wondering around; activist and Aboriginal flags flying and art installations and stages built out of scrap metal. A police helicopter patrols the sky day and night. We ditch Mushy, destroy his bong, and join a camp of friends and comrades. We relax and spend PAGE the evening singing, chatting and 26 cooking, an elder from the tent (off-campus) embassy in Canberra contributing his guitar-playing. The next day I attend an info session giving practical advice to people involved in direct action. It’s full on. How to deal with arrest situation, what to say to cops. Remember that a police horse is an officer, you can be charged with
assault for touching one. Here’s how to treat someone who’s been capsicum sprayed. What you should think about before you try and de-arrest someone. What to do if attacked by a police dog (no one was sure). There are rumours of infrared cameras and everyone knows there are police informers in the camp. Later someone sees what looks like a Long Range Acoustic Device, something that’s been used for crowd control in the USA but not before in Australia. It’s designed to directionally project a loud disorientating sound and disperse crowds. The march of the day is a self-styled ‘zombie march’. As we
practice our undead walks I get to see the full range of protesters in attendance. Black-clad anarchists, scruffy punks, long-haired hippies, serious looking outdoors types in hiking pants all form parts of the crowd but mostly there are just people of greater or lesser degrees of conventionality. The march starts as a colourful parade down the dirt road towards the declared road and the gates of the mine. We’re lead by a car decorated as the eponymous lizard and by a large Aboriginal flag, leant from the tent embassy in Canberra. This quickly leads to a problem. The police won’t let us through with the car – it might be harboring weapons.