What a weekend. I won’t go into all the events, since they’re extensively covered at the Baxter05 site. If you want the highlights, you can read some of the stories the Baxter Indymedia Crew uploaded live from the detention centre using a laptop and mobile phone [summary | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5].
I am saddened by the police response, incredulous that they popped our balloons with pins, that they arrested a person for kite flying, that they arrested one guy for indecent exposure because he was playing a guitar naked to entertain police in the evening. I am infuriated that they arbitrarily made us set up camp over 3km from the centre but I feel fit from walking 6km every day for the last three days. I am furious that police have misled the mainstream media and that the mainstream media have just regurgitated the press releases (I saw the x‑rays with my own eyes). I am saddened that I am resigned to police violence after so many years of it, unlike the girl I saw crying because she couldn’t believe they’d just punched the kite flyer in the face. I used to be her, long ago.
I met some amazing people. The Perth Indy crew rock, as does the whole anarcho-scene from over there, who shared their food and their space with us. Daniel from Perth was awesome and I hope he becomes a new friend. Jonathan from Perth is lovely and gentle and probably coming to Melbourne to do a PhD, so another friend there. There were lots of French people there and I had fun chatting in French with Guillaume and Noli and a woman whose name I don’t remember. Noli from Grenoble is one of the most beautiful souls I’ve met and his photos are fabulous and it’s so tragic that he was arrested because of a stupid mix-up and that there’s now a risk he’ll be deported. There were a whole bunch of people I knew ex-Sydney — Mark from RAC-NSW who I knew from UTS and Norrie May Welby who I knew from protests way back when. I was heartened by the crowd putting together over $300 in about 10 seconds when a 19-year-old Tasmanian guy got stranded (he was arrested and the bus to Sydney he was meant to be on left without him; Changeling and I gave him a lift to Adelaide and he was going to get a flight from there with the cash raised).
I did my first poi twirling with actually lit poi. We got very dusty. My laptop got even worse…
So, what did we achieve? The detainees heard us. They told us, via sms and phone calls to relatives, that they appreciated us being there and knowing someone cared. A Nepalese guy and two Iranian guys climbed onto the roof and shouted “Freedom” to the crowd while the crowd shouted back “Azadi” (freedom in Farsi) (I wasn’t there for this bit unfortunately…). They saw our balloons. Channel 10 showed police initiating violence and Julian Burnside is saying our right to protest is being eroded.
I think something has to change soon. Even if it doesn’t, I had long conversations with a number of people that even if this is futile, we want to say that we did not stand idly by while innocent people were locked up without charge indefinitely in our land in our lifetime. We spoke up. To quote a great Jewish scholar, Hillel, “If not me, who? If not now, when?”