The early hippie movement worldwide was one of the most maligned Anglo-Saxon subcultures in living memory. One has to venture back to the societal inquisitions of the Middle Ages to find a subgroup more ostracized.

The ultimate irony, that while mainstream in the 60s/70s ridiculed the hippies and their social revolution, that same disparaging culture of yesteryear have now adopted/absorbed much of the social philosophy and new thinking that was promoted by early hippie culture.

Nambassa is the tribal name of a series of multi-faceted hippie festivals held between 1976 and 1981 on farms in country Waihi and Waikino in New Zealand - Aotearoa. They were music, arts and Alternatives festivals that focused on peace, love and an environmentally friendly lifestyle. In addition to popular entertainment, the festival’s featured workshops and displays advocating holistic health issues, alternative medicine, clean and sustainable energy, self-sufficiency, unadulterated foods and social conscience issues.

The Nambassa festivals, the largest events of its kind in the world, were organized on a voluntary basis by a collective of creative young hippies from New Zealand and across the world. The New Zealand hippie movement was part of an international phenomena in the 1960s and 1970s heralding a new artistic culture of music, freedom and social revolution where millions of young people across the globe were reacting against conservative old world antecedents and embracing a new free hippie ethos, while promoting their alternative lifestyle as a natural part of ordinary life. The Nambassa festivals were vegetarian and alcohol free.

New Zealand’s subculture had its foundations in the 1960s-70s social reformation that was sweeping the world. Specifically, young people rebelling against mainstream, the new music revolution, peace & anti-nuclear activism and the back to the land movement. In Aotearoa the counterculture was actively trying to stop New Zealand’s involvement in Americas ill-fated Vietnam War and to prevent the French from testing nuclear weapons at Mururoa atoll in French Polynesia in the Pacific Islands.

The 1960s heralded a period of significant world change in culture, values & beliefs, where advancements in civil & human rights, personal spiritual development, women’s equality, healthy sustainable living, had helped to foster an unlocking of world consciousness opening a new window to unprecedented development & growth in world science and technology, human and civil rights standards, free speech and press, environmentalism and healthy & sustainable lifestyle. Culturally & technologically we have learnt more over the past 50 years than we have since life began to evolve on the planet.

Nambassa Online intends to share this new era through the Nambassa understanding and to further develop free thinking away from decaying traditional perception of life to a more rewarding & sustainable lifestyle & value system. PT