Our Values, Vision and Actions may be reviewed and updated at any time, thank you for giving them your consideration.
Some values from the community in the archives
“It’s very different now, this is a change. They want to sit side-by-side beside us, and they actually want to hear our conversation.” Pastor Frank Roberts Jnr (Widjabul Wia-bal Bundjalung Elder, following the 1973 Nimbin Aquarius Festival, as quoted by his daughter Rhoda Roberts in her speech in 2019 at The Terania Creek Protest exhibition opening, Lismore Regional Gallery.)
‘Really beautiful’ was the comment of Glyn Kelly, of Sydney. He said the festival ‘just expanded my mind and taught me many new things, especially toleration. Now I can sit quiet and listen instead of arguing and questioning all the time’. (Glyn Kelly, “Aquarius Festival at Nimbin”. The Northern Star, 23 May 1973).
This is the legacy of the Aquarius Festival. We dared to dream for a future. The dreams took root and a substantial social reality evolved. We changed our world. Johnny Allen, Graeme Dunstan and Paul Joseph (Invitation… Aquarius Revisited, Reunion of Participants and Organisers, 1993)
The Aquarius Festival innovatively demonstrated the diversity of cultural influences that were shaping the future and it welcomed all, regardless of appearance, race, education, class, religion, recreational drug habit or health. Tolerance and compassion became key values in the community life created by the new settlers. Ros Derrett (Regional festivals: nourishing community resilience: the nature and role of cultural festivals in Northern Rivers NSW communities, 2008)
This work is an ongoing diverse and dispersed program of research and development taking place outside the clutches of government agencies and without the university stamp of approval. The program holds, rather, to values of nonhierarchical, cooperative, grassroots, low-cost methods that grapple with the implications of humanity living enmeshed with the earth. Rob Garbutt (Creating Space for Protest and Possibility: Nimbin, Australia, from 1973. Contention (Brooklyn, N.Y.), 7(1), 66-80. 2019)
Acknowledgement of Country
We affirm and celebrate our shared 50+ year legacy of sitting side-by-side and listening with Bundjalung Community here on Bundjalung Country. We acknowledge the original people of the Bundjalung Nation as traditional custodians of the land on which we gather, keep archives and share stories. We respect Bundjalung Elders past, present and emerging and all First Nations people across this earth.
Aquarius Archives Working Group
Aquarius Archives Working Group (AAWG) is a Working Group of the Nimbin Aquarius Foundation Inc. (NAFI), a community grass-roots not-for-profit charity since 1993. AAWG members are passionate and curious Agents For Change dedicated to looking after and sharing stories connected to the Aquarius Festival 1973 and its significant legacy. We come together for the public benefit to collect, catalogue, archive, digitise and securely store the AAC collections. We aim to provide safe and secure access to the collections, including meaningful exhibitions and events to celebrate Aquarius values and lifestyle with the Nimbin community and the world.
Inspired by the values of the Aquarius counterculture, these AAWG Values, Vision and Actions are designed to look after our mental, social and emotional wellbeing, so that we may collaborate safely, with joy and gratitude.
Vision
The 1973 Nimbin Aquarius Festival was organised as a moral imperative to break with failing mainstream values in times of crisis, and to create a vision for living together in harmony. Aquarius Archives Working Group (AAWG) continues with this vision to create a kinder, more peaceful and sustainable way of life together.
Values
Our relational values are fundamental to building and maintaining respectful and trusting relationships with each other and the community.
Respect
We learn with each other by listening well. Our differences are strengths when we are all equal. We treat our donors and our shared collection of items and their stories with respect. We support voice equality and seek opportunities to engage with fellow non-dominating cultures and countercultures.
Integrity
The Nimbin Aquarius community trusts us with their precious stories and legacy because they know who we are, that we are trustworthy, honest and reliable.
Responsibility
Each AAWG member is an Agent of Change who is responsible for their own actions, ideas, tasks, and agreements with other members and the Group. If you do not have the capacity to look after your own ideas and contributions to completion, please do not assume that others will. Instead, communicate respectfully about what you need help with or need to let go, and ask nicely.
Reciprocity
Reciprocity is not transactional; what goes around comes around. Be generous when and how you can, but also have boundaries, know your limits and say no sometimes, with grace. Creating a thriving future includes nurturing our own livelihood, and directs the benefit from our work into the wellbeing of the local community of which we are a part.
Actions
Actions are the life of our Vision and Values.
