MASKING THE GREAT COMMUNITY DIVIDE ON COVID
By Margaret Dekker
Community stalwarts say tensions are growing across the Northern Rivers as some businesses opt out of enforcing public health orders on masks and QR code sign-ins in their shops and cafes, instead displaying alternative signs.
Across Byron and Tweed shires, the poster “No Mask, We Don’t Ask” has gone up (pictured) in shop windows and on shop walls, advising,
“To our valued customers. The NSW government has mandated mask use indoors but please be aware if you’re not wearing one we will assume you’re exempt, no questions asked. We don’t do judgements, shaming or discrimination here, so please know you will be warmly welcomed and respected however you show up,” it reads.
The poster doesn’t make clear who has written, authorised or distributed it.
Long-time local campaigner and Flattening the Curve spokesperson, Nicqui Yazdi, told The Northern Rivers Times she knows firsthand of the hostility the posters have caused. She says in Bangalow, an unidentified woman tried to put one up in the window of café Butcher and Baker without permission. The woman, who wasn’t wearing a mask, was told to leave but the attempt left staff fuming.
In Byron Bay, clothing store Nikau was among the first to place the sign in its Fletcher Street window (pictured) they’re in windows in Mullumbimby including Eden’s Landing Health Foods and Lulu’s café and on the Tweed Coast, Nectar juice bar at Cabarita Beach displays the poster.
On its social media page, Nectar posted,
“Whilst we are taking the current Covid situation very seriously and our staff are wearing masks for yours and our safety – we do not know your situation. If you choose not to wear one, that is your prerogative. Everyone is welcome in our café,” Nectar’s facebook page read to mixed responses from followers.
Nicqui Yadzi, who lives in Mullumbimby, says on the streets, public displays of personal opinions about COVID -19 are going too far. She says a local woman, a distinguished artist, was verbally abused by a busker because of wearing her mask. The ordeal left the woman shaken and reluctant to go out again.
“That s-it should not happen” Nicqui said.
“Everyone who lives in Mullumbimby is a part of the community who recognised each other’s differences and carried the same soul but since COVID, that’s just been ripped apart,” she said.
Nicqui knows of family relationships, old friends and friendship groups that are strained because of conflicting views about the pandemic, and public health orders.
But it’s Mullumbimby’s national reputation that’s getting hardest hit and stigmatised she says, despite many people in the ‘Biggest Little Town in Australia’ in fact elderly and conservative,
“People in Queensland are reading articles about Mullumbimby and it’s now being seen in a bad light and yet anti-vaxxers are a minority but a vocal, loud minority. Mullum still is old school and old conservative Mullumbimby is finding it really hard,” Nicqui Yazdi said.
