Peace Foundation Wellington Office E-news January 2010
Peace Foundation Wellington Office
E-News - January 2010
Dear Friends and Supporters,
Welcome to 2010 - a year that promises a lot for the promotion of peace in the home, school, community and around the world. But also a year where organisations like the Peace Foundation have to respond to government cost-cutting - including to our core programmes. In times like this we are reminded of that important whakatoki - He aha te nui mea I tea o? He tangata! He tangata! He tangata! - What is the most important thing in the world? It is the people! The people! The People!.
You - our friends, colleagues and supporters - are what make the difference in bringing peace into our society and making it work. We look forward to collaborating with you in this, the first year of the new decade...
Yours truly,
The Peace Foundation Wellington Office
What's in the E-News?
1. Wellington Peace Heritage Walk - a great summer activity
2. Co-op Games - a fun way for teaching peace
3. Wellington Roots of Empathy baby celebration a huge success
4. Introducing Anna Skinner - Youth Programmes Coordinator
5. Juanita Mackenzie arrives back from Peace March around the World
6. Peace Foundation Wellington Director wins Alternative Nobel Prize
7. Kiwi families use positive parenting techniques
8. Kiwis help launch Arms Down - International Youth Disarmament campaign
9. 10,000 participate in Parliament of the World's religions
10. Peace Foundation resources sale
11. Support the Peace Foundation - donate now!
1. Wellington Peace Heritage Walk - a great summer activity
Wondering what to do on one of Wellington's beautifully sunny summer days? Why not take-in part, or all, of the Wellington Peace Heritage Walk? Launched on 2 October 2009, the 140th anniversary of Gandhi's birthday, the walk visits some of the sculptures, trees, public notice-boards, memorials, gardens and historic sites dedicated to peace, tolerance and understanding.
You can start the walk in the Civic Square, go through parts of the Central Business District, along the waterfront, up the Cable Car, through the Botanic Gardens and parliament and culminate at the Gandhi statue in front of the Central Railway Station. Or you can start it at any point along the route. Highlights include the Peace Capital Plaque, Nuclear Free Wellington Sign, Hiroshima Peace Flame (pictured at left), Hone Tuwhare's classic poem No Ordinary Sun, the Nagasaki Camphor Tree, the Peacemaker sculpture, Pou Whenua markers, the Kate Sheppard suffragette Garden and the Gandhi statue.
A brochure with the map of the walk and background information on each of the sites is available from the Peace Foundation office.
2. Co-op Games - a fun way for teaching peace
The Peace Foundation Wellington Office offers parachute and earth-ball games for all ages. The games are exciting, challenging and great fun, as well as teaching co-operation and team-building. Available for sports groups, youth groups, schools, community events, retreats, conferences (clear that stuffy air) and much more.
Contact the Peace Foundation Wellington Office for details.
3. Wellington Roots of Empathy baby celebration a huge success
Wellington Roots of Empathy programme held its annual Baby Celebration on Monday the 16th of November with guest speakers Kerry Prendergast (Wellington Mayor) and Susan Satyanand ( First Lady) addressing about 100 participants.
The Dominion Post reported that "Schoolboys have been going gaga over the unorthodox teachers (i.e. the babies) of an emotional literacy trial." (See Boys warm to youngest teachers, Amanda Fisher, Dominion Post, 17 November 2009). Under the Roots of Empathy programme, newborn babies - and their parents - take over the classroom once every three weeks, so pupils can watch their development. The programme aims to teach pupils empathy, and to reduce aggression and bullying.
4. Introducing Anna Skinner - Youth Programmes Coordinator
The Peace Foundation welcomes Anna Skinner as our new Youth Programmes Coordinator. Anna hails from Michigan, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology before joining the Peace Corps in Namibia where she organized youth education programs on diversity and community programs on HIV awareness and prevention. She has since taught at the high school level, led youth conservation projects, run Outward Bound life-skills programs for youth in the United States, and taught English as a second language in Thailand. Anna learnt about the Peace Foundation through the World March for Peace and Nonviolence.
