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| Michael Goodliffee from Facebook |
Vancouver’s Michael Goodliffe, one of the de facto leaders
of the World Rainbow group that has recently been in the news as the hippies
kicked out of their gathering place in Raft Cove Provincial Park on the northwest
coast of Vancouver Island, does not fit the granola stereotype.
Goodliffe, 43, is an author, he is highly educated, having
attended UBC in various departments over the last ten years, and describes
himself as a pragmatic realist. Goodliffe said all walks of life are
represented at the gatherings including lawyers, teachers and nurses. Part of
the reason the community can sustain itself, according to Goodliffe, is that
there are so many members with various talents.
Goodliffe is helping the World Rainbow Family of Living Light move to a more suitable location at Kennedy Lake on the west coast of the
Island after the provincial government closed Cove park, over what a press
release from the Ministry of Environment calls a “risk to public health and
safety, the protection of the natural environment and the preservation of park
value.”
Goodliffe said media reports of the gathering moving to the
Slocan Valley are incorrect.
Another statement from the Ministry of Environment said authorities
were not aware of the group’s next location but that they are “monitoring
campsites and recreation trails in the surrounding area.”
Goodliffe said there are at least 12 Vancouverites who are
currently preparing to vacate the Cove location and he thinks “there will be
hundreds as soon as the Rainbow Beach [Kennedy Lake] location goes public.”
Because the goals of the group are not easy to categorize,
“it is easy to write [us] off,” said Goodliffe. The Rainbow gatherings, which
began as yearly get-togethers in the early 1970s, are about a complete
“paradigm shift” he said. Each month-long gathering is meant to serve as an
example to the larger society of how to live without money and electricity or a
centralized authority. “Lots of lessons to be learned,” he said.
In terms of what goes on at the gathering Goodliffe said members
break off in casual groups and discuss ideas for improving the world. There is general
agreement that the capitalist “economy is not sustainable,” said Goodliffe.
According to Goodliffe, 40 per cent of people in the group
have no money and survive by going from one gathering to the next, while 60 per
cent have sources of income and arrive with an excess of food and items to
share.
He said the group welcomes absolutely everyone no matter
their situation and members of the group work to take care of each other. When
Goodliffe spoke with the Courier he said he was in Vancouver to accompany a
young woman from the Cove who had planned to hitch hike alone to the mainland.
He said he didn’t want to see her be in a vulnerable position so accompanied
her. He said this type of social responsibility and integrity is central to the
group’s beliefs.
Goodliffe
hopes all of the Rainbow Family will be settled into the new Kennedy location
by the weekend, “but the apex of the thing will be the full moon” Aug. 20 when
the largest number of people are expected.
@thuncher
