The Captain's BLOG: Peacebus.com goes to APEC Wednesday 5 September 2007 Graeme taps this blog in at his mate Bob's place. All day he has been cutting cardboard for a sculpture for the Ghost Dance, a kind of cardboard centre piece for the dance of the dead that is now just two evenings away. The Ghost Dance; a mystery about to be revealed. Bob is screen printing calico bags and Tshirts with the Stop Bush logo of the Stop Bush rally, merchandising for the Movement. A young man calls into buy before the ink is dry, a lawyer displaced from his law firm offices by APEC, reactive and planning to wear the T to the office tomorrow. Will, the organiser of Bums for Bush also came by and he noted that the posters on the wall beside the front door of Bob's terrace advertised all the protest events. We anarchists like the anarchy of protest. May a thousand flowers bloom. Aspiration without obstruction or frontier. The court order by the NSW Police to prevent the Stop Bush rally from marching was successful and we listened to ABC radio news as we worked. Alex Bainbridge, spokesperson the Stop the War Coalition has been magnificent: he spoke strongly and confidently that the march would happen anyway. And peacefully. Superintendent Steve Cullen laid his career on the line by telling the court that there would be a riot if protesters came near the APEC Fence. Then it was revealed that the police had built another APEC Fence in George Street so that "near" meant Martin Place where the Alex points out was formerly outside the Restrictive Area and where there was a common law right for citizens to proceed. So the stage is set for conflict. But Graeme cutting cardboard. Cutting cardboard. His animation artist son in law, Darren Price, his father, Colin, mother, Maureen, and the joint grandson Iggy Bravo came by. Maureen sat with Iggy while he slept in the car, Softly Sigh minding teething Baxter at home. Colin, a former RAAF Wing Commander helped with the glue-ing of the APEC pyramid, cheering on the Graeme's creative dissent. And he knows the US Alliance from the inside! Darren went off for a job interview and we fathers gave him our hearty blessing. That morning Graeme had emailed to a highly placed legal friend to seek his mentoring advice for my younger daughter Holly's man, handsome gentleman and smart; a lawyer new to a big city law firm and about be seconded pro bono to a Community Legal Centre in the western suburbs. It was a fathering kind of day for Graeme. Bob took Graeme, his ute and the skellies to the Stop the War APEC rally in Railway Square Tuesday 5pm 4 September. Graeme mounted one of the back pack skellies and created a media show, (more media camera persons that protesters) always behind the speaker, backgrounding the news. So it was that Graeme and the dollar-death skellie got on ABC Tv News and around the world. Some lovely affirming emails followed. Poetry such that Graeme asked Pip willson to set up an APEC poetry net group. See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/apecpoetry/ At Railway Square Graeme had an odd encounter. While he packing up the skellie, he was approached by a man in casual clothes who said: " I have heard a lot about the Ghost Dance. I look forward to seeing it next Thursday." He introduced himself and gave Graeme his card. Graeme without glasses, misheard he was from "AP",(= Associated Press the US wire network). Graeme began saying the limitations on the Ghost Dance by the "no dance out of the Park" ruling of the cops. The man backed away saying he could do nothing. When Graeme got back to Newtown he fished the card from his pocket and saw he had got it wrong big time: the interested stranger was Dwayne Robertson, Federal Agent, Intelligence, "AFP" (= Australian Federal Police). A genuine spook and curious! Police liaison has affirming been affirming. DSC Kellie has called Graeme a couple of times and sorted out Michael Abbott, the Event and Filming Liaison Manager of City of Sydney in regard to the Ghost Dance occupation of Hyde Park North. No problems. No need for a face to face meetings either. When Kellie confirmed this she also indirectly expressed disappointment that the group photo from our last police liaison meeting had not yet been posted and that names had been mis-spelt. And so she has prompted me to do this update. Graeme is pleased to report that the gay activists of Newtown have taken up Ghost Dance and last Thursday at the Newtown Hotel, the place was packed when trans-sexual entertainer, Vanessa Wagner (aka Toby of Ballina) was plugged it big time. All the flyers went off. The flyers by the way and been printed by Green Senator Kerry Nettle's Sydney office and by the Fire Brigades Employees Union. On Saturday gay activist artist Nori went shopping for a "bling and bones" in King Street Newtown and came visiting Graeme with her amazing finds. While he and her friend were trying on combinations, some Newtown visitors, two retirees (= Graeme's age) who were house minding from Tallangatta in Victoria, and walking the streets, came upon the Peacebus.com mural and the flyers by Bob's door. Serendipity. Enthralled they entered and the woman was soon costumed by Nori. "I will be there!" declared Margaret "I always promised i would be an activist when I retired." Graeme sat back drinking stout and laughing. Best news was the arrival of Anna, Nimbin Angel who passed the hat in Cullen Street, raised $460 and got Happy Wheels repaired after it broke down in Newcastle on the way south. See below She had been staying in her youngest son's apartment which commands a harbour view of the Harbour Bridge, Opera House and and PM John Howard's, state residence, Kirribilli House. She showed a cell phone video of the six hovering police surveillance helicopters she had witnessed that morning. APEC and the arrival of US President George Bush Jnr had turned the neighborhood into a war zone. She was appalled to witness a helicopter track a resident walking to work with a backpack. The excess of the APEC security has become deeply offensive and widespread: even the Yankees think it in excess. Howard's popularity plummets in the polls. Bush appallingly deluded in his arrival speech and the military deal done with Howard an appalling fudge: US military to allow Australian taxpayers to buy more of their military hardware! "Howard's Last Stand." is our banner slogan. And so it comes to pass. Anna sat for 4 hours at a borrowed