MARDIGRASS and drug law reform fiesta
Background History & Details of 1996 Event
Nimbin has changed a lot in the last 25 years. In 1972 it was
like many similar rural villages of its size (about 100-odd people
then) and economic makeup ie dairy and timber. Hit hard by changes
in farm subsidies and market realities, northern NSW was going
through a rural recession. Britain joining the EEC meant the protected
butter trade from the colonies went out the window. The impact
on towns like Nimbin was a reduction in revenue and then jobs,
which in turn led to a population decline as people drifted to
the cities and bigger towns looking for work. Nimbin was not totally
destitute however. There was still a hard core, solid, conservative,
hard-working and very traditional farming community remaining,
but these weren't easy times. Nimbin, though, was about to change.
Probably it was inevitable that Nimbin would get picked up sometime
by the seeming hordes of long hairs fleeing the cities clutching
their "Whole Earth Catalogues" and redolent with the smell of
patchouli, intent on "getting back to the land". The rural decline
meant it was a village wide open for recycling and when the Aquarius
Festival movers and shakers chanced upon it late in 1972, on an
alternate return route home to Sydney from their number one choice
location, Mullumbimby, it was seen as the perfect location for
the Festival that they envisioned. All the infrastructure was
here: the suitably decrepit Hall; the old butter factory and the
empty shops so useful for food distribution, art and learning
workshops, and administration and networking centres; the fields
and river offered itself as a playground; the Nimbin Rocks and
the breathtaking views of the Nightcap Range, a panoramic backdrop
to it all. Verily it came to pass that God dealt Nimbin a full
hand of hippies.
Cannabis had been around this area long before the hippies came,
but on the North Coast in the '70's it became inextricably associated
with the newly arrived counter-culture. It came to be seen and
proclaimed by the traditional conservative politicians as the
primary motivating cause for these new settler's rebellious rejection
of the prevailing social norms. Un-natural things like forming
and living together on land-sharing communities, doing direct
action to stop the annihilation of the last vestiges of the public
land old-growth rainforest, having babies at home and wanting
to be involved in the education of their kids. Fuelled by local
redneck outrage that sought more cops and harsher penalties, Nimbin's
popularised media image became overwhelmingly one of a drug culture.
And a sinful and out of control one for good measure. As Nimbin
moved from sleepy hamlet to its current place on the mainstream
tourist trail, this description came to be a self fulfilling prophecy.
For the alternative culture here, cannabis was a sacrament. A
hardy plant, simple to cultivate, cannabis helped school a generation
of hippie farmers on the realities of producing to serve your
own needs- and more! This versatile, very generous and simple
to process plant served as a comfort to the often harsh and primitive
communard lifestyle, helping make the intolerable tolerable. It
was undemanding of humans except by way of trust. And there was
always the possibility of it generating a little cash flow. Nimbin
acquired the reputation as a destination where your chances of
scoring pot, without any insider knowledge or connection, was
always good. What started as an outlaw fringe of alternative locals
at the Rainbow Cafe turning their few plants into car registration,
new shoes for the kids and maybe extensions to their shelter,
gradually metamorphorsized into the hard bitten, highly competitive
street hustle that's such standard fare on Cullen Street these
days, with little respect shown for anyone or anything other than
their own short term desires . Attracted by the nation-wide sensation
seeking media publicity, the carpetbaggers arrived. Because the
pot trade allowed access to a ready flow of tax free cash, Nimbin
became the mecca for all those whose habits required a constant
injection of money. The village became a way station on the heroin
line, the pub flourished, options for change stayed limited under
prohibition and attitudes continued to polarize.
Not only did this serve to obscure the bigger, broader vision
of the counter-culture, but it provided the access way for authorities
to hinder, harass, raid, intimidate, fine, jail and generally
maintain a state of undeclared war on the original uppity newcomers
and their striving for a culture. But the vision of a whole and
healing community lifestyle persisted, the hippies hung in and
in our own minor ways prospered. But as a legacy of our resistance
we inherited the other darker side of the drug scene. A creation
of the drug laws, the unregulated market in cannabis attracts
a fast buck mentality which is contrary to the Aquarian ethos.
Dressed in "hippie garb", the street dealers find shelter in the
shade of our tolerance and in the process undermine our very roots
and reason for existence. Resolving the illegal drug issue and
the behaviour this promotes has become the acid test of the Aquarian
vision and of our determination to manifest that vision.
For years the most common local public manifestation of the drug
laws was fear. Fear that if you spoke out or made waves about
the offensive Drug Offensive you'd become a target for official
retribution. We smokers all had our little stash of plants, carefully
tended and guarded and which at the time could result in prison
if caught with them in our possession. Fear leads to compromise.
Even if you were a non-user/grower of cannabis, public opposition
to the drug laws and the dominant Drug War strategies was taken
to be a sign of being "soft on drugs" and opponents were actively
discredited. It was a totalitarian mentality that commanded obeisance.
