The Channon Market, in northern NSW, turns 40

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The Channon Craft Market, in northern NSW, turns 40

Forty years of colourful characters, alternative thinking, performance, and controversial politics.

The Channon Craft Market was one of the very first art and craft markets in Australia.

It all started in the grounds of a tiny village hall on the north coast of New South Wales.

Rural revolution

The year was 1976.

The traditional farming village of The Channon was a battleground between loggers and environmentalists who had travelled from across Australia, to stop the clear-felling of rainforest at Terania Creek.

This was the first direct action protest in Australia.

Many environmentalists decided to settle in the region, buying cheap agricultural land and setting up communities with a "back to the land" philosophy.

A group of these newcomers, including artisans and woodworkers, started a traditional village market where they could exchange and barter goods.

It had a strict ethic of "make it, bake it, or grow it".

Today the craft market is a major tourist attraction, but retired solicitor Graham Irvine explained that tourists were at a big disadvantage at the first markets.

"I was selling herbs," Mr Irvine said.

"Tourists would come up and say 'how much' and we would say 'we're not selling them, we're exchanging them', and because they had nothing to exchange they used to either get it for free, or go away and buy something and bring it back to us."

The markets were not an instant success.

"The first two market days flopped because they were washed out by rain," Mr Irvine said.

"The third market was advertised with posters on every pole in the nearby town of Lismore and they got 2,000 people there.

"That market was so successful they were on their way then forever … an inspiration and a template for all the local markets that came after."

Robyn Kelly has been the manager for 15 years.

She said the "make it, bake it, grow it" ethic is still nurtured by the market today.

"We average 220 stallholders every market.

"Eighty per cent of our stallholders have touched their products, produced their wares, crafted or drafted their goods.

"We also now accept stallholders who have special interests like our water tank man, our solar panel man … they're small businesses or individuals who are promoting alternative living and sustainable living practices, which fits the ethic of our community."

Under the same tree for 35 years

"We're evolving, myself and the tree," John Peebles said.

Making jewellery and surfing is a way of life for Mr Peebles, who has been selling his wares under the same tree at The Channon Craft Market for 35 years.

Mr Peebles first started making jewellery in the 1970s when he was travelling through Asia and realised he had a talent for buying quality gem stones.

He sat and learned at the feet of craftsmen in Afghanistan, India and Indonesia and for decades this meditative art has provided the balance to his life as an adventurous surfer.

"I'm 68 and go to places like west Sumatra and surf the coral reefs," Mr Peebles said.

"I still run when I see the surf, you get excited, you get adrenalin and you run and say 'here I am happy, in my element'."

While he has a stall at other markets on the north coast, The Channon Craft Market is Mr Peebles' favourite.

"It's like an old-style market place where the person who makes something goes directly to the person who wants to buy it," he said.

"That direct connection is something that is unique and is why the market is so successful."

Children of the market

Among the current stallholders are young people who were first introduced to the market as children at their parents' stall.

Plant and flower seller Tess Wood is one of them, who remembers the market as a safe place where she would play and ride the donkeys.

She remembers being captivated by some eccentric characters.

"I remember a man who had padlocks through his nipple piercings," Ms Wood said.

Ms Wood now brings her own daughter to the market.

"It's a very family-friendly market," she said.

"It's the best office in the world."

Sharing art and culture

Warmu and Mindjungbul artist Phillip Collins has been a regular at The Channon Craft Market for 20 years.

He is part of the Wollumbini Art Collective, which has set up an outdoor painting studio at many local markets and festivals.

While Mr Collins also exhibits in galleries, he says he enjoys painting at markets, and particularly The Channon Craft Market, because of the contact with the passing people.

"We share stories, we give them a bit of the true history of this country and share culture," Mr Collins said.

Chai, chat and challenging the establishment

A traditional fixture of The Channon Craft Market is the Chai Tent, a family affair run by siblings Michael and Megan Jack and their mother Liffey Jack, or Mama Chai as she is more commonly known.

The first Chai tent was a stall at St Andrew's Market in Melbourne by Bali, an Indian man, who handed over his Chai Joint to Michael Webb.

When the Chai Tent took to the road as part of the Australian Peace Train Tour in 1986, young chai tent volunteers Michael and Megan Jack went with it, beginning a nomadic lifestyle where mixing chai with politics became their recipe for happiness.

"Markets are the base of commerce in the world and that's why I like the markets, everyone rubs shoulders with everyone," Mr Jack said.

It takes three hours to erect the Chai tent and another three to take it down at night.

"Sometimes I think it's a bit crazy when you see how much work it is for one day but we feel that it plays an important role in bringing the community together," Mr Jack said.

The Chai tent travels to many music and alternative festivals, and political protests.

At The Channon Craft Market it is a place where locals frequently demonstrate solidarity for the anti-CSG movement, the anti-nuclear movement, and the rights of first nation peoples.

"You know what happens in this place everyone gets 'curried' away and that's the way it's 'samosed' to be," John Arkan told the passing crowd from behind the counter at his Indian food stall.

Mr Arkan is a Sikh whose grandparents migrated from India to Australia in 1895.

His grandfather was a farmer in India and found work in the Clarence Valley in the sugar cane fields.

Mixed in with the dahl and rice at Mr Arkan's stall is always conversation exchanging stories of India and Indian culture.

"It's such a great energy here and I think it is because of the people", Mr Arkan said.

"People sometimes divide the community and say this is where the hippies hang out — I would say this is where the really, intelligent, good-looking humans hang out."

Mr Arkan travels two and half hours to attend The Channon Craft Market.

"It's beautiful up here, I wouldn't miss it for the world."

Reporter: Catherine Marciniak

Topics: community-and-society, community-and-multicultural-festivals, history, the-channon-2480

First posted