complex and paradoxical, so too are our relationships with them. Taking my home suburb of Pyrmont in inner Sydney as a starting point to explore our interactions with weeds—on public and private land, in courtrooms, kitchens, myth and fiction—Weeds Etc is about weeds as products of culture and language as much as biology.
Weeds Etc was researched, written and narrated by me, produced by Sharon Davis and sound engineered by Russell Stapleton.
It features actors Robert Alexander and Alice Parkinson, and members of the Pyrmont Ultimo Landcare group.
Noëlle Janaczewska 