5. Juanita Mackenzie arrives back from Peace March around the World
On 2 October 209, Kiwi Juanita McKenzie set off from Wellington with a core group of 25 foreigners on a three-month round-the-world March for Peace and Nonviolence. On their way the marchers travelled to 100 countries (about 45 countries each) and participated in peace events involving hundreds of thousands of people including heads of state, movie stars, sports celebrities, Nobel Peace laureates, mayors, parliamentarians, religious leaders and others. Juanita says that a highlight was meeting thousands of ordinary people in so many countries who are promoting peace in so many different ways in their homes, workplaces and communities.
Juanita was the only New Zealander who did the whole three-month trip (See Mother's World Circuit for Peace, The Dominion Post). However, other Peace Foundation members were involved in organizing key parts of the March.
Maui Solomon organized the opening blessing ceremony for the march on Rekohu (Chatham Islands) commemorating the 500 year Moriori Peace Covenant. Maui, Susan Forbes and Mana Cracknell - all leaders of the Moriori Hokotehi Trust, also travelled to Argentina to help lead the closing blessing ceremony. Lachlan Mackay did a sterling job securing endorsements for the march from prominent New Zealanders and also some key international figures including Queen Rania and members of the Gandhi family.
Wende Jowsey, Audrey van Rijn, and Alyn Ware did much of the organizing for the opening events for the World March in Auckland and Wellington. Alyn also helped organize the World March events with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York and with the Nobel Peace Summit in Berlin, and the US Congress resolution supporting the March introduced by US Rep John Lewis . Bob Harvey brought the Peace Flame from Hiroshima and organized four beautiful torches to be made from New Zealand wood to carry the flame on Peace March events. Mayra Gomez secured key endorsements from indigenous leaders overseas and organized the Los Angeles event which included the participation of Martin Sheen (who played the US President in West Wing). And there were other New Zealanders who organized World March events in Waiheke Island, Tauranga, Hamilton, Christchurch and a Peace Walk from Whanganui to Wellington.
Thank you to all the local organizers, endorsers, volunteers, and everyone else who was involved and made the world-wide event such a success. World Peace March Aotearoa will be organizing a number of follow-up meetings to report on the global events and promote ongoing peace and nonviolence action. These will be announced soon.
6. Peace Foundation Wellington Director wins Alternative Nobel Prize
On 4 December 2009, Peace Foundation Wellington Director Alyn Ware was awarded the Right Livelihood Award - better known as the "Alternative Nobel Peace Prize"- along with three others - David Suzuki (Canada), René Ngongo (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Catherine Hamlin (Ethiopia). Alyn, who was granted the award "...for his effective and creative advocacy and initiatives over two decades to further peace education and to rid the world of nuclear weapons," became only the second New Zealander to win the award - the other being David Lange in 2003.
After receiving the award in the Swedish parliament, Alyn travelled to Norway to attend the Nobel Peace Ceremony for US President Barack Obama, and to speak at the alternative Nobel Peace rally in Oslo (See Alyn's speech on YouTube). Alyn plans to use the award money of €50,000 to continue advocating for a Nuclear Weapons Convention - an initiative now supported by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon - and to extend his peace education work with a special emphasis on youth education and empowerment (See www.enact.org.nz).
See also Alyn Ware receives 2009 Right Livelihood Award published by Scoop; "Alternative Nobel Prize" for Alyn Ware, World March Coordinator for New Zealand - Aotearoa published by Pressenza; Peace campaigner wins 'other' Nobel published by The New Zealand Herald; Barack and Alyn, by Roger Smith and published in Common Dreams.
7. Kiwi families use positive parenting techniques - Families Commission report
Kiwi families say they are increasingly using positive parenting techniques because they work, according to Discipline in context: families' disciplinary practices for children aged under five, a report released in September 2009 by the NZ Families Commission - Komihana a whanau. The report was produced by academics Julie Lawrence and Anne B Smith (University of Otago College of Education) and is based on analysis of a survey they conducted of 117 caregivers (mothers, fathers and grandparents). The most effective disciplinary techniques reported by caregivers included timeout, distraction, reward systems & praise (for desired behaviour), and withdrawal of privileges. The most ineffective disciplinary techniques reported by caregivers were smacking and shouting.
