Hutt woman to march around the world for Peace

From Aotearoa to the Andes:
Lower Hutt woman to march around the world for Peace

Embargoed until Monday 21 September (United Nations International Day for Peace)

Juanita McKenzie, a mother of five from Lower Hutt, will join an international team of peace-makers that will travel around the world as a core-team member of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence starting from Wellington on 2 October. The global event will pass through 90 countries in 90 days involving millions of people in marches, rallies, peace walks, festivals, exhibitions, sports events, concerts and other events calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons, the abolition of war and the prevention of violence at all levels of society from the home to the international stage.

Juanita is the only Kiwi to be participating in the entire march – traveling from Aotearoa to the Andes to highlight positive examples of peace-making that usually do not make the press.

“There is so much publicity about violence, that people become disempowered and believe that peace is not possible,” says Juanita. “The idea of the march is to highlight the many wonderful programs and amazing people that are successfully resolving conflicts, preventing violence and building peaceful communities all around the world.”

Juanita considers herself an ordinary mother with a passion for peace. Yet she and her family have some experience in peace and justice issues in New Zealand. Her father Dr Patel and mother Ida were deeply involved in two major issues for New Zealand: the anti-Apartheid movement and the Keep NZ Nuclear Free campaign. "I was mainly involved in the Anti-apartheid movement and was arrested with my mother while protesting during the 1981 Springbok tour," Juanita says. "The success of those movements helped me to believe in Gandhi's message 'Be the change you wish to see in the world'."
In 2006, she co-launched Humanity’s Team – a group of ordinary New Zealanders promoting a spiritual approach to peace-making through community action based on the writings of Neale Donald Walsch – author of Conversations with God. “Our principle message is that peace can be promoted by everyone and anyone. It may be as simple as changing the way we relate with our partner, our parents or our children. Or it may be as big as marching around the world to end war,” says Juanita.

Juanita also volunteers for Transition Towns which promotes community approaches to sustainability.

The World March has been endorsed by over a thousand well-known world figures including Heads of State, former Heads of State, United Nations officials, Nobel laureates, film stars, sports celebrities, musicians, mayors, parliamentarians and other civil society leaders. Rania el Abdullah, the Queen of Jordan believes that “The World March comes at an important time in world events. With crises and conflicts around the world that threaten the lives and livelihoods of people everywhere, there is an increasing urgency to end all violence.”

Sarah Onyango, the Kenyan grandmother of U.S. President Barack Obama, says that “The World March should involve the young, the old and even the orphans and should be a turning point to developing everyone. Everyone should come together and take responsibility for transforming the world into a world without wars and a world with abundant openings of reconciliation and prosperity.”

Juanita is thankful for the publicity that such well-known people bring to the march, and hopes that together they will be able to inspire others to commit to being peacemakers in their personal lives and in their communities.
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World Peace March Events in New Zealand:

17-26 September: Nuclear Abolition Flame Vigil, Waiheke Island
20 September: Peace March, Waiheke Island
21 September: UN Day Peace Walk, Christchurch
21–30 September: Whanganui to Wellington Peace Walk
27 September: Auckland Peace Heritage Walk
28 September: Tauranga Moana Peace Walk
29-30 September: Opening Blessing Ceremony – Rekohu (Chatham Islands)
1 October: Civic Reception for the Peace Walk, Wellington City Council
2 October: World Peace March Starts, Gandhi statue, Wellington. Includes launch of the Wellington Peace Heritage Walk
3 October: Tree planting at Tapu te Ranga Marae (Carbon-footprint offsetting)
3 October: Antarctica Monument ceremony on Mt Victoria

For more information see www.worldmarch.co.nz

ENDS

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