Australian Coastal Neo-Bohemia

Public representations in contemporary Australian media and situatedness in the archetypal Australian imaginary.

Australia’s post-colonial counter-cultural tradition is one, as Moore describes, comprised of a series of “trends, traces and transmission” (1998, p. 174) rather than a dominant mythology. Despite this, the typically youth-led alternative movements of the past have played a fundamental role in shifting conceptions of Australian identity within the mainstream (1998), cementing the status of the Australian bohemian is an archetypal group. The Australian bohemian has traditionally gravitated to counter-urban environments, both the ‘bush’ and North Coast of Australia recognised as sites for historic counter-cultural movements (Dutton, 2014; Moore, 1998). This essay will focus on the Australian coastal ‘hippy’ as a recent manifestation of the Australian bohemian, referred to throughout as the ‘coastal neo-bohemian’ – a term that encapsulates the influence of neo-liberal spiritual practices (Badr, 2022), digital consumerism and New-Age wellness culture at the core of this modern manifestation of the bohemian Archetype (Conor, 2021). It will focus on the manner in which this emerging cultural group aligns with or challenges notions of Australian identity, as one that proliferates aspects of American neo-imperialism through its engagement with contemporary ‘wellness’ practices (2022). Through an analysis of public representations of the group within Australian reality tv show ‘Byron Baes’ (2022) and Netflix series ‘Wellmania’ (2023) alongside primary sources illustrating controversy regarding the release of Byron Baes in mid-2022, it offers a critique of the extent to which the neo-bohemian embodies the concepts of ‘mateship’, egalitarianism, ordinariness and ‘authenticity’ which lie at the heart of traditional conceptions of Australian identity. Arguments are presented through the lense of gender, class and race, respectively.

 

In Australian Feminism: A Companion, Caine and Gaitens (1998) identify the origins of the Australian national typology as inherently masculine, formed in the “colonised … waste lands (of the) seventeenth and eighteenth centuries” (p. 115) in which Australian figures like “the digger, like the squatter before him and the bushman afterwards, lived in what was … an all-male community” (p. 115). This inherent masculinity is observable in seminal literature on the formation and classification of the Australian ‘type’, as in Russel Ward’s The Australian Legend (1958), in which the “typical Australian” (p. 1) is enthusiastically described as exclusively male and built on the “values and attitudes of the upcountry bushman” (p.i). Representations of the Neo-bohemian in Byron Baes depicts the Australian neo-bohemian as inherently non-masculine and thus un-Australian. The neo-bohemian influencer of Byron Baes facilitates a commentary on the iconic Australian tradition of ‘mateship’ primarily through the show’s depiction of its male characters and the manner in which they navigate emotional intimacy within close male friendships. To illustrate, Ward’s definition of mateship as based in the ability to “stick to his mates through thick and thin, even if he thinks they may be in the wrong” (p. 14) is at odds with the actions taken by male characters in the show. This is highlighted in the manner in which model and amateur boxer Elias Chigros ‘betrays’ his friendship with influencer Nathan Favro, by preferencing honesty over solidarity when confronted with a question posed by series protagonist, Sarah St. James. In addition to this, male protagonists are often pictured revelling in the ‘spiritual’ activities and ‘guidance’ offered by Simba Ali – a self-described ‘holistic health coach and fire-dancer’. This portrayal, again, defies the description of the aforenoted ‘typical Australian’ offered by Ward as “a hard case, sceptical about the value of religion and of intellectual and cultural pursuits generally” (p. 14). Furthermore, the practice of new-age wellness and spirituality adhered to by the Australian neo-bohemian is typically considered predominantly female. This idea is supported by Conor’s (2021) description of New Age practice and wellness culture as ‘cosmic wellness’ - possessing not only “racialized and classed” but “gendered dimensions” (p. 1264). Conor asserts that the notion of spiritual wellness and enlightenment is typically marketed toward, and proliferated by, women – hinged on the neoliberal “linking of emancipation and empowerment” to consumption (p. 1277). Thus, recent public representations of the Australian neo-bohemian align the group with characteristics that could be considered ‘un-Australian’ by virtue of meaning generated through the lenses of gender and consumption.

