MANIFESTO
FROM THE FIRST CONFEST – COTTER RIVER 1976
Written by ConFesters, 1976.
First Posted 1994. Updated April 2014.
The following Manifesto was
written by attendees at the first ConFest at Cotter River Canberra, December
1976.
What
we have begun here, and what we will begin from what has begun here, has drawn
out of dreams a reality for which humankind has, in the past, shown itself
prepared to kill; it is a reality we have achieved because we have been
prepared to love.
Our
wholeness has come from the experiences of our common origin and drawn us
through the difficulties of diversity, our attitudes and lifestyles, to a unity
so deep and abiding, that not one of us who has shared this experience will
leave without being deeply changed.
We
have reached into each other here and found ourselves, where once many of us
were afraid to touch each other, afraid to be intimate, afraid of the thought
of love. We have in a few short days, broken through into a consciousness that
is so powerful in its newness, that it is as yet difficult to describe.
We
are each the manifesto of the Down to Earth Movement. We are the ones who will
carry what was once a dream, and continue it as a reality. No words can say
what we are. No words can tell the impact we shall achieve as examples of what
happened here; we are the ones, and we no longer need words’
ConFesters
at Cotter River ConFest - December 1976
In Australia, the first ConFest gave a massive boost to what has been termed consciousness raising. For a discussion on consciousness raising refer Realising Human Potential.
Other Links:
A Glossary of Commonly Used Laceweb
Words.
On Global Reform and International Normative Model Areas (Inma)