Australian Peace Building Resources

Australians are working to build peace in different ways and places anround the country. Here are some of the organisations that Quakers in Australia work with or support in their peacebuilding.

Australian Living Peace Museum

The Australian Living Peace Museum  is an online museum presenting Australian narratives of peace-making, non-violent social change and alternative forms of resistance to war and violence. The ALPM is committed to sound scholarship, a participatory framework and community-oriented perspectives.

Quaker Peace & Legislation Committee (QPLC)

The QPLC aims to monitor international and national legislation and government policies and actions regarding matters of particular interest to Friends. The purpose is to keep Quakers informed of issues by circulating briefing sheets indicating basic details and possible action by Friends locally and beyond. The committee can also make representations to government or parliament on behalf of Friends, or propose such action to the Presiding Clerk, Standing Committee or Yearly Meeting. The committee may initiate particular peace projects, including in cooperation with Regional Meetings, to enhance the involvement of Friends in peace concerns.

Quaker Service Australia (QSA)

The purpose of Quaker Service Australia  is to express in a practical way the concern of Australian Quakers for the building of a more peaceful, equitable, just and compassionate world. To this end QSA works with communities in need to improve their quality of life with projects which are culturally sensitive, as well as being economically and environmentally appropriate and sustainable.

From Fear to Hope: Alternative Australian Narratives on War and Peacemaking, Pamela Leach

This book is available for purchase from Australian Quaker publications.

Towards a Vision of Peaceful and Sustainable Australia, QPLC and Earthcare Committee

This book scrutinises ‘peace’ and ‘war’ through Australian lenses. It uncovers a deeper understanding of these terms and reflects a desire to bring to light alternative Australian ideas of war and peacemaking. Certain stories have eclipsed others that add importantly to Australia’s history. This Quaker initiative considers a plurality of voices and the ‘truths’ they purport. It unpacks the act of ‘memorialising’ to discover the marked impact we make in our efforts to hold on to meaning and to our past. What have been the effects of our responses to the maxim ’Lest we forget’? It is available for purchase online.

Backhouse Lectures

• 2015 Lecture - This We Can Do: Quaker faith in action through the Alternatives to Violence Project - by Sally Herzfeld and Alternatives to Violence Project Members
• 2012 Lecture  - From the inside out: Observations on Quaker work at the United Nations - by David Atwood