Raising Peace is an alliance of more than 30 Australian organisations that work together to share ideas, knowledge and inspiration for a peaceful world. It was created in 2020 to celebrate 100 years of Service Civil International (SCI), and IVP has been part of it from the start.
What Raising Peace does
The Raising Peace network celebrates and raises the profile of peace, peacemaking and nonviolence. Its members unite peacemakers to learn from and support each other, and to educate the community about peace in all its forms. It aims to:
- celebrate peace and the people and organisations working for peace
- promote dialogue about issues related to peace
- create positive engagement in the ongoing process of peace
How it began: 100 years of SCI
SCI turned 100 in 2020. To mark it, IVP invited its members to a reunion and a public Peace Festival planned for Sunday 20 September 2020 at 107 Projects in Redfern, Sydney: a chance to meet old friends, exchange memories and be inspired by what is happening in the field of peace, with stalls, exhibitions, films, speakers and music from many peace groups.
The festival was organised by International Volunteers for Peace, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (NSW) and the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network. Participating organisations included:
- International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
- SEARCH Foundation
- Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition
- Pax Christi
- PEN Sydney
- Marrickville Peace Group
- The Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and Community Education
- Pace e Bene
- Medical Association for the Prevention of War
- Teachers Federation
- Wage Peace
- United Nations Association of Australia
- Peacifica
- Quakers
The 2021 festival
The Raising Peace festival ran from 16 to 26 September 2021. Thirty organisations took part, with 37 events held on Zoom over the 11 days. Topics included disarmament, the environment, women, militarisation, healing the past, youth, international diplomacy, cross-cultural understanding, the arts, finding personal and community peace, non-violence, education and First Nations, with a special session on Afghanistan.
There were 100 presenters and speakers, and more than 1,000 people took part, mainly from Sydney but also from Malaysia, the Philippines, India, Africa, Europe and other places. All the sessions were recorded and are on the Raising Peace website.
Some of the responses:
This was truly the most magnificent event. I am so impressed with the skills and steadfastness I experienced along the way, to the generosity of so many and the most incredibly informative and interesting outcome.
Bronwen
Your initiation of the idea of such a festival in early 2020 was inspirational, and your perseverance through all the restrictions imposed by COVID 19 to develop such a far-reaching program involving 30 organisation and 37 events has been most worthwhile.
Tim (UNAA)
Each session I viewed was incredibly well structured, the speakers complimented each other to create synergy and explore deeper processes/meaning. It was great to see involvement of young people too.
Lynne
I would also like to thank all those who contributed with so many constructive ideas during the various online sessions. The community building during the festival augurs well for future Raising Peace festivals and related events and activities both online and in person.
Frank
Festivals since 2021
Raising Peace held further festivals in 2022, 2023 and 2024. In 2024 it also worked with the international organisation World BEYOND War and hosted the Australian session of its worldwide #NoWar2024 conference.
- 2022 Raising Peace Festival
- 2023 Raising Peace Festival
- Raising Peace Festival 2024
- Recordings of past festivals
The Raising Peace podcast
Series 1 of the Raising Peace podcast has six episodes featuring highlights from the network’s online events. In the final episode, released in April 2024, the network tells its own story: how the idea came about, what “Raising Peace” means, and what being part of it has meant for its members. Search for “Raising Peace” in your podcast app, or listen on the Raising Peace website.
ANZAC Day 2024 statement
For ANZAC Day 2024 the Raising Peace network issued a statement, “Australia can become a global champion of peace”. You can download the statement (PDF). The full text follows.
This ANZAC Day 2024, the Raising Peace network of Australian peace organisations remembers the men and women of all nations, including First Nations, who have been killed and injured by war. We stand together to say without equivocation: the best way to honour their memory is to end war and commit to peace.
It is remarkable and distressing that Australians are being told that the lesson of ANZAC Day, built on a calamitous campaign at Gallipoli, is not that war is a disastrous endeavour, but rather that war is noble. The trauma and moral injury of war remain unrecognised and unacknowledged.
A nation that tries to found its identity on its military past risks engendering a ‘war first’ mentality in generations to come, rather than one that embraces peace. You cannot pick and choose which wars to honour. The relative clarity of the fight against Nazi Germany is absent from the Frontier War’s campaign of conquering Australia’s First Nations people, of the colonial Boer War, of the First World War’s horrors, or of the wars since that have been fought in support of United States’ hegemony.
Humanity needs to outgrow war, especially as nuclear weapons can destroy civilization itself. A tide of peace organisations grew out of World War 1; and in the shadow of World War 2 the United Nations Charter codified a peaceful global movement to ‘promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom’. Today we possess incredible tools of diplomacy, communication and of technology that enable us to resolve disputes without resorting to violence.
Australia helped to write the UN Charter, but all too quickly our leaders were willing to destroy more young Australian lives in war. In Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan we fought in wars with little justification and with disastrous outcomes.
Australia’s current fear of China, bolstered by the poorly conceived and costly AUKUS initiative, is misguided. In a situation that is reminiscent of World War 1, the world’s great powers are seemingly incapable of changing course away from conflict. A conventional war between the USA and China would be massively destructive to people and to the environment. The threat of nuclear annihilation makes it totally unthinkable.
Nations are responsible for assuring the security of their people. They can defend their borders by civil or military means; they can be friends and partners with neighbours; and they can contribute to global peace through myriad channels. Australia’s defence forces can defend our land without destroying someone else’s. They can contribute to peace-keeping as part of UN-sanctioned international operations. But there is no justification for military adventurism by any nation.
By committing itself to peace, Australia would honour all soldiers, family and community members killed, injured, and traumatised in war. In every international engagement it can commit to asking first: what is the way to resolve this peacefully? It can end the intrusion of the defence industry into our schools and universities, replacing it with investment in peacefocused education. Australia can become a champion of scholarship and the practice of peace-making, peace-keeping and peace-building. And, if it chooses to learn from its Indigenous population, Australia is uniquely placed to become the world’s leading
proponent of First Nations approaches to peace-building.
On ANZAC Day 2024, Raising Peace urges all Australians to remember the fallen and work for a peaceful future for all the peoples of the world.
Seven questions on peace
Before the 2025 election, Raising Peace asked candidates seven questions that reflect some of the most pressing challenges in fostering a peaceful Australia, and invited people to put them to their local candidates. Download the seven questions (PDF).
Raising Peace links
- Raising Peace website
- About Raising Peace
- Member organisations
- The Peace Calendar: what is coming up in peace action, education and activism
- Recordings: 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021
- Past events
- Resources
- Contact Raising Peace
Raising Peace is run by volunteers. To get involved through IVP, email admin@ivp.org.au.
