I remember the festival "Sunbury" in Melbourne which was probably very similar to Woodstock? Lots of people took off their clothes and rolled in the mud, swam in the creek, lots of people benignly outta their tree, calls for 'watch the blue acid' and other calls 'freaking out brothers and sisters go to the red tent' and the music screamed and hammered and rolled all day and all night for the whole weekend. 'Juice freaks' were not admired and love, peace, and overwhelming kindness and tolerance was the order of the day, a new experience for very many of us very youngies. "Thorpie, Thorpie, Thorpie", (of the Aztecs) we yelled in absolute adulation and perhaps more because we needed to feel the unity of 'one voice' (screaming the one word all together was like some sort of amazing mantra). Anyway, Nimbin happened a year or two after that and certainly continues to impact on generations. Freda, there was a book released last year "Belonging in the Rainbow Region - Cultural Perspectives on the NSW North Coast about Nimbin and the Rainbow Region's impact.
"Our ancient tribal people
Have sat down and sang the spirits into this land
Giving it its physical form.
White men called our dreamtime a myth.
Our people know it as a fact.
It was before creation time
They sang the valleys, mountains, rivers and streams
All round, all round, all round.
They sang life in all its vastness into this brown land.
Ånd the spirit lives still
Never has it been silenced
By white man or his destructive ways.
And the young people came
And heard the song
Ånd the song had a beginning
And there will never be an ending
Until justice is returned
And all love requited
To all singers of the songs,
And ancient tribal people.
Åll round, all round, all round.
goes the song that my tribal mother wrote and which starts this book. I've got it if you want to have a look at it.
I always liked the "Woodstock" song in the same way "by the time we got to Woodstock we were (however many?) strong" - it's almost an anthem to a generation isn't it? and I have rejected many times the 'old hippie' nonsense in the same way I reject 'old commo' nonsense as stereotyping people as though it is all insignificant. The '60's had a profound impact on our (whoever) generation as it did on continuing generations and for all the flakey and self-indulgent behaviour that went on (we were young, we were young and stupid) the goodwill continues and is a reminder that it is possible. (Why do I always sound like a sermon? Someone hit me!)