 

Public representations of the Australian neo-bohemian highlight the importance of ‘authenticity’ in Australian culture, enabling an interrogation of various meanings associated with it in the Australian collective consciousness. In Wellmania, the audience is positioned to reject the first character that embodies the archetype of the Australian neo-bohemian, when series protagonist ‘Liv’ declines the help of young, female and dreadlocked crystal-shop attendant in Bondi. Although not represented in an offensively or directly parodic manner, Liv’s interaction with this character stands in direct contrast to that she shares with the second overt embodiment of the Australian neo-bohemian in the show, death-doula ‘Philomena’, displayed in a more positive and meaningful light throughout episode six. Philomena differs to the prior iteration of the young coastal bohemian in episode one primarily in her geographical positioning, her older age and self-reliant nature. Portrayals of the Australian neo-bohemian in Byron Baes teeter precariously between crude parody and empathetic portrayal of a group of young Australian influencers who display, at heart, a need for acceptance. Despite the show’s subtle self-awareness, however, it positions its audience to ridicule the characters within it, particularly in its inclusion of scenes which highlight their own lack of awareness and gullibility as they engag whole-heartedly in a series of ‘Byron-isms’ – namely a sound-healing and fire-ritual ceremony. In both representations of Australian neo-bohemia, the group or individual’s proximity to the bush determines the degree to which the audience is invited to empathise with and favour the archetype. This idea indicates a possible reluctance to part with the ‘authentic’ Australia represented by the bush and the fundamental definitions of Australian identity to which it has given way, such as the stoic and collectivist bushman, the pioneer legend, and the digger (Ward, 1958), proliferated throughout the 1980s trade union movement and the literary commentary of 1880s Australian magazine The Bulletin (Moore, 1998).

 

The beach has been mythologised within Australian culture as both a site for increased “freedom” and a “hedonistic” (Carter, 2001, p.335) departure from the “bush identity… associated with toil and isolation” (Price, 2010). Depictions of the Byron Bae coastal bohemian, Instagram-obsessed and closely aligned with the individualism inherent within the “neoliberal spirituality” (Badr, 2022, p. 6) exercised in modern wellness culture, place it in fundamental opposition to the ‘typical’ Australian value of humility exonerated by the digger (Ward, 1958). Opposition to the show on behalf of Byron Bay locals in the lead-up to its release in 2021 highlights a strong resistance to the manner in which the show portrays a Bryon that is not “authentic”, a statement made by local protester in an interview published by Channel Seven’s Sunrise (Lyons, 2021). Furthermore, social media comments on various news reportage videos laden with financial rhetoric, one user commenting that “Byron no longer the village with surfers and hippies. All so upmarket.” (Powell, 2021). This perception of the corruption of ‘authenticity’ through consumerist, neo-liberal attitudes to the proliferation and promotion of material wealth indicates the populist rhetoric which upheld “the virtues of the ordinary, egalitarian Australian against the influence of foreign capital” (Paternoster et al, 2018, p. 436). This sentiment was one upheld during the “consolidation of the Liberal tradition” (p. 434) throughout 1950s Australia.

A group of Byron Bay locals gather to protest against ‘Byron Baes’, 2021.

 

Despite a history of Aboriginal presence within historic Australian counter-cultural movements, a push toward Indigenous collaboration and cultural convergence has no place in the digitised neo-bohemian Utopia of Byron Bay, nor in Wellmania’s portrayal of the ‘authentic’ bush-bohemian. Instead, spiritual practices with roots in 19th and 20th century American New-Age traditions are perpetuated and “superficial tribal entries of mass culture” (Lattas, 1992, p. 45) compensate for the colonial rejection of Indigenous modes of spirituality. Characters within the show display little ideological connection to the culture which they attempt to embody – spiritual practices within the show firmly rooted in the New-Age emphasis placed on the notion of “healing” (Hanegraaff, 1996, p. 43) and “alternative therapies” (p. 42) as fundamental in the quest for personal growth and physical well-being.


