Hippie Movement

The Hippie
Movement
THE SIGNIFICANCE IN NEW ZEALAND
Achievement Standard 1.2
Cindy Nguyen

CONTENTS
THE ORIGIN
PAGE ONE
THE PROTESTS
PAGE TWO
THE FESTIVALS
PAGE SIX
THE COMMUNES
PAGE NINE
THE IMPACT
PAGE ELEVEN

1
I
THE ORIGIN
Hipster - where the word hippie derived from - originated from the
song Harry the Hipster by Harry Gibson in 1940. In the song,
Gibson references the Beatniks – followers of the Beat Generation;
a movement that expressed anti-conformist ideas through
literature.
The Wandervogel movement, in Germany, from 1896 to 1908.
Youth all over Germany rose to counter the developing
urbanisation. They opposed conventional German ethics and forms
of entertainment; promoting their underground music and
different styles.
They were the generation that gave back to the Earth, the ones that
longed for their ancestor’s simple, organic, spiritual lifestyle. After
migrating to the United States, German Wandervogels influenced
everyday ordinary Americans to live as they did - free, eco-friendly
and positively.
Following, then came the 1950s, the Beat Generation - where drug
experimentation, bisexuality, homosexuality, exploration of other
religions and a rejection of materialism began.
The 'Beatniks' that went by these beliefs had earned the label of
being degenerates - immoral bohemians who were dedicated to
living life as non-conformists and free spirits. These Beatniks rose
all over the country - emerging specifically from New York City
and San Francisco - and played a part in the significant hippie
movement that was yet to come.

2
II
THE PROTESTS
"It was a very conservative time in the ‘60s in this country. It was grey, it was selfrighteous,
it was stuffy, it was conventional, it opened at eight and shut at six at
night, that was it." - Chris Hegan
New Zealand was years behind the initial culture shift that took place in the
United States. Significant events transpired and created a gradual societal
change that occurred over decades. Issues that had risen in the 1960's
provoked the rise of counter-culture, starting with the anti-war movements
that gained momentum in the late '60s and reflected New Zealand's political
stance on international issues.
“Things started to rip apart in the mid to late ‘60s, especially with New
Zealand’s involvement in the Vietnam War. Millions of people died in that
war and we just saw it as important to do everything that we could to bring it to
a halt.” - Roger Fowler
As war progressed, so did the counter-culture and protest movements -
although counter-culture movements were influenced by America, New
Zealand protestors took a different approach
by demonstrating their opinions on
anti-authoritarian, pacifism
and of course, anti-war
as opposed to Americans
who focused more
on anti-conscription.
Protestors gather on Cuba Street, outside Wellington Town Hall,
1st of May, 1971
They influenced the public
with hunger strikes, street theatre, film
festivals and teachings; the aim of these
various types of protests was to stress an
importance on information they believed
the media and New Zealand government
were keeping from people.

3
“We were rejecting what we had come from and I think that was
something really strong in that movement, a real rejection of the
establishment.” - Olivia Jones
Street Marches began in 1964 where different individuals came
together and began using ideas from other international protests.
They organised ‘mobes’ which involved a combination of marches,
rallies and outdoor concerts.
1969 was the year that protests became significant to New Zealand’s
culture; down in Canterbury University, a gathering of
approximately 300 students marched to the Army Headquarters in
objection to the war.
In 1971, students marched to the US embassy situated in Wellington
holding a banner of 28 figures, in representation of the death toll of
New Zealanders in the Vietnam War. This march then progressed
into a 28-hour vigil where a figure was stripped off every hour.
From left: Roger Cruickshank, Tony Larsen, George Rosenberg
A march along Willis Street, Wellington in 1970

JUMPING SUNDAYS
4
“Myers Park at that time was where you
were actually legally allowed to stand on a
soapbox and give a speech, so that became our
gathering point, and it just became basically
too small. Albert Park, right next to the
university, and I just think it was
spontaneous, well everyone said ‘I’m sick of
talking about it, why don’t we all just go?’
And there were 10 or 12 thousand showing
up every Sunday.” – Tim Shadbolt
The liberation of Albert Park conducted
by Tim Shadbolt on September 1st, 1969
was a march that claimed to 'take back the
land for the people' after the sought for a
bigger place to congregate than the
designated free speech zone - Myers Park.
An event that accumulated thousands of hippies
began; Jumping Sundays was a weekly gathering where people of all ages were
free to express their thoughts and opinions on politics, drugs, dance, music and
fashion.
It attracted over 10,000 people weekly but eventually New Zealand’s troops
were pulled out of Vietnam and there was no reason to protest anymore,
resulting in Jumping Sundays coming to a halt in 1980.
Tim Shadbolt
1st of September, 1969
Crowds gather in
Albert Park
around the
rotunda to watch
Dragons play
1975

