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A group of 16 people gather at the International Peace Pole in Dunedin’s Museum Reserve at noon yesterday in what organiser Tim McMullen described as a "celebration of peace".
Mr McMullen said after a moment of quiet reflection, there were speeches in the reserve followed by a procession to the Archibald Baxter Memorial, in George St.
There, paper "peace cranes" were placed at the memorial, each commemorating a World War 1 conscientious objector.
Mr McMullen said those present read the names on each crane aloud to honour them.
Objectors gave a range of reasons: there were Irish nationalists, socialists and religious objectors among them, he said.
While Mr McMullen, who was raised a Quaker and pacifist in Charleston, West Virginia, USA, did not attend a traditional Anzac Day service yesterday, he had in the past.
He preferred New Zealand’s solemn, sombre ceremonies which were noticeably different from the "flag-waving" American versions of remembering the atrocities of war, Mr McMullen said.