Singer and patiently sewing sleeves to that banner. She also posted a blog about the APEC helicopters. Speaking up and speaking out. Good on her. And promising to win a lottery and become Graeme's full time PA. If only! For peace. For justice. For the Earth! &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Making Art and Making the Media, 4 September 2007 Photos by Nick McGrath, photojournalist from Geelong Victoria. contact:0417 384 618 email: npmcgrath(at)gmail.com &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Making Skellies in Bellingen, NSW, 6 September 2007 Photos by Pip Wilson &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& 31 August 2007 Graeme is tapping these words in at his friend Fred Braat's bush arts studio in Wedderburn which is about 60 km south west of Sydney CBD and near Campbelltown. A regular camp and refuge for nomad Graeme during his annual migrations. A junk yard of mouldering dreams, it has the grace of a campfire, trees and many birds. Last Wednesday by fire and lantern light, Fred and he watched moon rise and be eclipsed into an exquisitely high lighted red ball in the sky. All the bush land silent in wonder. For three days now he has been making words on his laptop and lanterns and skellies in the studio, preparing for the APEC Ghost Dance best he can. He has been assisted by Kieran de Silva, Buddhist/Shaivite/independent scientist, resident of the Campbelltown suburb of Ruse. Assistance also came from his long time community arts friend, Ruth Banfield, former Lady Mayoress of Campbelltown. Ruth came bearing hot soup, free olive bread and wine. Yum, yum. Happy Wheels chugs along on three of four cylinders. A Campbelltown mechanic has confirmed that number four cylinder has lost all compression. A major engine rebuild is necessary but it must wait till after the Ghost Dance. The mechanic was young and savvy and Graeme learned he was Palestinian. When he understood Graeme was reading Robert Fisk's book, The Great War for Civilization, the Conquest of the Middle East, familiar with the horrors of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, instant rapport. The young man ached as he spoke of the current day horrors: "It's just slaughter over there," he said. "How people take pleasure in torture and death, I don't know". Graeme looks forward to working with him to overhaul Happy Wheels engine. When APEC is in the past and money is at hand. Graeme is to be instated with full Aged Pension and back payed for the lapse after his 65th birthday and the termination of his Mature Aged pension. But the money has yet to arrive, so frugal is his path to the Ghost Dance. Thanks to the freely given legal advice of well placed friends, Graeme did not have to go to West Wyalong court (600 km west) yesterday and face the "obstructing a police officer" charge that arose out of the protests at Lake Cowal last Easter. See www.peacebus.com/CyanideWatch/070524FactsSheet.html The matter has been adjoined. Whew! Graeme's anarchist activist mate, Bob Cunii has returned from his travels in North Thailand and south central China full of enthusiasm for the Ghost Dance. Such a good friend to Graeme, without prompting he had offered to drive Graeme there and stand by him in the West Wyaling court and stand beside him there, a friend and witness. While Graeme is enjoying the solitude of bushland, Bob the Builder Cunii is on the streets of Newtown talking up APEC protest. Yesterday he rang in to say he had 1000 Ghost Dance posters printed in color at Greens Senator Kerry Nettle's office and was getting them out. This evening Graeme will return to Newtown all loaded up with bamboo poles, flags, banners, lanterns, PA, worktables, tools and supplies. From tomorrow he will be setting up a workshop in Bob's house and together and with friends and neighbours they will make stuff and plot the Ghost Dance. This part of events production is the best part for Graeme, the creative interaction of making art together. Police liaison has been a delight and a frustration. See www.peacebus.com/GhostDance/police.html Ghost Dance may assemble in Hyde Park North, but it may not leave the Park nor may it have a camp fire. The Stop War rally organisers have also been refused the right to march and they will likely move their assembly area to Hyde Park North too, the day after Ghost Dance. Bearing witness to the suppression of dissent, Graeme challenged the no dance in the streets with a media release calling for NSW Ministers and the APEC Joint Task Force Commander, Chief Superintendent Lennon to "lighten up" and relax the constraints of the Declared Areas so that the Ghost Dancers might go to the APEC Fence and make it art. Graeme told the Chief Superintendent that the security scare mounted by the organisers had been effective in frightening away activists, the security arrangements excessive and police fears overblown. The challenge of art brought media calls from the Sydney Morning Herald and the Daily Telegraph. Even a thank you from the Chaser's Manic Times. But it brought no flexibility or concession from the cops. One way police liaison: "We tell what you are going to do and you do it. Or else." But hey! having Hyde Park North to party in for the night, public liability insurance free, is an honor and a privilege. Snr Sgt Andrew Lahey phoned Graeme on yesterday afternoon with the confirmation that there was to be no march ("Dance" corrected Graeme) from Hyde Park, no art on the APEC Fence and no fire. The emails and letters Graeme had sent had found their way to his desk. From Andrew's language, Graeme got to understand that he was being noticed and ignored at the same time, trivialized as an "eccentric". Till now the NSW Goverment has been denouncing APEC protesters as "ferals" so this represents a significant shift in put down. "Feral" suggests someone wild and maybe savage whereas "eccentric" suggests strange, harmless and potentially honorable. Eccentric one day, culture hero the next. There is respect buried in there somewhere and the opportunity for ongoing good humour. Graeme expects that Hyde Park North to be the safest place in Sydney come next APEC Friday evening. It will be surrounded with thousands of police on duty with nothing else to do but assure our safety. What will actually happen in the Park is an unknown. Who knows who will turn up and what costume, props, music and dance that they will bring? Creative anarchy. Joyful, artful and