"A generation seemed to be in revolt... New Zealand culture was seen as terribly
stultifying, conformist, racist and sexist... the radical student and youth movement
questioned the lack of democracy and the quality of life (or alienation) in society," –
Historian Toby Boraman.
5
As a result of the shift in culture, society in New Zealand was now
divided into the older conservatives and the younger radical generation who
sought for change and began questioning the social norms set by the
generations that came before them.
With an audience consisting of mainly university students, protests against the
Vietnam War accumulated extraordinary numbers and the outburst of youth
culture shocked the nation – it brought social and long-term political change to
New Zealand.
Nga Tamatoa members: Tame Iti and John Ohia march with the Polynesian Panthers along Queen
Street, Auckland
14th of July, 1972
Protestors march onto United States Consulate in Auckland
21st of April 1972
Members of the Polynesian Panthers march during
national anti-war mobilisation
14th of July, 1972
Progressive Youth Movement
march in Wellington

III
6
THE FESTIVALS
Nambassa Festival 1978 poster
NAMBASSA
Nambassa – one of New Zealand’s biggest
festivals – took place in the Karangahake
Gorge between Paeroa and Waihi.
Established in 1976, it was a multi-day event
that held counterculture gatherings;
emphasising arts and music, social, political,
religious, cultural and sexual expression and
featured workshops that displayed the support
of alternative medicine and the use
sustainable energy. For key organiser, Peter
Terry, Nambassa wasn’t just about the music;
it was about spiritualism, education,
conservation and dreams of a better world.
The Nambassa music festival attracted over
75,000 people and became a distinctive New
Zealand hippie event that lives on as a
national phenomenon.
The first three-day festival in January 1978 had an attendance of 25,000 people and was
held on Phil and Pat Hulses’ 400-acre farm in Golden Valley, north of Waihi; the second
– recognised as the more significant event – took place a year later, in January of 1979, on
the same 400-acre farm and had attracted 75,000 plus.
These gatherings were known to be a peaceful and positive environment
before controversy occurred over lenient drug laws after
58 arrests and the wages of
New Zealand
performers who performed
at the festivals.
View from 1979 main stage

Some saw Nambassa as damaging to the community as it promoted “a wrong attitude to
work and dignity of labour and an encouragement to young people not to settle, but to
drift, and evade public responsibilities” and worried that Nambassa signified an anti-
Christ involvement, they also objected to ‘undesirable’ behaviours such as sex and drug
experimentation.
1970s in New Zealand saw the arrival of great 60’s artists’ such as The Rolling Stones who
came in 1973, Rod Stewart in 1974, and Fleetwood Mac hosted a concert that attracted
loud, rowdy crowd in 1977 as did David Bowie in 1978.
7
“The people who didn’t think
wearing clothes was necessary, and
the spiritual people, the earthy types,
those in costume with exotic hairdos,
people with umbrellas (for shade),
walking sticks or wheelchairs, the
‘head buzz’ freaks, the ponderous
types, the ravers, the sporty outdoor
camping types, the bikie boys, the bored
ones looking for a new buzz, it was a
visual circus enriched with a
multitude of expressions, voices and
laughter.” – The New Direction
A health workshop at the 1978 Nambassa Festival
Unfortunately, the almighty Nambassa festival had come to an end when it had met its
competitor: the Sweetwaters Music festival, where they went head to head on the same
weekend in 1981. With the small attendance of 5,000, Nambassa had lost $40,000 to
$50,000 and was the last large scale festival to be held.
Camping mobile homes in 1981

