Just who are the Australian people? Was our national character really born in the horrors of Gallipoli’s trenches? The development of human character is a complex and multi-faceted process. This is equally true of our
national character.
Creating an Australian Living Peace Museum gives us a chance to learn from our past, especially those untold and hidden stories that provide us with a richer and deeper understanding of who we are as a nation. Learning
from the past we become more able to live peacefully in the present and to imagine and co-create a peaceful future.
As we face increasingly precarious times let us, as John Lennon exhorted us to do: Give Peace a Chance!
THE AUSTRALIAN LIVING PEACE MUSEUM
Will foster a culture of peace reflecting the multidisciplinary nature of peace efforts made by Australian people and organisations past and present.
We'll explore a range of local, national and international measures including
Disarmament - Human rights - Ecology - Reconciliation (including Indigenous responses to colonisation) - Education
-The growth of international humanitarian law - How we learn to live peacefully in groups and as individual people
THE TIME FOR PEACE IS RIGHT NOW
PLEASE HELP US TO BUILD A CULTURE OF PEACE
The clouds of confusion are swirling around us. Darkly threatening storms gather momentum as armaments and weapons coalesce around conflicts all over the globe. Our news is filled with horrific stories of abuse and
violence against children, women and men, against the elderly and the young.
There is another way.
The way of peace.
Peace requires from us that we learn to live in peace within ourselves.
It asks that we learn ways to relate with others in ways that weave together the connecting threads of communing.
Our futures depend on us learning how to create peace on earth and with all life within and upon it.
We need to learn from our past, live peacefully in our present and work together to create sustaining and sustainable futures.
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD - SHARE OUR STORY AND OUR CALL TO ACTION
1. Use the share button on this page
2. Tell your family and friends about us.
3. Ask us for a poster to put up in your community spaces. Simply e-mail us at [email protected] and we’ll send one
to you.
4. Like us on Facebook - www.facebook.com/livingpeacemuseum
You may like to host a peace party and pledge donations on your computer there and then. Or you could ask your local community house to host a peace party and you could explore ideas for how to work peacefully together while
you make donations and share dinner or tea time.
- E-mail everyone you know who may like to contribute. You may like an information flyer to attach to your message. If so please ask us at [email protected]
REMEMBER PEOPLE LIKE GANDHI, NELSON MANDELA AND OTHERS CONTRIBUTED TO PEACEMAKING ONE SMALL STEP AT A TIME. WE CAN DO IT TOO.
PLEASE HELP US ON OUR WAY - WE APPRECIATE IT... THANK YOU!
OUR REWARDS ARE A SMALL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF OUR
COLLECTIVE PEACEMAKING EFFORTS ... IT IS COMMUNITY IN ACTION!
As fierce words of war and retribution thunder from the pages of our newspapers and television it is time. Yes IT IS TIME! Time to do things differently, time to look at other stories, time for softer, kinder acts!
IT'S TIME TO MAKE PEACE
THANK YOU FOR HELPING US ON OUR WAY!
$25,000 Tipping Point Goal
Your Funds Will Help Us:
1. Plan and co-ordinate this project - It’s happening now and will continue throughout. Some of the work is contributed voluntarily but we also need to pay people to gather images and articles, do administration
tasks, organise meetings, write minutes etc.
2. And for the design and production of a website – creative, enagaging, easy to navigate, informative and interactive. Your contributions will pay for design and building of the site as well as graphic design.
3. Any funds over our tipping point will be used for projects ... you'll read about them soon.
AND WE ARE CONTRIBUTING VOLUNTEER TIME TOO. WE ESTIMATE ABOUT 4000 HOURS WHICH IS WORTH ABOUT $100,000 SO WE'RE ASKING YOU TO CONTRIBUTE WITH US ON AN EQUAL FOOTING
OUR GOALS:
Tipping Point - $25,000
This will enable us to set up our virtual museum - the online AUSTRALIAN LIVING PEACE MUSEUM. We will be able to pay for the work required in gathering information and images together and making sure they are in a useable form.
It will also pay for a website designer to ensure that the virtual museum is user friendly and easily accessible. And we will need someone to co-ordinate the project and deal with administrative matters. This money will ensure that THE AUSTRALIAN LIVING
PEACE MUSEUM is established.
- The building of a website that works and makes it easy for you to find your way around it
- A graphic designer who will spend time making the site interesting and interactive
- Administration and coordination of website content
And if we go over our tipping point we will have funds towards projects that will keep our museum alive and active.
Ultimate Goal - $100,000
Another $10,000 will enable us to run projects with school children to interpret ideas about peace in a creative way - working in groups they might develop a play, compose a song, create a piece of art or make a quilt. The funds will pay for co-ordination,
facilitators and materials.
Between $20,000 and $50,000 will allow us to undertake a research project to explore what we can learn from Indigenous peoples about how we can live and learn about about how to live in this country in a peaceful and respectful way. Funding will pay for
co-ordination and research.
A final $20,000 will allow us to run workshops training community workers and leaders in how to work more peacefully with groups. This will pay for co-ordination and facilitators and teachers.
A LITTLE INFORMATION ABOUT SOME OF OUR MEMBERS AND WHY THEY ARE INVOLVED
David Buller: Quaker activist for peace with justice (ongoing). Founding member of Peace Movement N.Z. ( now Peace Movt. Aotearoa). Editor Peace News NZ (NZ's first broad peace issues magazine in NZ). Member of National Consultative Committee
for Disarmament.Media Spokesperson for NCCD.(NCCD was appointed by Ministry of Foreign Affairs in NZ to consult with the NZ public in preparation for the UN General Assembly First Special Session on Disarmament). Extensive involvement with church and secular
Aid Agencies, both in Australia and NZ. Member of Borderlands Cooperative.
Ivo Lovric: I believe an Australian Peace Museum is a necessary counterbalance to the plethora of war memorials that currently dominate Australia's cultural landscape. Moreover, a peace museum is especially important because it will promote
an understanding of the psychological, social, economic and political preconditions that are necessary for creating a peaceful world. In this respect, the educational role of the peace museum will complement the existing role of our schools providing the wider
community with invaluable resources for engaging with the subject of peace.
Jennifer Gerrand My mother is from a Jewish family. I think the main lesson to be learnt from the Nazi period is that people gave in and gave in to Hitler until it was too late. I therefore support proactive peace efforts. I think we also
need to do inner work on ourselves to loosen the grip of our egos.
Eliza Zanuso I was fortunate to get involved with this project through my connection to Victoria University as Community Development alumni. I believe it is timely and important to have a place that tells the stories of the significant contribution
to peace making made by Australians. I work closely with young people and I know that teaching peace is an integral step towards creating a more peaceful, sustainable and just society.
Lesley Shuttleworth Growing up under the apartheid regime in South Africa led me to wondering why and how human beings can often treat each other with such violence. This has led to my commitment to finding more peace filled ways of being
and acting in the world.