The report notes that the majority of caregivers were ‘authoritative' in their disciplinary approach (i.e. enforcing firm boundaries but with warmth, love, praise and reasoning). A smaller percentage were more ‘permissive' (i.e. warmth, love and praise but with less direction and boundary setting), while a minority were ‘authoritarian' (i.e. punishment and enforcing obedience without reasoning).
The report compared the results of the survey with related research from the 1970s until 2008, and concluded that "...within Aotearoa New Zealand a change seems to be occurring, so that violence against children within the family is much less tolerated than it used to be... Recent law changes such as the introduction of the Child Discipline Bill in 2007, and a recent media campaign against family violence, are initiatives at the government level which may be helping to turn the tide." The report also noted that parents were very grateful for the support they now get from early childhood professionals (especially teachers), social support services and the range of resources (pamphlets, books, internet resources...) now available on positive parenting.
8. Kiwis help launch Arms Down - International Youth Disarmament campaign
Kiwis Areti Metuamate and Alyn Ware travelled to Costa Rica in November 2009 to help launch Arms Down - a youth-led global multi-religious campaign on disarmament supported by Religions for Peace. The campaign aims for 50 million signatures calling all governments to redirect 10 % of arms expenditure for development. Only 10% of the total global military budget would be sufficient to enable the full achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals.
Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sánchez, the first signer of the appeal, noted that "This campaign recognizes the fundamental role that religious communities must play in building shared security, as well as the role that youth have to play in raising awareness worldwide." Arias had previously initiated a campaign at the United Nations Security Council to implement Article 26 of the UN Charter which obliges the Security Council to develop a plan for disarmament in order to release resources for the world's social and economic needs.
Areti went to Costa Rica fresh from his experience on the Ship for World Youth - an initiative for youth exchange funded by the Japanese government. Areti notes that the Ship for World Youth provided him with"...an awesome opportunity to build relations with other young people from around the world and to start a meaningful dialogue about international affairs and New Zealand's place in the world."
Alyn, a Vice-President of the International Peace Bureau (IPB) met privately with President Arias after the meeting in order to discuss collaboration between Costa Rica and IPB's Disarmament for Development Program, and also to discuss promotion of the Nuclear Weapons Convention.
9. 10,000 people participate in Parliament of the World's religions
10,000 people representing religious and spiritual communities from around the world gathered in Melbourne, Australia from 3-9 December 2009 in a Parliament of the World's Religions. Dating back to 1893, when the First World Congress of Religions was held in Chicago, the parliaments are now held every year in order to "cultivate harmony among the world's religious and spiritual communities and foster their engagement with the world and its guiding institutions in order to achieve a just, peaceful and sustainable world."
Peace Foundation member Lachlan Mackay volunteered at the event, attended a few of the 650 seminars representing the United Nations Association of NZ, and also used the opportunity to promote the World March for Peace and nonviolence - securing endorsements from a number of religious/spiritual leaders. A follow-up event - a Reflections Seminar - will be held in Wellington on Saturday 30th of January at the Kilbirnie Mosque, hosted by the Wellington Interfaith Council. For details contact Margaret Mayman or Lachlan Mackay.
10. Peace Foundation resources sale
The Peace Foundation have heavily discounted clearance resources available for sale. Resources on sale include books, posters, t-shirts, wristbands, CD's, DVD's, magnets and first day covers. Don't miss out, as 95% of stock is marked at half price, stocks will be limited. All discounted prices are valid while stocks last. The Peace Foundation continues to stock and sell a large range of other resource. For more information or to place an order contact the Foundation on (09) 373 2379 email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
·Clearance books, t-shirts and wristbands.
·Clearance CD's, DVD's, magnet, first day cover & posters.
·Clearance Kindergarten resources.
11. Support the Peace Foundation - donate now!
The Peace Foundation relies on donations and grants to be able to continue its programs. Government cost-cutting has cut income to our school-based programmes despite their success and the ongoing need for such programmes. Any support you can make is greatly appreciated and is tax deductible. Contact the Peace Foundation Wellington Office phone 04 496-9629 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for details.