SWEETWATERS
8
Sweetwaters: Festival of Music, Culture and Technology catered to an evolving
demographic.
In partnership with Paul McLuckie and Helen McConnachie, Daniel Keighley had
developed the Sweetwaters Music festival which had replaced the legendary Nambassa
with the attendance of 65,000 in their initial festival (1980) as opposed to Nambassa’s
unsuccessful 5,000 and went on to play out with no controversy every year from 1981 to
1984 with an unsuccessful resurrection in the 1990’s.
Sweetwaters 1980
Sweetwaters 1980
Sweetwaters 1980
Sweetwaters 1981 poster
Main stage at Sweetwaters 1980 Aftermath of Sweetwaters 1980

IIII
9
THE COMMUNES
“I think people genuinely wanted to live differently rather than just growing up, studying, getting
married, have two and a half kids, getting a mortgage and perpetuating that kind of suburbia.
There was a rejection of that, so I think there was quite a strong desire to go back to the land and
to try and start again.” – Tim Shadbolt
As a part of the outburst of counterculture in the late 1960s and 1970s in New
Zealand, young hippies who were set on leaving their previous traditionalist lives
behind for a fresh, new start established communities where the land was cheap such as
the Coromandel Peninsula, Nelson and Golden Bay. Communes in Coromandel
Peninsula; Wilderland, founded in 1964, Karuna Falls (1976) and the Tui community
in Golden Bay, founded in 1984, all lasted up until 2010.
Jerusalem commune, 1971
“You know, marijuana wasn’t really
the problem, LSD was the problem.
When we lived in Jerusalem, we used
to get the American hippies coming
through and they’d just give you a
handful of LSD and man, acid ain’t for
selling, it’s for giving… We just ate it,
and by that time… It was a hard drug
scene, and even though you had the long
hair and you might’ve looked the part
but you know there’s photos there and all
of a sudden you lost 10 kilos, yeah and you
sort of changed from a hippie to a
junkie.” – Rhys Green
The infamous Jerusalem commune on the Whanganui River was established by poet
James K. Baxter in 1968 – where he believed that he could create ‘a community where the
people, both Māori and pakeha, would try to live without money or books, worship God
and work on the land’. From 1969, the commune was based on voluntary poverty,
Catholicism and Māori spiritual values but with constant media attention, Jerusalem had
drawn too many people and disturbed the locals with its overpopulation. Jerusalem was
also constantly pressured by Wanganui County Council to meet health regulations as
the hippies that resided there had lived indigent and haphazard lifestyles involving drugs.
Jerusalem disbanded in 1975.

10
Commune residents tuck
into a feed with James K.
Baxter (right) in December,
1970
After the establishment of numerous communes over the nation, Prime Minister
Norman Kirk publicly launched agricultural communities on Crown-owned property in
October of 1973. The land would be leased at 4.5% of its market value, in hopes of
attracting hippie youth to voluntarily contribute to New Zealand’s working society and
development. This was identified as the ohu scheme – meaning to work together as a
voluntary group.
The first ohu was approved in August of 1974 – moved onto 80 hectares near Whitianga,
the Sunburst community was one of the eight communities to be established during the
70s and by 1979 only four ohu communities remained after Kirk’s death in 1974.
Numbers decreased to three in 1983 in which Ahu Ahu ohu (located up the Whanganui
River) was the only ohu community to survive until 2000.
Ahu Ahu ohu in 2010 at
Whanganui River

11
V
THE IMPACT
“Society may have rejected us as the bunch of dirty long haired
unemployed hippies but we saw ourselves as being part of a catalyst for
change.” – Tim Shadbolt
Despite the good and the bad, the 1960s/1970s hippie movement
impacted New Zealand on revolutionary levels. It influenced
popular music – specifically the rock genre, television, film,
literature, politics, sexuality and the arts.
Diversity was much more accepted across everyone in contrast
with the generations before and mainstream fashion exploded into
different categories.
From protests to festivals, significance of the movement can be
seen throughout. It united thousands of New Zealanders in hopes
of making a change; by challenging gender roles, promoting
peace, creating a new set of norms, and demonstrating resilience
and acceptance across different cultures, sexualities and religions.
The hippie movement gave youth a voice whilst people all around
the globe fought for peace and equality and as a result of the
rainbow revolution, from conservative and suppressed to modern,
multi-cultural and environmentally friendly, New Zealand says
thanks to the counter culture rebellion for forming how it is
today.
“For a lot of people, the ‘60s represented the greatest freedom they’ve possibly
ever had in their life. It was a colourful time, it was a liberating time, an
exciting time and that time really hasn’t happened again.” – Tim Shadbolt