Any deviation were considered morally bankrupt. Meanwhile in Nimbin
suspicion flourished as well. Who was a cop? Who was a potential
rip-off?
In 1988 the first active "drug law reform group", Nearly NORML
Nimbin started proposing drug law re-evaluation and review along
with an immediate re-legalization of cannabis as a means of healing
the growing disrespect on the streets. Most importantly we wanted
to break the cycle of fear that played into the authorities hands
and was dividing the local community. We limped along, lifting
spirits- a lone voice in this ethically totalitarian atmosphere.
We discovered Jack Herer and the "Emperor's New Clothes" along
the way and transformed into Nimbin HEMP (Help End Marijuana Prohibition).
We ran sporadic but succesful political campaigns, maintained
a media tactical response unit, held some great dances and other
gigs, and developed a reputation as outrageous political players.
With a growing support network and an increased public awareness
of the issues,.we managed to keep Nimbin at the cutting edge of
change, leading the NSW populist push against prohibition.
In March 1993, when the police made one of their post-summer
clean-ups of main street dealers a spontaneous siege of the Nimbin
Police Station resulted and the building was pelted with eggs
and rolls of toilet paper. This caused some stridently scornful
anti-Nimbin media publicity and so Nimbin HEMP, which by now had
become the Nimbin HEMP Embassy, decided to hold a public rally
to provide ordinary people with the opportunity to express their
opposition to the drug laws in a peaceful, festive and non-confrontational
atmosphere. May Day, Saturday May 1st was designated and so the
Mardi Grass was born. Despite a lack of police participation and
the stern opposition of the local council who refused us the right
to march and use of the local park, over 1000 people, mainly local,
came out in defiance and took part in a powerful ritual of personal
and community empowerment. We paraded from the Bush Theatre uptown
to the village centre, then on to the Police Station where we
danced and wished the police well. To a tumultus percussion beat
we returned to the Hall for our rally. The contact high was tangible
for days afterwards and we vowed to Mardi Grass every year until
prohibition's end.
The next year, the May Day "Let It Grow!" Mardi Grass and Drug
Law Reform Rally (the official monicker) was held on Sunday May
1st accompanied on the Saturday by a National Conference called
"Beyond Prohibition. This boasted an impressive array of politicians,
academics and sundry experts in their chosen fields. The Parade/Rally,
along with our annual Harvest Festival Ball and Pot Art Exhibition,
became a two day Fiesta. We were still being officially frowned
upon but legal advice had indicated that the Council ban on our
use of the park was not legitimate. Despite gloomy forecasts of
anarchy in the streets of Nimbin, we went ahead and repeated the
previous year's joyful celebration parade and this year rallied
in the park. By now the attendance was so big and the atmosphere
so friendly, peaceful and responsible that the authorities were
buckling under the strain of keeping face.
Last year's Mardi Grass was held in the wake of our End Prohibition
NSW State Election campaign and just kept on getting bigger, 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", Jack Herer and Lynn Osbourne from HEMP
USA, High Times magazine's grower's guru Ed Rosenthal, book launches
and Operation Judas as well as Pot Art 3 and 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. The Police responded by ensuring the traffic continued
moving on Parade day but otherwise kept a low profile during the
festivities. Which resulted, surprise surprise, in a lack of any
trouble in terms of violence, vandalism and any serious shows
of interpersonal or environmental disrespect. For local traders
the Mardi Grass was proving a monster boon for business with some
shop-keepers having to close their doors in order to just deal
with the crush of customers in their shops at that time. May 1st
had by now slipped around the calendar to Monday and with the
finals of the Cannabis Cup held just before our closing ceremonies
that day, we became an over 3 day affair.
Drugs are always a hot topic and with world heroin production
predicted to be doubling every 5 years, the potential consequences
of a continuing drug war approach seem all the more calamitous
for society. The NSW Royal Commission into Police Corruption has
revealed to the public the otherwise obvious connection between
official corruption and the drug laws. There's a visible panic
happening with authorities as everything we've been saying for
years is coming true but there appears little commitment by the
politically expedient major parties to enact any fundamental change
in approach. This makes it all the more imperative and apt that
we continue to emphasize just how counter-productive the present
regulations are. Bad laws only breed disorder.The Mardi Grass
is now one of Eastern Australia's classic underground events.
Despite minimal advertising or promotional publicity, we've always
attracted big crowds, earned strong support and received wide
and comprehensive media coverage. Since January, we've been receiving
constant demands for information and accommodation bookings from
all over Australia. At the moment it's impossible to anticipate
what sort and size of crowd to cater for, but it looks big.
The reason we are holding MARDI GRASS is so that together we
can make a powerful statement of the truth that the prohibition
laws are a misguided and miserable failure. We will be celebrating
our culture in a festive atmosphere of peace and fun and harmony.
