OAMARU likes to think of itself as the “steam-punk” capital of the world. It certainly has plenty of the whitestone Victorian and Edwardian architecture needed for such a project. It has also made room for the requisite collection of amiable eccentrics and creatives required to flesh-out the standard steam-punk narrative. As harmless games of dress-up go, everything seemed quirkily benign.
But, that was before Covid.
Walking around the North Otago town’s “Victorian Precinct” in early January the anti-vaxxer vibe was unmistakable. It wasn’t just the signs welcoming “everyone” into the market stalls and boutiques that gave the anti-vax sentiment away, but the defiant stares their owners levelled at the tourists. Some of the retailers almost seemed to be daring the out-of-towners to make an issue of the fact that their QR codes had mysteriously gone missing.
Not that many visitors would have “made an issue” out of it – any more than a Springbok Tour protester would have “made an issue” of apartheid sport in a public bar back in 1981. Wrong place. Wrong sort of people.
Oamaru’s whitestone Precinct is an enclave for aging alternative life-stylers. The air is filled with the scent of patchouli and hand-crafted leather. There are troll figurines and fairies for sale, alongside crystals and dream-catchers.
In the North Otago artist Donna Demente’s “Grainstore Gallery” it is difficult to resist the whiff of magic that permeates not just her paintings and papier mâché sculptures, but all the weird and wonderful nineteenth and twentieth century bric-a-brac among which her artworks nestle. For all its steam-punk machinery, the Precinct smacks more of Pre-Raphaelite sorcery and enchantment than Victorian science.
The intrusion of QR codes and Vaccination Passes into this world was never going to be welcomed with open arms. Even among the vaccinated, one suspects, there would have been a strong sense of disappointment. Like when some kill-joy suddenly turns on the electric lights at an intimate candle-lit party.
Covid-19 must have burst into the Precinct with all the sensitivity of a drugs bust. Rules and regulations, masks and jabs, and precious little tolerance for those whose understanding of health and wellbeing embraces wholesome food, sunlight, and midnight swims with dolphins. The eccentric steam-punk scientists may have accepted the rationality of mass inoculation, but the hippies and herbalists clearly remained unconvinced.
Magic only works in circumstances where people are willing to suspend their disbelief and set their imagination free. The possibility of catching a dangerous disease – even among the ornate “Oamaru stone” facades of the Precinct – is simply not conducive to turning-on, tuning-in, and dropping-out of the workaday world.
What Covid meant was that just about everybody suddenly stopped “playing”. The childlike wonder which had been the common currency among those who stepped across the invisible boundary separating twenty-first Oamaru from its nineteenth century forerunner was replaced with the impatience and intolerance of visitors determined to “stay safe”.
No wonder the aging hippies and herbalists, funky craftspeople, magical artists, and amateur baristas felt affronted and disrespected. No wonder some of them felt compelled to make a stand against the rules and regulations pouring out of Wellington.
And if the cotton-print stall-holders and bearded wood-carvers glared with barely concealed hostility at the loud and decidedly unenchanting Aucklanders – who could really blame them?
We need more Chris: pockets of resistance in little ol’ New Zealand with a backstory. And written with humour. Gives those who refuse the jab a human face. Nothing wrong with that. The rest of us are doing very well, thanks.
I’m enjoying these articles pointing out the fact that it is the “anti-establishment” people who are often most common amongst anti-vaxers. While around 90 percent of adult New Zealanders are now vaxed, about half, if not more, of the people I personally know are anti-vaxers. The total number would be around 25 to 30. They include visual artists, musicians, homeopathy practioners, evangelical Christians, health food enthusiasts, ageing hippies, conspiracy theorists, pilates practioners, Maori separatists, anti-1080 people, and a lot more. It would be interesting to create a graph of some sort and see how many of the same boxes they tick. If someone is anti-1080 for instance, I think there is a high likelihood that they are also anti vaxers. Generally speaking, these are the “intelligensia” of anti-establishment movements in New Zealand today. My view of anti-1080 people, which I think applies to anti-vaxers too, is that they represent the intellectual bankruptcy of what remains of the 1960s and 1970s anti-establishment movement. What was in its youth a vital movement for progressive change is now – now that much of the movement’s goals have been achieved – just a rump of not overly intelligent, or perhaps more accurately logical-thinking, people, as the anti-vaxers I personally know are quite intelligent.