Collaboration
The 1973 Aquarius Festival theme of survival was about collective survival through collaborative relationships, not individualist competition. We collaborate by spending informal time together and getting to know one another, nurturing healthy relationships. We refuse to let the dominating culture kill our joy! We do this for the love of earth, community and all kindred beings in Bundjalung Country.
Protocols
AA Working Group members are Agents of Change who agree to:
- Listen carefully to and exemplify our shared values (above).
- Become a member of NAFI.
- Read and abide by all AAC policies relevant to your activities as an AAC Agent of Change, including the AAC Collections Policy.
- Mitigate harmful hierarchical relations and aim for lateral, community-minded relationships.
- Act in a way to protect the health and safety of ourselves and those around us, including complying with government regulations.
- Read and abide by our brief Code of Conduct for visitors.
What We Do
AAWG Agents make real contributions through actions not limited to:
- Attending regular gatherings to check in and update with the Working Group.
- Looking after physical collections in storage at AAC depot, and moving them safely between AAC Depot and AAC Headquarters.
- Following AAC Collections Policy when accepting physical collection donations and/or sharing collections (access requests, exhibitions etc.) at AAC Headquarters.
- Following AAC Collections Policy when accepting donations of, looking after and/or sharing digital collections in the AAC digital workspace, website and/or social media.
- Workplace health and safety monitoring and reporting.
- Fundraising activities, including merchandising.
- Negotiating bequest agreements.
- Grant, policy and document writing and editing.
- Bookkeeping and grant acquittal.
- Outreach, community and professional engagement.
- Training and workshop organising.
- Professional and personal development.
- Collecting oral histories.
- Conflict management (below).
Active Listening to Bundjalung Community
As part of Nimbin Aquarius relationship with Bundjalung Community, we:
- Prioritise Bundjalung Community needs and foster inclusion;
- Respect Bundjalung culture is alive and to be appreciated, not appropriated;
- Keep the Bundjalung Community informed of intent, practice and progress;
- Answer any questions from the Bundjalung Community;
- Not represent or speak on behalf of the Bundjalung Community at any time;
- Engage with open, positive and ethical interactions;
- Uphold our values (above);
- Share authentic story and listen well;
- Care for self, others, and diverse beings and entities, here and now.
Joining, Collaborating with and Visiting Us
We are not an open group.
New members and any guests (including consultants) should be discussed and approved at a Working Group gathering before inviting them to join or collaborate with us in future. This is our relational approach to building and maintaining a cohesive Working Group.
Visitors may drop into AAC Headquarters when someone is around and available and access any collections there on display. Access to collections in storage is by prior appointment only, including a completed AAC Access Agreement. Requested items are to be transferred from the Depot to Headquarters for access and returned safely to the Depot. Our Visitor Code of Conduct will always be accessible and on display at Headquarters.
Regular Working Group Circles
Our regular meetings are not open to the public.
Our regular Working Group Circles are loosely based on talking/sharing circle protocols, a way of working together with a rich tradition in the community. These circles are an honouring ceremony with an intention to look after each other, our stories and Bundjalung Country together. While we may not adhere to strict protocols for taking turns such as a talking stick, please keep in mind your presence in relation to each person present and as a whole group. During a Working Group Circle please:
- Do not interrupt others, mostly, within reason, mindfully.
- Keep it short, sweet and to the point.
- Listen carefully without judgement.
- Try to speak for yourself and not others.
- Participate in full spirit.
Regular Working Group Circle track and record our Actions, and are where Agents of Change are responsible through their actions. Circles do not have a formal agenda and are not recorded in minutes. We are focussed on Actions which are recorded and updated in a shared collaborative digital workspace accessible to the AAC Working Group.
Conflict Management
Peace and love require energy and attention, and conflict between humans is an inevitable reality. Please help us to manage conflict with all your expertise and skills learned in Intentional Communities that exemplify Aquarian ways to live together in harmony. Please refrain from involving the AAC Working Group in interpersonal conflict.
We will not tolerate anyone who may harass, bully, intimidate, vilify, victimise, or be violent, and such a person may be denied access to the collection, may be obliged to leave and may be excluded from social media and our other online spaces.
Gratitude
AAC Working Group gratefully acknowledges those who come before us as custodians of stories and archives, who work side-by-side with us today and who carry stories into the future. With respect, we now share messages from some of these custodians: Bundjalung Elders, 1973 Nimbin Aquarius Festival Organisers and Nimbin Aquarius Foundation Inc.:
