Here’s an odd triad: the American holiday Thanksgiving, a remote Australia-governed island, and marijuana. History wove these things together with whales, hospitality and pharmacology. Read on to learn how.
Thanksgiving Day: Commemorating a milestone in New England history … or?
One origin story for Thanksgiving Day dates back to 1621 in pre-USA New England. In that story, the first Thanksgiving – then regarded as a harvest feast, nothing inaugural – was celebrated with British settlers and the Native American Wampanoag people. From that point on, the feast became an annual autumn tradition celebrated locally in New England colonies and, when the USA was established, in states. In 1863, then-President Abraham Lincoln declared it a national holiday to be held each November.
That’s one story.
Painting of the first Thanksgiving according to the account of the 1621 event as given by the Plymouth Colony’s chroniclers William Bradford and Edward Winslow. Painting by JLG Ferris, 1932 . Library of Congress.
Other origin stories exist too though – not for New England’s Thanksgiving Day, but for other countries’ Thanksgiving Day celebrations. For instance, Canada’s Thanksgiving Day dates back to 1578, when an expedition led by an English navigator held a ceremonial feast in gratitude for the crew’s safe arrival. And Germany’s (and other German-speaking countries) Erntedankfest is a religious holiday with roots in the pre-Christian harvest thanksgiving festivals in the Roman Empire, ancient Greece and Israel.
Although Erntedankfest didn’t become an official holiday until 1972, it was first mentioned (albeit not in German) by the Catholic Church in the third century. Continuing still, Liberia, Japan, Grenada, the Netherlands, Australia and inestimable native peoples on every inhabited continent all have their own origin stories for their respective Thanksgiving Day celebrations. So, the New England settlers’ feast is only one of many origin stories.
A Harvest Crown Celebrating Erntedankfest in Germany /Photo CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Only one country’s Thanksgiving Day origin story parallels that of pre-USA New England: Australia’s story. To be clear though, Thanksgiving Day isn’t a national holiday spanning the entire continent. Rather, it’s limited to an Australian external territory that’s floating far out in the Pacific Ocean, 620 miles from the mainland: Norfolk Island. In the 1700s and 1800s, the island was a penal colony for British convicts, and in 1913, it fell under Australia’s control. So, calling Thanksgiving Day an “Australian” holiday is like calling Puerto Rico’s Día de los Tres Reyes Magos (Three Kings Day) a “USA” holiday. It’s not incorrect, but it’s not accurate either. Nevertheless, this 36-square-mile patch of land with a population of roughly 1,800 got its Thanksgiving Day holiday from Americans and celebrates it in American fashion.
Photo Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
In a 2012 interview, Norfolk Island’s expert on Thanksgiving, Tom Lloyd, shared the island’s Thanksgiving Day origin story. In the mid-1890s, the American trader Isaac Robinson brought Thanksgiving to the island when he was stationed there to represent the company he worked for as an agent. When it was Thanksgiving Day his first year there, he proposed decorating the church for the holiday in order to be hospitable to the frequently visiting American whalers.
Whaling boats could be away for two to five years, so some American whalers brought their wives, who would stay on the island for extended periods. These women are said to have introduced the islanders to American baking techniques, which were then used for this lavish culinary holiday. According to the Norfolk Island Regional Council, U.S. whaling ships’ crews supplied recipes for pumpkin pie and cornbread, adding to the importing of a traditional USA Thanksgiving Day spread.
Of course, the islanders adapted the holiday to their culture, mixing in their own cuisine (notably, all kinds of banana dishes). Also, they celebrate it on a Wednesday instead of a Thursday, and it’s centered on religion instead of food (and high-risk shopping sprees). At its core though, the USA-inspired Thanksgiving Day has been carried on throughout Norfolk Island for nearly 140 years now.
Pumpkin Pie is one of the Thanksgiving traditions brought to Norfolk Island. Photo by Karolina Grabowska/pexels.com
Norfolk Island blazed a trail for mainland medical marijuana.
History was made in Australia in May 2015, when Norfolk Island’s government granted a license to AusCann Group Holdings to grow a high-grade strain of medical marijuana. As part of this agreement, the island’s self-governing administration granted a license to legally export the sativa and sativa-dominant strains of the drug bound for Canada. This was particularly advantageous because those strains are unsuitable for growing in Canada’s indoor facilities.
This was possible despite marijuana’s being illegal in Australia because Norfolk Island’s then-self-governing administration had the authority to grant a license to legally export the plant. The following month, however, the Australian government abolished the Norfolk Island Legislative Assembly, changing the island from self-governance to being governed by an administrator and an advisory council.
The unilateral suspension of the island’s self-governance had been in the works since two months before the AusCann deal. And the island’s government was aware of the pending abolition at least one week before the deal, but went ahead with it anyway. So, this outcome wasn’t a chain reaction, lest that be implied. In any event, at that point Norfolk Island was subject to Australian Commonwealth laws, and the island’s administrator revoked the medicinal marijuana growth/export license. He cited safety and security concerns – none of which were the islanders’ top priority in their anemic economy.
More than 14,000 people signed a petition to allow medical marijuana to be grown on Norfolk Island. Photo by Budding . on Unsplash
At the time of the AusCann deal, cannabis was expected to become a multimillion-dollar export industry within a year, and the islanders were counting on that boost to their economy. Although they were let down though, medical marijuana did go on to be legalized in February 2016. The Australian parliament amended the Commonwealth’s Narcotic Drugs Act 1967 to legalize the cultivation and manufacturing of cannabis for medicinal and research purposes. Under the new federal scheme, patients with valid prescriptions could possess and use legally manufactured cannabis.
So, despite its sore defeat, Norfolk Island actually stirred the pot just enough to get things cooking. An ABC News post from May 2015 stated plainly: “A decision to grant a licence [sic] to grow medical cannabis on Norfolk Island for export has sparked fresh calls to legalise [sic] the drug for Australian patients.” The subsequent events bear out that declaration.
Since November 2016, Australia has had a regulatory framework allowing legal access to medicinal cannabis products. The cannabis must be prescribed by healthcare practitioners, who typically do so through the Special Access Scheme – Category B (SAS-B) pathway. This requires first applying to the federal regulatory agency, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), for approval to prescribe a category of product to an individual patient suffering from a specific indication. The Department of Health and Aged Care (the TGA’s parent agency) states that medicinal cannabis can treat chronic pain (e.g., arthritis, neuropathic pain), anxiety, cancer-related symptoms, epilepsy, insomnia and multiple sclerosis (MS), among other things.
Prior to the AusCann deal, this was an unimaginable scenario.
Give thanks for medical marijuana this Norfolk Islander Thanksgiving Day!
Norfolk Island celebrates Thanksgiving Day on the final Wednesday of November, versus the USA tradition of the fourth Thursday. On that day, send some love and good vibes to the islanders if you’re pro-medical marijuana (or pro-cannabis unconditionally) to honor them for what they achieved for not only Australia but Oceania more broadly.
And feel free to throw in some of d’Norf’k laengwij (“the Norfolk language”) during your own Thanksgiving Day feast. Use a phrase like “Dem es sweet wettles!” (“That’s delicious food!”) while you’ve got the opportunity to bridge cultures across oceans.
Kathleen Hearons is a writer, editor, linguist and voice over actor from Los Angeles. She specializes in creative writing and research-intensive analysis and reporting.
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