There always will be people who say “no”, especially when they feel coerced by the dominant discourse to say “yes”. Perhaps its a certain kind of person, someone who pushes back on a good many things. And lets be honest, there is a lot of shit happening that is worth pushing back on. But it can become a lifestyle choice. Perhaps its a personaility trait. No doubt it will become a PhD project for someone interested in getting some answers.
Don’t worry. This whole thing is coming apart at the wheels in record fashion. I’d be surprised if anyone is still being coerced into vaccination in just a few months time. All we really need is for the WHO and/or CDC to declare what everyone with working brain cells already knows: that CoVID-19 is endemic.
We can’t “booster” our way out of this, since they’re already admitting that doing so will be detrimental to your immune system.
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/coronavirus/repeat-booster-shots-spur-europe-warning-on-immune-system-risks
Chris, I find this richly ironic. I departed Bowalleyroad because I’d drawn a line at anti vaxxer hostility and pro vax authoritarianism. Worse the parroting of the official line with no examination of the facts and stats, the intolerance to debate, the cognitive dissonance.
For the record Im double vaxed. I wont be getting a booster. And vaxing children with this failed experimental gene therapy is a step too far.
Heh, had a look at on my iPad at the lay of the land down in those there parts, which I have not been to since the 60s–and lo and behold there is a “Mount Trotter”! amongst the Herberts and Hampdons.
Sod the steam punk ethos anyway in my view, sweaty bearded bald bastards on a good day.
Meh ! God bless the hippies and the cowboys!
Waylon Jennings – Mama’s Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys
https://youtu.be/nlIEoKg8ZQg?t=3
And another one for good measure!
David Allan Coe – Long Haired Redneck
https://youtu.be/X3_qUDwF-Ns?t=5
Leave them hippies alone!!!
Did a trip around the South in August, impressed with the architecture in Oamaru, a lot of old colonial companies with their names stencilled above the doors, back in the day they would have done well. First time there, Loved the town, had a good look around the old area, was informed by one of the locals (an ex Jaffa who after establishing that we were from Northland) that it was very racist down here & be careful what you say to whom etc, was surprised as it does not show that to the average punter!
..precious little tolerance for those whose understanding of health and wellbeing embraces wholesome food, sunlight
That reminds me of a scene the other day. One of our eccentrics declaiming to the librarian requesting her to put on a mask before she entered, about how she had always lived a healthy life etc… It’s all about ‘me’ with these people, not about us, and about bending their proud righteous individuality in the face of the relentless invisible ‘bogle’.
I’m interested to know if Chris asked the ‘All Together Oamaru’ sign holders (welcoming all signs he mentions) why they had them and their position. He would have likely found a different story than that mentioned in this article. The current situation with vaccine passports has affected those whom have had vaccine issues with their first jab as well as those whom have chosen not to get it. And vaccine exemtions are not readily avaliable to those whom have had these reactions, even when medically valid (under advise of specilists). As far as I am aware most if not all of the ” hippies and herbalists, funky craftspeople, magical artists, and amateur baristas” are fully vaccinated, and the welcome all is to support there loyal customers and community in a difficult situation because of political decisions, not medical grounds.
As one of the artists tarred with your generalising and pretty insulting brush, I wish to clarify that myself and many other business owners in this area are vaccinated and display QR codes, and for the sake of the wellbeing of our fellow humans are compliant with the regulations around hosting of events etc
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