Hippy hippy
shakedown

>> U.S. Rainbow Family members come north
to escape repression at home

by NOEMI LOPINTO

The annual gathering of the Rainbow Family of Living Light ends at the end of this month. Over the last three weeks, approximately 500 people converged on a wild, wooded area to sing, pray, smoke and plot humanity’s salvation. Rainbow Family gatherings take place all over the world, but in Quebec the event traditionally takes place in August, culminating with a night of prayer and dancing under the full moon.

This year’s gathering took place on Anishnabe (more commonly known as Algonquin) tribal hunting grounds, in the middle of Parc la Verendrye, a wildlife reserve 400 kilometres northwest of Montreal. Rainbow Family members are a rag-tag group of people from all walks of life, many of whom can be seen at the tam-tams on Sunday afternoons on Mount Royal. They share certain common interests, such as the preservation of the planet, lefty politics, rabid individualism and hedonism.

Every year the Rainbow Family builds a virtual Disneyland for hippies in the forest, with communal kitchens, trenches for excrement, a kiddie village, as well as tea, yoga, healing and prayer centres. Rainbow guests arrive with their dogs, kids, food, candles, teepees, musical instruments and pot. Money is not needed, food and water are free.

Although they insist on an absence of hierarchy, there is some structure to make sure the event runs smoothly. “Vision councils” pick the site, and “Main Councils” make smaller decisions, like what to prepare for dinner. In bigger councils, members hold a “speaking stick” when they wish to express an opinion. Rainbows do not have organizers, they have “focalisers,” who pass the magic hat (i.e., the collection plate), scout for sites and do a lot of grunt work: building the kitchens, upkeep of the fire, collecting wood, preparing meals. Food is served at the Big Circle, in this case an expanse of soft white sand with a fireplace at its centre.

Rainbows even have their own security service, usually made up of elders, called “Shanti Sena” (a Hindi term used by Gandhi, it means “peace army”). Shanti Sena agents deal with conflicts, accidents and other sometimes violent violations of the Rainbow code.

Grabbing the forest for the trees

At an American gathering, you may find as many as 20,000 people. However, the U.S. Forest Service has had a strict low-tolerance policy for Rainbow gatherings ever since the first was held at Strawberry Lake, Colorado, in 1972. This year, the annual July 4 celebrations took place in Michigan, and there were some arrests and thousands of dollars in fines distributed by FS rangers. The FS objects to the population of a small city converging on virgin forest, plain or meadow and setting up camp. They claim to have concerns that such a mass influx of people into wildlife areas will disrupt animal mating, damage flora and poison underground freshwater sources.

Not so, say Rainbow folks. They believe FS is protecting the interests of industries and corporations like Domtar (who are engaged in a long-running battle with the Anishnabe). Rainbow members claim they have competent, committed clean-up crews who re-plant the soil, clean up litter, cover up the excrement and generally leave the site in the same condition, if not better, than it was after a gathering. Rob Savoy, 43, has been attending gatherings since 1980. According to him, tensions are so high between the Rainbow Family and the Forest Service that vision councils have attempted to stage gatherings on the Canadian side of the border.

The American Forest Service and Department of Agriculture authorities are currently trying to make seven amendments to Forest Service regulations, which control such “non-commercial group use” as Rainbow Gatherings. “These amendments could affect Rainbow Gatherings, possibly preventing them, because they require the signing of a permit by someone from the group,” says Savoy. “But part of the Rainbow Tribe’s credo is that no single individual is responsible for the Tribe, therefore no one can sign such a permit.”
According to Savoy, the FS regularly blockade the road to Rainbow sites, preventing water, food and supplies from getting in. They ticket people for anything from camping without a permit to improperly lit license plates, conduct illegal vehicle searches, and have on occasion run their dogs over fruit and produce. In 1988, a California woman named Noguns was run over by an FS police cruiser, suffering serious injuries, Savoy notes.

But despite the fact that some Rainbow elders are now serving or awaiting prison sentences, Rainbow adherents refuse to organize. “This year the (American) gathering was really small, about 5,000 people,” says Savoy. “We thought this was going to be the last year ever. They want to control us because the Rainbow Family is a bunch of non-conformists. The idea is that we are all doing our own thing, and while we may be misfits in general, together we can be incredibly functional.”

In July of this year, Canadian Rainbow members tried to organize a gathering for their American counterparts near Kenora in northwestern Ontario. Savoy says U.S. customs officials were waiting, and anyone who fit the description of a Rainbow Family member was refused entry into Canada. “They only let the super clean-cut types through,” he says.

No authority

According to one source who wished to remain anonymous out of fear of reprisals, Sûreté du Québec agents visit the gathering every year to check out the potential damage. But, says SQ media spokesperson Sophie Gaignard, the SQ has no particular position on the Rainbow Family. “We are here to make sure the law is obeyed,” says Gaignard. “This year we sent two officers to the gathering to find a missing 16 year old whose family was concerned. That’s all. We know about the Rainbow phenomenon, but there is nothing special in our attitude towards them.”

Canadian authorities seem to have decided to let well enough alone. This may be because this year, the chosen spot happened to be on land where they have no authority. The land belongs to the Wawatee family, from the Anishnabe Tribe. Brian Sarwer-Foner was one of the Rainbow scouts who helped find this year’s site. He says the Wawatees wrote a letter to Canadian Forestry officials, expressing that the Rainbow clan was there by invitation.

“Rainbow culture is borrowed from native culture,” says Sarwer-Foner. “The whole idea is that anyone is welcome, and to be harmonious with nature, connect with others and respect the environment. The Anishnabe believe in a prophecy of seven sacred fires, which predicts the arrival of strangers, the decimation of the culture, the losing of the way of the young and the loss of elders. It says by the time of the seventh fire there will only be two ways to go: towards destruction or towards the ways of the ancient teachings. The latter leads to the eighth fire, to harmony. A lot of people take this very seriously, the coming together of the two cultures as the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy. A lot of white people are catching on and maybe this shows that white people can change.” :