Pushing a political barrow is not really my thing. I don’t belong to a political party, nor have I ever attended a protest. My biggest foray into activisim was when I joined The Wilderness Society about five years ago. I’d been stirred into signing up after a walk amongst the tall trees in south-west Tasmania.
Of late I’ve become increasingly concerned about how I can act locally on eco-issues and thought that a good first step would be to receive the e-newsletter from the Newcastle Greens.
Recently, one of their unsung heroes – Beverely – put out a call, asking for volunteers for their stall at the Cultural STOMP, held at Civic Park. I’ve been to previous STOMPS and have always been impressed by the inclusive, family-friendly and entertaining atmosphere. So I emailed Beveley and asked her to put me down from 2-4pm.
The STOMP was first started as a peaceful protest alternative in response to the launch of the One Nation political party in the Hunter. Now in its 13th year, the theme for this STOMP came from Gandhi’s famous quote: ‘you must be the change that you wish to see in the world.’
I arrived at Civic Park and instantly headed for the Hare Krishna tent. Gulped down a delicious meal of rice, curry and vege nuggets and then strolled up to the Greens tent, sleeves rolled up, ready to spruik.
“Not much to it,” says the girl who I was taking over from. “Give out our free newspapers, and you’ll probably get people wanting to buy tee-shirts. The money is in the box under the table. I’m off to get lunch.” She thrust some folded up newspapers into my chest and off she went.
I looked warily at the passing parade of people. Taking a deep breath I held out a newspaper to my first unsuspecting passer-by. “Would you like a copy of the free Greens newspaper?” I squeaked. “Sure, thanks” came the reply from a dreadlocked teenager. ‘Wow,’ I thought. ‘That wasn’t too hard.’ I held out my next paper to a girl with a guitar slung over her shoulder and repeated my mantra.
“Thanks” she smiled at me and off she went.
‘What was I worried about?” I thought to myself. Within half an hour, with the help of a couple of other volunteers, we had offloaded all the newspapers.
Some people stayed for a chat – one guy came and bought a Clean Energy tee-shirt, disclosing that he was a coal miner from Singleton. ‘You’d be amazed at the damage that coal mining does to the land; especially open-cut mining’ he confided. A gorgeous young student from Norway was interested in our countries Green policies and was surprised when I told her that we have Greens politicians in parliament. She gave a donation and took some stickers and badges.
Also had a great chat to Zane, a local activist. He was manning the Socialist alliance stall and we discussed upcoming climate change rallies.
Acting locally to 'be the change' was an inspirational step in my eco-journey. Can't wait until next year.