safe. If we cannot go to the APEC Fence and make it art, then let Hyde Park North be the gallery in which we express our dissent. We will decorate the park with our art. Hang the trees with slogans, placards and visual art. Over 1000 media people are accredited for APEC. Our artful dissent will not go unnoticed. For peace. For justice. For the Earth! Graeme Dunstan &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& 25 August 2007 An APEC Pilgrim's Progress Letter to Rainbow Region friends sent to the Byron Echo, the Northern Rivers Echo and the Nimbin Good Times, 30 August 2007 dear Michael, Tessa and Rob Here is a progress report on Peacebus.com's pilgrimage to Sydney and the APEC Ghost Dance. Along the road my talk-up mantra has been: "If the promise of APEC is more corporate greed, more corrupt government, more resource piracy, more destruction of the Earth, more wars and more nukes, let the dead dance!" Happy Wheels is now in Sydney chugging on three of four cylinders but getting along none the less thanks to the kindness and generosity of friends along the way. After a break down in Newcastle last week, $460 was raised and donated by passing the hat around in Cullen Street, Nimbin, for fuel pump repairs to the aging and worn out wheeled warrior. This metaphor too, too applicable to its captain. Eight days out from APEC as I write and I can say with certainty that the Ghost Dance will not be huge in crowd numbers but it will be noticed. Sad to say the fear raising media campaign conducted by the APEC promoters and their security fears and fetishes has had its impact. What I notice in my travels is how few are mobilizing to protest at APEC, and this a summit of world leaders in a time of war. Many activists have been intimidated: Greenpeace for example has gone to ground, the union movement likewise, silent lest Rudd's election campaign be embarrassed. The Ghost Dance signage on Happy Wheels draws lots of cheers and people tell me they will be watching for me on TV and cheering me on. I suppose I should be grateful for the goodwill of TV news junkies. Better than no goodwill at all. Others say things like: "Are you an APEC protester? Thanks for the public holiday you have created for us." Then others say stoically: "I am ignoring APEC. It's all bullshit and I don't want to know about it." As if averting one's gaze causes evil to disperse. Maybe this delusion comes from the illusion of power produced by remote control channel hopping. The other observation of my travels is that while the APEC planners talk much about expected violent protest and array themselve with riot gear, water cannon and plentiful prison accomodation, not one of the organisers I have met is planning any violence or knows of anyone planning violence. It's a beat up, folks. Big time. The calculated inculcation of fear is the practice of bullies and tryannts. Likewise the suppression of dissent. The advent of Sydney APEC is not a proud day for liberal democracy in this land. But the antidote for public fear is public courage and that's why being visible in dissent is so important to the health of liberal democracy and to the path of peace making. Not that I fear for my personal safety or the safety of my fellow Ghost Dancers come Friday 7 September. As a peaceful protest organiser with a long record, I am well know to senior police of the APEC command and liaison has been respectful and productive. Hyde Park North in the area of the Archibald Fountain has been agreed as an assembly area. We are still negotiating about a route for the Ghost Dance. The cops are saying we Ghost Dancers may not leave the park. All dressed up and nowhere to go. I want the Ghost dance to approach the APEC fence and make it art. So I am calling upon the NSW Deputy Premier, John Watkins, the Police Minister, David Campbell, and the APEC Task Force Commander, Chief Superintendent Lennon, to lighten up and be more flexible about the so called Declared Areas. Lighten up indeed. But my situation is hopeless. What influence a foolish and passionate old man in a broken down van? The journalists, so young and so shallow in research and understanding, are bemused that I am a pensioner protester. We do best we can. This I know: events do not have to have huge crowds to be noticed. We must occupy public place to bear witness to our truth, but the public space that counts is imagination. Vivid and myth making theatre does not require big numbers; just courage and imagination. Some 1000 accredited media representatives will attend APEC. The creative dissent of Ghost Dance will not be ignored. Best we can. For peace. For justice. For the Earth! Graeme Dunstan &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& 25 August 2007 Graeme is in Carrington Newcastle tapping this in the house of John Kirk, old Nimbin Aquarius mate, cinematographer and long time activist. Happy Wheels is in the street outside, rolling again thanks to the mechanics of Newcastle Auto Electrics and the $465 dollars raised by Nimbin angel, Anna Kowalezyk, rattling a can in Cullen Street, Nimbin. There were big hunks of cash that came from a couple of Cullen businesses and close friends of Graeme. But most gratifying for her was shaking the can in the Nimbin Hotel (formerly the Freemasons) and calling for gold coin donations to get Peacebus.com rolling again. The response she told Graeme was spontaneous cheers and shouted affirmations. "Hooray for Peacebus.com. I will support that!" and people digging deep. The fruit of good actions past ... Graeme was also able to sort out his Old Age pension at the Newcastle Centrelink where the staff were most helpful. While on the train to Newcastle on the evening before, Graeme got a call from a Sydney Morning Herald journalist, Edmund Tadros, curious about the Ghost Dance. Edmund asked about the Ghost Dance and what Graeme's support organisation and how old Graeme was. "Peacebus,com is both vehicle (broken down, alack) and website. 65 years. Gray haired nomad." Edmund liked that and asked to be kept informed of any responses and changes from police liaison apropos Hyde Park North assembly area. The other media call that day was from a fast talking young man on behalf of The Chasers War on Everything. Chaser Charles Firth and others are launching, even as this is being tapped in, a new print publication and website, called Manic Times. Struggling to follow the fast clip of his speech in faint reception of his mobile phone, Graeme learned that the young man was ringing around to find out what protest actions to expect at APEC; that The Chasers had some unspecified actions planned; and that Critical Mass was intending to assemble in Hyde Park North on the evening of Friday 7 too. Fact is there are not many protest actions planned at all. Ghost Dance remains a media sleeper at this time but because the field is so empty it cannot but be noticed. As for police liaison it is happening by SMS, Graeme texting Snr Sgt. Andrew Lahey: "How's it going? I need 2 be re assured." and receiving back: "it's coming together. Will ring this afternoon." and no call coming. "Patience with friends and enemies and you accord with the way things are." advises Lao Tsu. And the very informality of the communication, a re-assurance. The police and the Stop Bush rally organisers it seems are still in public conflict with the police in regard to the route of their march on Saturday 8 September and the lawyers are gathering to test the police refusal of a route that goes through martin Place and past the US Consulate and the Commonwealth Bank, a sponsor of APEC. Whatever, Graeme can imagine Andrew's negotiation skills are being tested to the full. On one hand the US/federal government pressure and the inbred fear and paranoia within police command of "violent ferals" attaching themselves to peaceful groups. On the other hand the recalcitrant Stop Bush organisers paranoid about agents provocateurs and fearful police are looking for an opportunity to test their new riot gear on real heads. Mutual suspicion and mutual fear, Graeme is happy Peacebus.com is beyond such strife. With John Kirk as his companion Graeme attended the showing of the video The Ground Truth in the Newcastle HQ of the Socialist Alliance, a first story walk up one room office in Hunter Street. Marxist Leninist books and magazines on shelves and posters on the wall, it looked more like a boy's own club house to Graeme than the engine room of violent revolution. Ground Truth is a heart breaking, anti war documentary about the human cost of the Iraq War as told by US military veterans. The occasion was meant as a fund raiser and motivator for participation in APEC. Peter McGregor had organised it and had provided hot pasta and a bottle of red wine. Very convivial. The Ghost Dance flyers well received. The meeting was attended by about seven males average age at a guess 55 years. Long term activists worried that there we no young people attending or interested. The story in the movie was that the US military has not only developed weaponry of devastating accuracy and impact, it had, since WW2 when a high proportion of soldiers could not bring themselves to even fire their rifle in battle, also developed training techniques that turn young men into killer soldiers. The result is callous and mass death for civil population of Iraq (now an estimated 1 million dead) and deep trauma for the vets when they return to family and community wounded in spirit if not in body. And a sense of betrayal when they find their welfare needs denied or minimized by the government which trained them and sent them to war. Not only does the military draw its grunts from the neighborhoods of the poor, it is the neighborhoods of the poor which are left with the care and grief of the wreckage that comes home: the invalids, the angry, the depressed and the suicidal. This ever the cost of Empire. In the discussion that followed we agreed that the voices of anguished war veterans was a great power for peace. We also talked about the mobilisation for APEC. Graeme reported that from his travel observations, there was very little mobilisation happening as yet; that the APEC fear campaign had effectively discouraged many activists, such as Friends of the Earth. At one point one of the attendees, a writer for Green Left Weekly surveyed us. "What groups do you know that are coming with violent intent?" he asked. We all agreed that we knew none such, that no one was known to be planning to attend an APEC protest (and this includes Alex Bainbridge spokesperson for the Stop Bush rally whom Graeme had asked directly) intent on provoking police and getting their heads bashed. "We may be few but our peaceful witness will be important none the less," Graeme said. "The antidote to public fear is public courage." The meeting closed at 11 pm and John and Graeme opted to go to the Lass of Gowrie Hotel for a beer or three. Friday night in the Lass is a lovely scene and patronized by arts "kids" in the networks associated with the arts collective at the old Wickham Railway Bowling which is just around the corner from the Lass. The Lass is a small pub of the English kind, very friendly and Friday night is a performance night and the performers were excellent. Lots of young people gather there, dressed in St Vinnies chic, many with dreadlocks. Apart from Ian the publican, Ian, Graeme and John the only gray heads there. The Lass was crowded but not packed and the conversation up beat, everyone seemed to have friends there. Graeme recognized a few activists from Rising Tide anti coal export and other protests past. He put up a Ghost Dance flyer and was soon in conversation, adopted by a bunch of vivacious young women (30 somethings) and their partners celebrating a birthday. The band of the night was a three piece: singer guitarist, a didge and microphone player, and a percussionist who was truly something both visually and aurally. A black cap on long bleached blonde hair, a bright red satin slip over jeans and back long sleeved top, red lip stick and a beautiful passive face, an erotic counter point to her driving conga rhythms. During a break between sets Graeme saw her month old baby brought to her by her partner for breast feeding. Here a dedication to art as deep as Graeme's dedication to journey to APEC. As it happened, amongst the feisty women who introduced themselves to Graeme that night was the birthday girl who was also an academic with a long term interest in community arts and community cultural development. She not only picked up on Ghost Dance with enthusiasm, she also got Graeme up and dancing, shaking his booty with a vigor he had not known in his student and Aquarius days. The joint was jumping. Young again! Graeme was grateful to rest his bones in Happy Wheels, his mobile kuti, that night parked outside John's workers cottage in a narrow Carrington street. In the morning Graeme put out the folding chairs and table and served breakfast for John and chatted with the smiling neighbours and passers by. One was a delivery man and his son who lived in Ingleburn but delivered mostly in Newtown. Graeme asked if he was going to APEC. "No," he said. " But I will be cheering for the protesters." What was up his nose in regard to APEC was the expense of the security operation. And for what? Business that could be conducted by diplomats and fax machines. "Those millions could have been spent on hospitals," he declared. Graeme showed him the Ghost Dance mural. He loved it and gave the Ghost Dance well. That's way we go. Fear beaten up by government, people appalled and pleased to hear of expressions of dissent. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Thursday 23 August 2007 Tapping this into his laptop in a train taking Graeme from the Katoomba in the Blue Mountains (about 100 km west of Sydney) to Newcastle (160 km north), the fare a princely sum of $2.50 pensioner concession. For this Graeme is very grateful, grateful for the ancestors who had a sense of "commonwealth" and fought and won pensions and concessions for the aged and the infirm. And more especially grateful because when on the evening before he went to the ATM in the Campbelltown RSL Club with a big thirst for a beer after a busy day of media and meetings and just a few coins his only cash, he had found the cupboard bare. Moment of truth! Here he was walking towards APEC intent of organising a Ghost Dance to challenge the murderous neo liberal ascendancy of Bush, Howard, et al with no driver's license, his vehicle Happy Wheels broken down with its flags and tools stranded in Newcastle and now no cash! Talk about marginal. But the the Buddha journeyed to enlightenment without cash, and Jesus had no need of it during his 30 years in the desert. Graeme's companion Willem Brugman of Culture Laboratory Research Theatre had arranged to meet him in Campbelltown and had set up a live to air interview on the community radio there, the studio of which is housed in the Club. Willem had just $20 in his pocket but it was enough to cover beer and petrol to get us to Katoomba, where Willem and his family reside. Campbelltown is 100 km south east of Katoomba. Which means Graeme is covering a lot of territory talking up Ghost Dance and this is only possible because of the kindness of friends and concession fares. At Centrelink this morning Katoomba Graeme learned that on his 65th birthday his mature aged pension had been suspended and now he must apply for an Old Age pension, fill in forms, provide ID and re-establish his bona fides. ” This process might take 2 weeks before a pension payment is made, he was told. Graeme asked if the Centrelink customer service officer might sing him a round of Happy Birthday and departed with a fist full of forms. Such are the hazards of the nomad life. Every postal address, an address of convenience and friends indifferent about forwarding mail. As part of Graeme's Buddhist practice, and this a teaching given him by the Venerable Santithtito, a Mahayana teaching from a Theravardin monk, he visualises and invokes the guidance of Dhyani Buddha Ratnasambhava, the Jewel Becoming One. Ratnasambhava, the Glorious One, the Victorious one, the Precious one, the direction is south, whose element is Earth and whose special power is the ability to "remove the subtle poisons of pride and establish equal mindedness in the face of gain and loss, praise and blame, fame and disgrace, pleasure and pain". For Graeme the journey to APEC is undertaken as a pilgrimage for peace and creative dissent but also a meditation practice on equal mindedness and equanimity. Fearless and hopeless, he puts his feet on the road and his heart on the task. He "draws strength from the Unobstructed" and "lets the Stream flow naturally", with neither "suppression nor indifference". One step at a time, one step after another, noticing events, opportunities and obstacles as they arise, doing best he can to produce the Ghost Dance as a joyful, artful and safe event. Big or small the Ghost Dance will certainly happen. And whether it happens big or small, whether it be judged a success or failure, whether Graeme be famed or disgraced, praised or blamed, are matters of indifference to him. The essence of pilgrimage is the meeting of obstacles and their transformation into blessings. Dissent as a holy path. While on the platform in Sydney Central Station waiting for the Campbelltown train, a call from Ten Network News. They had picked up on the media release put out the day before, the web link for which they had found on the Stop Bush Rally website. This the fruit of good actions past, to wit the endorsement the Ghost Dance given by the Stop Bush rally organising group after Graeme addressed their meeting at UTS on Monday night The Ten Network news man wanted to get some video of Ghost Dance preparations. Serendipity - the skellie backpack puppets were stored at Wedderburn. "Come to Wedderburn and you will see a Ghost dance rehearsal," said Graeme. And so it was arranged. Next call was from Kieran de Silva, a 24 year old Campbelltown resident, materials scientist and friend from the Waking Up in the Bush retreat that Graeme had organised in 2003. Also a Peacebus companion at the Chullora Cyanide Watch Graeme organised in March 2007. Kieran had received the Ghost Dance media alert email from Graeme and was calling to affirm his intention to come to the Ghost dance in body paint. "Meet me at Campbelltown station and you can dance the skellies for Ten News," said Graeme. And so it was that Ten Crew video-ed old man Graeme teaching young man Kieran to dance the backpack puppets in the bush of Wedderburn while Willem beat a drum. Under the skellie puppet Kieran, dressed in black, dark eyes bright, shoulder length hair and straggly chin beard looked the very image of Renaissance man, so handsome. Martin, the Ten News camera man and his assistant Jess, loved the images and shot about 15 minutes of footage, "More than I would shoot for a short film," said Martin. It was supposed to have been broadcast that night. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't; Graeme watches little television. Whatever the Ghost Dance is out there, launched into Sydney media. Next meeting set up Willem was with the lads of Creative TV in Claymore, Campbelltown, where they met Philip and Brenton, the directors and producers of short videos about local events. Philip had been a resident of Claymore for 5 years and his house was a small Housing Commission unit whose tiny back yard had been transformed into a terraced vegetable garden and whose tiny rooms were transformed into a movie studio stacked high with lighting gear, computers, cables and black boxes. . Only the kitchen seemed clear of electronics and there Rosalind, Philips partner, presided. Rosalind is a Philippino and former PA to the Lao Minister for Agriculture and she loves to cook. She was soon offering us delicious cauliflower soup, slices of pizza and ginger tea. Philip and Brenton loved the Ghost Dance idea and at once offered to record it and produce a visual record. From there we went back to Wedderburn and Wat Buddhalavarn, the Lao supported Buddhist forest monastery, where we sat in the mandala under the pine tree at the round table of Venerable Santithtito. Santi was in fine spirits and delighted to have three Dharma friends appear on his doorstep. Willem had wanted to see him to ask Santi to come to Rites of Spring festival which he is organising in a private sculpture garden at Rydal 25 October. Santi eagerly accepted and gushed forth with teachings. He had also received Graeme's Ghost dance media alert and he been thinking about ghosts and he told us that there were many varieties of ghosts. Some ghosts are the projections of unwholesome mind states of no material substance but creating material effects; others are created by strong attachments to place or circumstance; still others are illusions within the mind created by clinging and aversions. "A ghost's feet do not touch the ground," Santi observed. Ungrounded ghosts he suggested were a metaphor for governments (Republican and Democrat, Liberal and Labor) which were boxed in and isolated from social reality by walls and fences made of layer upon layer of denial and lies past. Santi had many other wise insights but under the barrage of words, Graeme fatigued and nodded off. As they we were leaving the abbott and Santi's brother monks, all Lao, returned. Their faces also lit up in recognition, a row of saffron robed smiles. The interview on Macarthur Community Radio 2MCR 1003FM was to be conducted by Philip as part of his Body, Spirt and Mind program but his slot was 10 pm to midnight. The radio station is housed in the Campbelltown RSL Club and we had four hours to wait. The Campbelltown RSL Club is a wonderland of "tasteful" club decor, flashing poker machine lights, and Tv monitors broadcasting meaningless race results. A broad and squat Samoan bouncer surveyed the scene with a furrowed brow though not obvious to us was the threat he was seeking amongst the patrons who were so bored that boredom had become a cage from which they would never break out. The living dead, Graeme and Will concluded. Graeme began to see skellies everywhere. Though the Club was warmer than a park bench, we drank down our beer and retreated, A call from Kieran came and we were rescued. He offered to cook for us and give us refuge in his mother's house in Rous. Into the desolate suburbs we ventured, cashless and guided in by mobile phone calls and diminishing credit. Kieran fed us on couscous, chick peas and chicken and Willem and Graeme fell upon it with gratitude and relish. And Graeme got to lie down in a comfortable sofa, with heater beside and rest for a couple of hours. As radio producer Philip proved to be a groover, a master of overlaying sound and his choice of music excellent, starting with John Lennon's "Power to the People". Graeme was given plenty of time to speak about peace activism and what is more, he did it to rhythm. Who knows who and how many heard the live broadcast? But the because the show is also webcast and the pod will be downloadable and re-playable for a long time to come. Out there. Into the night, Willem drove and Graeme slept, as they journeyed along the North Road from Narellan to Penrith then onto the Western Highway (both originally convict built in times of tyranny past) and up the mountains to the mists of Katoomba. Next morning Graeme put out a call for dana (Pali for generosity). His daughter Dr Holly High responded first with a SMS saying "pleased to help", likewise his Dharma buddy John "Wititj" Allan from The Channon. And cash strapped Willem too put in $50. Graeme was feted by his household particularly Maya Thiango Willem and Catherine's their 3 year old daughter. Last April Graeme had buried his beloved dog, Jennifer the Maremma in that back yard. On the journey from Nimbin Graeme had received an email photo from Willem of a daffodil growing on the grave. "Jennifer has turned into a flower," Thiango told Graeme. In Katoomba Graeme was able to make a brief calls on his admirable Friend of the Earth and G&L Mardi Gras skellie dancer, Nat Lowery, and enlist her support. In Nat's backyard a temporary compound held seven 4 week old puppies by her partner's dog, Jas, all wag and smiles and exuding g love and playfulness. Nat told Graeme she had had a call from a senior NSW police officer asking if she or Friends of the Earth were organising anything for APEC. She said that apart from an exhibition in an inner city gallery, there would be no FOE events at APEC. Seems the APEC fear campaign has worked, many activists discouraged. Particularly by the arrests, house searches and outright threats made by the Federal Police in the follow up from the Melbourne G20 protests. The Stop Bush rally organisers are hoping for a Melbourne S11 turn out and suggesting 20,000 will turn out. But Graeme's observation is there is very little mobilisation is happening for APEC and expects that The Stop Bush rally will be lucky to get 1000. May he be proven wrong. Nat hadn't found the phone enquiry intimidating. Rather the direct question reflected good sense by APEC police planners. Better than relying on the dubious information that comes from spies, informers and wire taps, ask known organisers direct. Being an organiser known to police has to be seen as a compliment. We do set out with the organising aim of being noticed. Second Ghost Dance flyer drop off in Katoomba was to Franklin Scarf of the Earth Repair Foundation, long time friend of Benny Zable who will be doing an APEC support protest outside the FOX HQ in New York. Willem dropped Graeme off at the Katoomba Centrelink office to sort out his pension and as he arrived call from Bev Carlyle, Cyanide Watch collaborator from Sound Solutions in Lismore came offering Amex credit and news that $700 had been raised in Nimbin for the repair of Happy Wheels. One of the things that Graeme said during his interview on MacArthur Community Radio is that the path out of this time of tyranny and war will not be found on television nor will it come with a government support or a corporate sponsorship. Rather the path to peace will be revealed by friendliness and generosity. And so it is. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Monday 20 August 2007 dear Ghost Dance friends, This morning at 9.30 am I met with Snr Sgt Andrew Lahey, highest paid negotiator in the NSW Police Service. And a mate. Andrew and I had had an intense, challenging and absolutely fruitful interaction during the organising of the 30A protests against the August 2004 Forbes Global CEO Conference. Forbes was a precursor and a try out for APEC: likewise a gathering of the rich and powerful, a neo liberal War on Terror security operation involving some 2000 police, and likewise putting up fences and occupying the Opera House and Circular Quay precinct. We met in the same King Street cafe that we used during 30A. Our first meeting had been in a Newtown park and during it Andrew's partner went into labor. But so committed to peaceful liaison was he, that he chose to stay with us radicals and the job rather than rushing away to his wife. At the time I had respected his commitment and chastised him. Andrew tells me that when he reflects on the joy of that boy, his son now two years old, he remembers our meeting ... and smiles. Since 30A Andrew has become a much respected police negotiators and he has written and delivered training courses on the subject. Win-win outcomes, peaceful and safe, are his bread and butter. What better man to be dealing with on APEC protest organising? An expert in his field. And he considers me a friend. God bless him. Andrew assured me that my Peacebus.com work was well known and respected by many senior NSW police including the new Sydney Area Commander, Superintendent Dave Owens and the head of the Operations Special Group, these the trained, head busting riot cops. That's very good news. See www.peacebus.com/OSG All, he said, were giving Peacebus.com and the Ghost Dance their thumbs up. The APEC police command may have fears about some groups which their INTELL tells them are coming to protest at APEC, but no worries or fears about Peacebus.com. Here the good fruit of artful and peaceful protest past! Tomorrow morning I expect Andrew to confirm that Hyde Park North will be available on the evening Friday 7 September as an assembly area. He will also come back to me with a route for a Ghost Dance parade that starts in Hyde Park and returns there. I have proposed 11 pm as a finishing time. The Search Foundation also has approval to present a Rally/Festival in that same location earlier in the day. I am proposing to support that event with flags and also to conduct a community arts Ghost Dance mask and costume making workshop in the park. And stay on into the evening, lighting lanterns when the sun goes down. I want to invite Food Not Bombs to offer food that night. Creative dissent is what i want to foster and I am seeing Ghost Dance as being chaotic and amazing with spontaneous street theatre. Lots of it. Lots of drums. Lots of costume. Lots of dance. Best we can, For sure I know that evening of APEC when the Ghosts dance, Friday 7 September, we will have the blessings and goodwill of many, many Sydney citizens, including many, many police officers. That night by the Archibald Fountain in Hyde Park North will be the safest and most artful place to be in Sydney. Joyful, artful and safe, our credo. Kindness and friendliness, our path. Building community. Building resistance. For peace. For justice. For the Earth! Graeme Dunstan 20 August 2007 PS I will update the flyers tomorrow link a new poster design to www.peacebus.com/GhostDance PPS Pass the good news onto friends. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Sunday 19 August 2007 Graeme is in Camperdown, Sydney, stayiing at his daughter's home. But not with Happy Wheels which had to be towed to a safe refuge in Newcastle and left behind so that Graeme could go onto Sydney and keep the appointments made for Ghost Dance organising. Happy Wheels chose to break down outside Devonshire House, 408 King Street, Newcastle West. Devonshire House is the Newcastle HQ for the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and the Combined Firemen, Mechanical and Engineeering Union (CFMEU). Pip and Graeme set up folding table and chairs on the pavement and had a cup of tea as a first step to deciding what next. They we soon entertaining curious union organisers, old guys who had seen prouder moments and prouder attitudes in union movement that was being expressed by the current ALP kowtowing leadership. Despite the change of spark plugs on the day before Happy Wheels was running unevenly when Graeme and Pip departed John Kirk's place in Carrington (three cylinders of four firing). It got worse from there. The core problem with Happy Wheels' engine is old age. The immediate problem was ignition. But as much as Graeme tinkered with the engine, there was no way he could get Happy Wheels to get other cylinders to fire. Electronic fuel injection. Though there is no shortage of fuel on the non firing plugs. Beyond Graeme's mechanical aptitude. So it was that Graeme and Pip parted ways, Graeme catching a train south to Sydney and Pip a train north to Coffs Harbour and home. What a delight their Peacebus.com companionship had been. A motor transplant is the ultimate solution for Happy Wheels. But Graeme wants to do this in Sydney rather than Newcastle. So he is praying for someone with more mechanical aptitude than he to look at it to get it rolling again. Mechanical breakdowns all part of the journey to APEC. Best we can, the Peacebus,com credo. That night Graeme met with a couple of his artist friends from his community arts days in the early 80s, moCynthia Turner and Janine Hilder. Both of them are excellent and experienced street performers and costume makers who worked together in Circus Solaris. Both were keen to do something for APEC. In particular they said how appalled they were by the Sydney APEC wall. How to make this insult to Sydeny-siders artful? Good question. On Satuday 18 Graeme attended the presentation of Thomas Cassidy, a former US Marine who served in a tank battalion during the invasion of Iraq and is now in Australia on a speaking tour representing Iraq Veterans Against the War. Cassidy had many ghastly stories to tell of US military murder, callousness and deceit and he like the other 1000 vets who have joined together in IVAW, mentored by the Viet vets of VVAW, to stop the war in Iraq. "Wars end when soldiers refuse to fight," he said. Good on him. The meeting took place in the Teachers Federatio Auditorium in Surry Hillas and attracted maybe 250 participants. It was hosted by Stop the War coalition and was used as an opportunity to promte the Stop Bush, Make Howard History APEC rally on Saturday 8 September. Graeme met the rally organisers there and handed out Ghost Dance flyers. He is pleased to report that the Ghost Dance project got a lot support and encouragement there and the Stop Bush rally and the Ghost Dance will be melded and mutually supporting. After Graeme met with Phil Relf and a couple of his street theatre friends. Phil is manager of the Pine Street Creative Arts Centre but more importantly he is part of the network of graduates and friends of the Charles Sturt University (Bathurst) Theatre and Media School under the direction of Professor Bill Blaikie. Like Graeme, Bill has had a long association with the out door celebratory theatre of Welfare State International. Good news! Phil and his mates reckon it a great opportunity for creative dissent. They immediately began talking about how to get their skellie puppets dancing and how to call the help in their street theatre friends. Both Phil and Graeme agree on this: that the best way of keeping the energy of dissent from becoming violent is to engage it in creative and participatory expression. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Friday 17 August 2007 In Newcastle at the Battle Ground internet cafe tapping this in. Pip Wilson, Graeme's driver, is downtown getting Ghost Dance flyers printed. A phone call: "Unhappy news about Happy Wheels. She blew smoke and stopped in King Street." Bad news indeed. This morning Happy Wheels started with a splutter, running unevenly, despite the new plugs put in yesterday. Graeme prays for mercy from the god of mechanical things; his organising Ghost Dance organising that frail and vulnerable. Money is short. The pair had been accommodated in Newcastle in the tiny Carrington former workers cottage owned by John Kirk, radical cinematographer and a friend since Bush Video days at the Aquarius Festival. Yesterday John drove Pip around Newcastle to meet various individuals and groups. Of particular cheer was Peter MacGregor, Socialist Alliance organiser in Newcastle, former lecturer in politics at University of Western Sydney. A gray haired, kind hearted, dedicated activist like Graeme, it was a meeting of kindred spirits. Peter gave the Ghost Dance his enthusiastic endorsement and Graeme lists of local activists to contact. They will meet again in Sydney on Saturday. Pip and Graeme also met with Brian Joyce, director of the Newcastle Writers Centre. Brian gave Pip excellent advice in regard to publishing his historical fiction novel, Face in the Street, which is about the life and times of Henry lawson and his formidable mother, Louisa Lawson the fierce women's rights advocate. The novel describes inner Sydney in the 1890s as alive with anarchist and anti imperialism activity and the Lawson's as major contributors to radical publishing. They intend that the Ghost Dance invoke that fine tradition of resistance. Best news on Ghost Dance organising was a call from Snr Sgt Andrew Lahey, who rang on Wednesday 15 August to set up a meeting to negotiate public place for the Ghost Dance. Graeme had worked with the Andrew as chief liaison officer on the 30A Forbes Global CEO Conference of August 2004 which was precursor neo-liberal Sydney city lock-down. See www.peacebus.com/30A Andrew was most positive about Ghost Dance and suggested that Hyde Park North would be available as an assembly area. Good news. We will meet and negotiate the details in Sydney on Monday 22 August. For peace. For justice. For the Earth! &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& 15 August 2007 Peacebus.com is in Belligen, departing this afternoon for Newcastle, talking up APEC resistance as we go. Pip Wilson, former editor of the Bellingen hippie magazine, Maggies Farm, and subsequently the counter culture life style magazine, Simply Living, Pip is an age mate of Graeme, a fellow old hippie with writing and media skills. He is also an experienced blogger. In just 24 hours after arriving from Nimbin/Lismore, Pip set up the Bello Ghost Dance Club which is a bunch of friends who will meet at least weekly to make skellie costumes and foucus support for a contingent of activists from Bellingen to participate in the Sydney APEC Ghost Dance. Together Graeme and Pip spruiked the Ghost Dance on community radio 2BBB-FM. It was Leo program, and Leo is organising a mock trial of John Howard PM in Bellingen on 25 August. The mock trial he organised last year played to a packed house. Such is the wide spread concern and revulsion for our war criminal prime minister. Before leaving Bellingen Graeme made up a couple cardboard templates for skellies in the drive way of Pips home. As we commented on radio, the best an most successful actions are those with broad based support, where people participate as self supporting and self organising affinity groups. This is the creative dissent of anarchism at work. The new APEC Peacebus.com mural was unveilled in Cullen Street Nimbin on Friday 10 September with a bit of ceremony and spruiking in the street. Painted by Elspeth Jones, Helen Rodreguiz (both major conbtributors to the street art of the Nimbin MUseum and HEMP Embassy) and Graeme in the garden of the Spinx Rock community in the upper Tweed valley in the days before, the mural won instant approval. What's more the launch attracted sympathetic local media interest with radio interviews on ABC Radio 2NR and Radio 2LM/ZZZ. Local Bunjalung Wybul clan elder and traditional Native Title holder, Auntie Viv Roberts, came to the Peacebus.com microphone and gave her blessings to the APEC Ghost Dance mission saying that the land theft and resource piracy of John Howard and his neo liberal mates was causing suffering for native people's everywhere.