Honour Roll

Friends of MardiGrass No Longer With Us

We start of with nothing, and by the time we're finished, we've still got most of it left.

*"Chicken" George*

Nearly Always Never

A tribute to Geoff Moxham, an early HEMPster

The local hemp world was at a loss in September 2009 when Geoff Moxham died in a tree felling accident. Geoff was fortunate to be a hempster during exciting times. After the first Mardigrass in '93 he became one of 5 main activists to support Bob Hopkins in organising the second Mardigrass.
As a result he co-hosted a radical long term hempstall at The Channon market and a smoke-in at Pritchard Park across the river from the Lismore Police Station. In following years he became involved in other actions including the famous Police helicopter lock-on when not only the chopper was handcuffed but the police awoke in their motel to live national media cameras filming hordes of hempsters padlocked under their vehicles.
Geoff carved the iconic Hemp Olympix Torch and won the Mardigrass pot art award in the process. He co-pioneered early seed swaps and was a driving force in Lismore Hemp. One of Geoff's daughter's first Mardigrass experiences, was in the womb of the Ganja Faerie Queen.

NIMBIN’S favourite Scotsman, George John Forsyth, 61, known locally as George Scott, was laid to rest in true hippie style on 29th December, 2009.

Hundreds of mourners followed George’s hand-painted casket as it was carried through the main street of Nimbin in the back of a silver VW Kombi. The cortege was led by a sole bagpiper, George’s family and the Nimbin Headers soccer team to the Nimbin Town Hall. As his casket entered the hall those gathered to celebrate his remarkable life broke into cheers and applause to honour a man well-known and respected by many in the Nimbin community.

George was an accomplished musician with a resonant, husky voice. He made Nimbin his home in the mid-1970s. Close friend Graham Ward described George as a colourful, excessive, pessimistic man with a singing voice which ‘stopped people in their tracks’. “When he found out he was dying, he said, ‘I can’t complain, I’ve had a good life’,” said Mr Ward, who was with George immediately after he was told he would die from cancer.

Mr Ward said George was not a religious man, but took inspiration from one passage in the Bible, ‘Go forth and multiply’. He fathered five children with four wives. Three of his former wives were at his bedside when he died. His life was celebrated by his family and friends at the service through shared stories, recollections and music. George founded the reggae band Loose Joints in the 1970s. He described the experience as like being married to five women all at once. In recent years he became known for his lunchtime solo performances in Allsop Park and his evening appearances at Nimbin Pizza and Trattoria.

George died in a Nimbin farmhouse, surrounded by friends and family with birds singing and a summer breeze blowing on December 16. His friends said this was just how he wanted to go. As his casket was lowered into the ground at Nimbin Cemetery a recording of his own song, Back in the Highlands Again, was played. The song title will be also on his headstone.

George was born in Robroyston, Scotland, on May 5, 1948.

Judy Canales, a strong advocate for the legalisation of marijuana, ran in several elections. In 1999 she stood and Independent for the Lismore elections, then she joined the Hemp Party (Help End Marijuana Prohibition Party) and ran in the House of Representatives for the seats of Page (2001) and Capricornia (2004).

In a press release for her campaign in 2004, Judy Canales described herself as “an unemployed artist extremely talented in music, theatre, autobiography, playwright, oil painting.” She also owned a djembe drum that she had played all round Australia, teaching children and the handicapped to play.

Last week, Judy passed on. She will be sorely missed.

Jack Herer

Author and activist Jack Herer died Thursday April 15, 2010 at 2:05 pm in Eugene, Ore. The 70-year-old activist was in ill health following a heart attack he experienced after leaving the Hempstalk festival stage in Portland last fall.

Herer was a longtime marijuana activist and the author of the landmark book "The Emperor Wears No Clothes: The Authoritative Historical Record of Cannabis and the Conspiracy Against Marijuana." By 2004, it had been through 16 printings and published more than 600,000 copies. In 2004, the L.A. Times wrote:

Today, Herer is widely credited with launching the modern hemp movement, a persistent campaign by an eclectic coalition of environmentalists, legislators, rights activists, farmers, scientists, entrepreneurs and others to end the maligned plant's banishment and tap its potential as a natural resource.

Jack came to MardiGrass. The 1995 Mardi Grass III was held in the wake of our End Prohibition NSW State Election campaign and was bigger than ever, with a veritable carnival of events running in association with the street Parade- more performance events, seminars, fashion parade, markets, the Inaugural Cannabis Growers Cup, the film premiere of the "Hemp Revolution", with Jack Herer and Lynn Osbourne from HEMP USA, High Times magazine's grower guru Ed Rosenthal, book launches and Police Operation Judas as well as Pot Art 3 and the Harvest Ball. The Parade day dawned to spiritual gatherings, croissants with Jack and Lynn at the launching of the Australian edition of the "Emperor", and a mega-crowd (by Nimbin standards at least) filling the village. By now we'd given up seeking Council approval, without which we couldn't get the official Police nod, and just went ahead high on trust.

Bruce Smith

8-5-1964 to 5-4-2011

Born with a heart of gold and eyes that saw the truth,
He walked the hard road for many years,
Carving out your own path
Now you are truly free my brother,
Love from here to eternity
Your Family

Bruce lived around Nimbin for a long time, a real fixture. On the fifth of April his car left the Cawongla Road and hit some trees, one harder than the others, and his life was gone.