THE PEACE PROJECT
Stand | Sing | Remember
AROUND AUSTRALIA | AROUND THE WORLD
2019
CENTENARY OF THE YEAR OF PEACE
Peace and the End of the War
It was 1919. The war had finally ended. Our wounded soldiers were returning home shadows of their former selves with their families and communities still raw from indescribable grief and loss. It was amid all this that the women and children of Australia still found strength to celebrate the end of war and to celebrate peace.
“Invincible in war, triumphant in peace” - inscribed on a 1919 Australian fundraising button.
From fundraising flower days and fairs to dances and peace parties, from church services and concerts to huge Peace Marches across the nation, Australians found ways to celebrate a return to peace as “the boys” (and girls) came home. However, these were not the delirious peace celebrations of 1918, they were a sober coming together of celebration and commemoration for the first time as the nation enjoyed peacetime whilst coming to terms with indescribable grief and loss and the enormous price that had been paid.
A Peace medal was issued to every school aged child, Children held Peace Parties and ran fundraising days as they raised money for veterans and woman’s organisations such as the Red Cross and soldier’s repatriation funds.
“The Australian Red Cross Society shipped £1,522,000 worth of goods to troops and field hospitals in Europe and the Middle East during World War I. In 1919 after the end of the war, Lady Munro-Ferguson at the national annual general meeting praised all the Red Cross volunteers for their dedication and urged them to continue their work in peace time.”
Fundraising Buttons for various “Peace Projects” were created celebrating 1919 as the Year of Peace. The medals, the Peace Medal issued to every school student in 1919.
CENTENARY OF THE YEAR OF PEACE
Peace and the End of the War
It was 1919. The war had finally ended. Our wounded soldiers were returning home shadows of their former selves with their families and communities still raw from indescribable grief and loss. It was amid all this that the women and children of Australia still found strength to celebrate the end of war and to celebrate peace.
“Invincible in war, triumphant in peace” - inscribed on a 1919 Australian fundraising button.
From fundraising flower days and fairs to dances and peace parties, from church services and concerts to huge Peace Marches across the nation, Australians found ways to celebrate a return to peace as “the boys” (and girls) came home. However, these were not the delirious peace celebrations of 1918, they were a sober coming together of celebration and commemoration for the first time as the nation enjoyed peacetime whilst coming to terms with indescribable grief and loss and the enormous price that had been paid.
A Peace medal was issued to every school aged child, Children held Peace Parties and ran fundraising days as they raised money for veterans and woman’s organisations such as the Red Cross and soldier’s repatriation funds.
“The Australian Red Cross Society shipped £1,522,000 worth of goods to troops and field hospitals in Europe and the Middle East during World War I. In 1919 after the end of the war, Lady Munro-Ferguson at the national annual general meeting praised all the Red Cross volunteers for their dedication and urged them to continue their work in peace time.”
- Red Cross Society and World War I in Queensland - by Sarah Minty
Fundraising Buttons for various “Peace Projects” were created celebrating 1919 as the Year of Peace. The medals, the Peace Medal issued to every school student in 1919.
Peace and The Centenary of Anzac
Almost one hundred years later, on 11 November, 2017, the Peace Project was launched on Bondi Beach recreating a WW1 photo taken as part of a fundraiser by NSW school children on “Australia Day” in July 1915.
The Peace Project is an initiative of the OZY Youth Choir Honouring Defence Service and seeks to engage as many young people as possible to:
Stand together for peace
Stand for veterans and their families
Sing to remember
Rethink Remembrance for the next generation
It can be as simple as getting young people together in your community to sing the Peace Project songs as part of a commemorative service or simply knitting and wearing the Peace Poppy or as big as putting hundreds or even thousands of young people together with your community in an iconic shape to be photographed from the air. This can be done on 11 November as part of your commemorative service or as a stand alone project at another time during 2019 or 2020.
A number of Peace Projects have already been held both around Australia and internationally during 2018 with more planned over the next 12 months. Local Peace Projects have already been held on Bondi Beach, NSW Government House, Wagga Wagga, Junee, Leeton and Narooma. Special school Peace Project assemblies have been held in a number of schools including Inaburra Christian School, Wattle Grove Public, Kooringal Public and Holsworthy High. A National online Invictus Games Peace Project was held with young people on the lawns of Government House Sydney. They were joined in song online by over three thousand viewers on Facebook Live and Youtube Live (many of them classrooms and schools) across the nation and around the world. In December 2018, the OZY Youth Choir Honouring Defence Service lead an international Peace Project in Rouen, France with Saint Marie School and the St Remi Choir as part of their Singing Tour of the Western Front.
Peace and The Centenary of the Year of Peace
As we leave the Centenary of Anzac years behind us, let us, in 2019, the Centenary of the Year of Peace, continue the 1919 tradition of commemoration and celebration, celebrating peace by commemorating and honouring those who have sacrificed and still sacrifice for our peace. Let us honour the men and women who have served and who are still serving along with their families. Let us remember both those who gave their lives and those who came home and are still coming home to daily live the horrors of war in their memory. In celebrating national peace, let us also look for ways to better support our veterans (and their families) who return home from conflict to find peace within themselves.
The 2019 Peace Project encourages Australians, whether by birth of by choice, to join our friends across the world, to continue to hold Peace Projects - to stand together for peace, stand for veteran’s and their families, sing to remember and rethink remembrance for the next generation.
As we leave the Centenary of Anzac years behind us, let us, in 2019, the Centenary of the Year of Peace, continue the 1919 tradition of commemoration and celebration, celebrating peace by commemorating and honouring those who have sacrificed and still sacrifice for our peace. Let us honour the men and women who have served and who are still serving along with their families. Let us remember both those who gave their lives and those who came home and are still coming home to daily live the horrors of war in their memory. In celebrating national peace, let us also look for ways to better support our veterans (and their families) who return home from conflict to find peace within themselves.
The 2019 Peace Project encourages Australians, whether by birth of by choice, to join our friends across the world, to continue to hold Peace Projects - to stand together for peace, stand for veteran’s and their families, sing to remember and rethink remembrance for the next generation.