The counter-cultural revolution of the 1970s was epitomised in the 1973 Aquarius Arts and Lifestyle Festival (Dutton, 2014). The festival facilitated the celebration of dominant ideologies amongst the counter-culture it attracted, founded upon an ecological desire to protect the natural world, alongside a rejection of the dominant conservativism and “puritanism” (Elder & Moore, 2012, p. 52) prevalent within mainstream Australian society (2012). Spurred by the effects of the Vietnam war, alongside rising rates of unemployment, the movement involved an “empathetic awareness of the injustices of colonial past” (Dutton, 2014) and a convergence between the youth culture behind the movement and local Aboriginal communities (2014). Indigenous culture was perceived as “inherently spiritual, spiritual, ecological, tribal and communal, thus encompassing the primary values to which the counterculture was aspiring (Smith, as cited in Dutton, 2014). Despite these culturally progressive and collaborative ideological roots, there exists no presence nor mention of Indigeneity within representations of the Australian neo-bohemian in both representations of the group. This absence illustrates the broader trend of colonial rejection of the Aboriginal experience within construction of the national Australian identity (Lattas, 1992). Sinclair (2010) offers an alternative explanation which attributes the absence of Indigeneity within collective definitions of the Australian identit to the inherent tension between the Australian secular “ordinariness” and “richly symbolic” systems meaning in Aboriginal culture (p. 289). 


In conclusion, analysis of the Australian coastal neo-bohemia of Wellmania and Byron Baes positions the group as inherently un-Australian, particularly through its close proximity to global neo-liberal consumerist practices and its emphasis on spirituality, values which are not enthusiastically upheld within the traditional “Australian imaginary” (Sinclair, 2010). It facilitates insight into the manner in which this new ‘alternative’ Australian aligns with progressive discourse present within the Australian mainstream today, particularly observable through the manner in which class, race and gender manifest within the group and public representations of it.



 References

 

Badr, S. (2022). Re-Imagining Wellness in the Age of Neoliberalism. Reverting the Gaze: Resisting Humanism & Hegemony in the West, 3. Doi: ghttps://doi.org/10.25071/2563-3694.66

Carter, D. (2001). Australian Beach Cultures: The History of Sun, Sand and Surf. Sociology of Sport Journal, 19(3). pp. 335–337. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.19.3.335

Caine, B., & Gatens, M. (1998). Australian feminism: a companion. Oxford University Press.

Conor, B. (2021). ‘How Goopy are you?’ Women, Goop and cosmic wellness. European Journal of Cultural Studies 2021, 24(6), pp. 1261-1281. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494211055735

Dutton, J. (2014). Counterculture and Alternative Media in Utopian Contexts: A Slice of Life from the Rainbow Region. M/C Journal17(6). https://doi.org/10.5204/mcj.927

Elder, C., & Moore, K. (2012) New voices, New visions: Challenging Australian Identities and Legacies. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Gibson, C., & Connell, J. (2003). “Bongo fury”: Tourism, music and cultural economy at Byron Bay, Australia. Tijdschrift Voor Economische En Sociale Geografie, 94(2), pp. 164-187. doi: 10.1111/1467-9663.00247.                  


Hanegraaff, W. (1996). Healing and Personal Growth. New age Religion and Western Culture. Brill. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004378933_004

Jacobs, K., Paternoster, H., & Warr, D. (2018). The enigma of the bogan and its significance to class in Australia: A socio-historical analysis. Journal of Sociology, 54(3), pp. 429-445. https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783318769752

Latta, A. (1992). Primitivism, nationalism and individualism in Australian popular culture. Journal of Australian studies, 16(35). Pp. 45-58. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14443059209387117

Lyons, E. (2021, April 20). ‘Dragged through the mud’: Locals organise protest to stop Netflix’s Byron Baes reality show. News. URL: https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/reality-tv/dragged-through-the-mud-locals-organise-protest-to-stop-netflixs-byron-baes-reality-show/news-story/fc5f2dbf2666da5ad9a832241676d5ae

Moore, T. (1998). Romancing the city — Australia's bohemian tradition: Take one. Journal of Australian Studies, 22(57), pp. 72-183. DOI: 10.1080/14443059809387390

Powell, D. (2012). [Comment on Facebook post by 7News]. Facebook. URL: https://fb.watch/k6_YylexUt/

Price, E. (2010). Reinforcing the myth: Constructing Australian identity in ‘reality TV’. Continuum, 24:3, pp. 451-459, DOI: 10.1080/10304311003703157

Ward, R. (1958). The Australian Legend. Oxford University Press.

 

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