HEMP activists, artists and experts from all over the planet will
be converging on Nimbin for a major empowerment ritual and a sharing
of knowledge.
The Mardi Grass kicks off on Wednesday May 1st, our traditional
rallying day, with appropriate, born-again, rustic Pagan Mayday
festivities including maypoling, the arrival of the fabulous Kombi
Konvoy, lighting of the Hemp Alternative Olympic flame and a special
Koori music and dance night in the Town Hall, featuring Nunukel
Kunjiel and Quandmooka.
Thursday there is an African dance workshop, the amazing Hemp
fashion designers parade, and cafe cabaret featuring throughout
in the village cafes. Friday's the Full Moon and the night of
our legendary Nimbin Marijuana Harvest Festival Ball which features
top local bands- the Acid Pixies, Pagan Love Cult Inc, Terra Sancta
and the Spliffmasters, and the dancing Cannabis Can Can, Ganja
Fairies and the Sativa Sisters. This follows a day of choir, lantern-making
and bellydance workshops. Pot Art #3 will have become a visual
reality by then. On Saturday: the inaugural HEMP Traders' Trade
Fair will open in the Hall, seminars, forums and think fests will
run throughout the day, markets, a culinary exhibition, Puppets
in parkland, the lantern making continues and will culminate in
the Sunset Moon Lantern Parade and fire ceremony. This will be
followed by another big dance night in the Hall with locals Klang,
Ragadoll, Bush Punk Cowboys and Dr Seuss' Signature. Sunday opens
with sunrise chanting and spirit healing, and is the day of the
Parade. This heads off from the Schools Bus Turnaround at 1.30
pm and will be followed by a monster rally and the Finals of the
Hemp Olympics ( including the bong obstacle course relay, joint
rolling, bong throwing and the Commissioner Woods Cross Country
Pursuit of the "Bent Cop"). Late afternoon sees the final session
in the judging of the 1996 Mardi Grass Cannabis Cup, a screening
of the Australian film "The Hemp Revolution", the lighting of
the beltane fire and burning of the wicker-woman, and then more
music and performance events to take the weekend out.
Market stalls and music, HEMP board game contest, random Ethnocultural
tours of Nimbin by the Alternative Town Council, forums and street
theatre, Pot Art #3, excerpts from the Nimbin Player's production
of a reworked Canterbury Tales (including the Muller's Tale),
hemp videos, an MARDI GRASS Information stall and the Nimbin Hemp
Embassy's Drug Education Centre and multi media port will be on-going
throughout the Fiesta. Plus other such oddball spontaneously scheduling
activities that we can't even begin to foresee at this point in
time.
But that's just the Gig itself. Most of all, though, it'll be
A FESTIVAL OF THE SPIRIT. A celebration of life and a blow against
the absurdity of bad laws. Stating the truth about prohibition
and ourselves, openly, together and in a non-confrontational way
we not only celebrate ourselves but become part of the solution.
If Nimbin was anywhere else in the world we'd be considered a
spiritual centre. Like the great and wildly peaceful religious
Festivals of India, the Mardi Grass is an opportunity for us all
to affirm strongly, peacefully and proudly all that we are.
It gives us a chance, too, to open up to the world, the fruits
of our settlement here in Nimbin, all the things that ordinarily
get eclipsed in the current drug centered focus of the popular
press, to a sort of semi-public scrutiny. . The permaculture gardens,
alternative energy systems, community recycling works, the land-sharing
communities movement, the affinity groups like the Nimbin Environment
Centre and Nimbin News, schools, community health networks and
other support systems, the Nimbin Museum, the diverse local enterprise
and the World Heritage Rainforests that we live beside- all that
is beautiful and vibrant and healthy about life here. We love
our town and are proud to be of this place and land. The nasty
side of life so often portrayed here reflects nothing other than
the behaviour of some desperate expensive-drug users under prohibition.
These same drug laws that cause these problems also restrict our
capability to do anything about it. Like change the system of
marketing. We would like it for visitors who come here seeking
pot to be able to openly, safely and cheaply purchase it in Kafes,
like in Holland, without being intimidated, ripped off or forced
into supporting the hard drug economy. Be patient- we're working
on it.
We welcome you here for our 1996 Peace for Pot Mardi Grass and
in doing so also ask your consideration and respect to the spirit
of the land, the residents, the village buildings, the trees and
all other species who consider this special place home. Born from
the frustration of enduring years of counter-productive prohibition
laws, the Nimbin "Let It Grow!" Mardi Grass has become a positive
statement of the imperative to direct our own destiny and to not
blindly accept the dominant paradigm. To create a healthy world
we need a sound and ethical base. To begin with: let's make Peace
for Pot!
When Injustice Becomes Law, Resistance Becomes
Duty....and in this case Fun!
Written by End, Prohibition, March 1996.
for the Nimbin Hemp Embassy.
Patron: the Plantem
