SOLD: Beautiful Happyzine

By Grace Deathridge

Auckland is currently hosting a peace exhibition ‘Lest We Forget Hiroshima & Nagasaki’ daily from now until 12^thDecember 2013. The exhibition aims “to convey the true extent of the damage caused by the atomic bombing to people both in Japan and overseas, inform future generations, learn from history, and build a peaceful world free from nuclear weapons”. Its first time in Oceania, this annual travelling exhibition started in 2005 on the 60^th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. New Zealand is the 9^th country the exhibition has visited.

I last attended a peace related event on Peace Day this year. 21st September is the UN International Day of Peace – ‘Peace Day’ for short. Peace Day was officially recognised as an annual fixed day in September 2001, due to a dedicated campaign by Jeremy Gilley & his UK-based organisation Peace One Day (http://www.peaceoneday.org). His heroic organisation campaigned hard for the UN to recognise the day as an International Ceasefire, offering relief to conflict affected areas.

Peace Day aims to promote peace throughout all areas of society – in homes, communities and schools. The day has measurable successes, such as the immunisation against polio of over 4 million children in Afghanistan as a result of Peace Day agreements by all parties, from 2007-09. As a movement, the day’s reputation and impact grows annually.

Last year Peace One Day co-created a methodology that tracks growth in Peace Day activity and measures associated impact. They’ve found that 280 million people in 198 countries were aware of Peace Day 2012 – 4% of the world’s population. They have conservatively estimated that approximately 2% of those aware of this day (5.6 million people) behaved more peacefully in their own lives as a result, in turn having a positive impact on the lives of thousands of others. Peace One Day are on track to reach their ambitious goal to make 3 billion people worldwide aware of Peace Day by 2016.

The Peace Day event I attended in Bristol (Bristol Makes Peace) was organised by 3 focused individuals and had a convivial and reflective atmosphere. At this well attended event we were treated to a mix of peaceful music, peace talks/discussions and personal accounts from survivors of childhood conflict/violence.

Michael discussed how he handles potential disagreements with his neighbours or local authorities surrounding the event and intriguingly, he chooses to perceive these encounters as fun, rather than viewing them as conflict. I took this to mean he approaches all relations with people enthusiastically, as he believes “most people in the world are lovely people – it’s not that difficult to create happiness and joy”.

Stephen Russell (aka Barefoot Doctor – Taoist practitioner/D.J and wizardly word-smith) enthused beatifically about the peaceful vibes he consciously spreads in his day to day existence and encounters. Stephen emphasised bringing our attention less on our ‘talking’ brain and more into our whole body, where we acknowledge people and life’s beauty, feel peace and fan ripples of peace outwards. He encouraged us to realise “we are a human family – take care of each other and love each other”.

Divulging his personal take on peace Andy Sheppard, Bristol’s jazz saxophonist legend, shared that great musicplaces you directly “in the moment” – and if you are ‘in the moment’, you are in a place of peace. He then treated us to a free form flow of flutterings on his solo sax, finishing with a refrain from ‘What a Wonderful World’.

Next, in harmony but with a different tone, we heard ‘Our Stories’ – a group of adult survivors, who experienced war, genocide and conflict as children, presented as poetic, dignified monologues with talented musical accompaniment. Although at times harrowing to hear childhood recollections of these adult survivors painful experiences, it was evocative and moving. A powerful refrain from one of the monologues was “finally someone is listening”.

The importance of listening and understanding was re-iterated by the final speaker of the day. Jo Berry is an awesome woman who runs Building Bridges for Peace, a charity that aims to promote and facilitate peace between conflicting groups/individuals. The catalyst for her work was the death of her father Sir Anthony Berry, a Conservative MP, in the IRA’s Brighton bomb attacks in 1984. Almost 30 years later Jo talks all over the world about peace and what makes her story so wonderful is that she is often joined by Dr Patrick Magee – the man who planted the Brighton bomb. Jo led us along her profound and challenging journey to ‘humanise the other’ which led to her meeting and working with Patrick Magee to promote peace globally. It was humbling and inspirational to hear.

Jo’s talk echoed a sentiment that was expressed in different ways throughout the day – the importance of recognising we have a choice to see the humanity in all people. Making this choice is an active process and is reflected in the essence of Peace Day itself. The Bristol Makes Peace event brought together a wealth of people focused on the attainment of peace. There is a potent power in people coming together to celebrate and focus on peace – catch the Auckland peace exhibition if you can!

“Peace does not rest in the charters and covenants alone. It lies in the hearts and minds of all people. So let us not rest all our hopes on parchment and on paper, let us strive to build peace, a desire for peace, a willingness to work for peace in the hearts and minds of all of our people. I believe that we can. I believe the problems of human destiny are not beyond the reach of human beings.” ~ John F. Kennedy

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