We celebrate our war heroes but much less honour our peace activists. Raymond Huber argues we need to better recognise those who struggle against war.
Tomorrow is the United Nations' International Day of Peace - time to remember New Zealanders who stood up for peace when the rest of the country was at war.
We honour our war heroes such as Willie Apiata and Charles Upham, but how many have heard of Ormond Burton, Archie Baxter or Te Whiti? New Zealand has an inspiring history of pacifists, conscientious objectors and peace protestors who showed great courage and perseverance in their struggle against war.
Te Whiti-o-Rongomai was a kind of Gandhi figure during the New Zealand Wars of the 1800s.
He became convinced that no good thing has ever been wrought by force.
He helped establish the village Parihaka and many people were drawn to it as a symbol of peace in the 1870s.
Te Whiti taught that people should resist the European land-grab but only with non-violent actions.
When the Government confiscated land in Taranaki, Te Whiti's people pulled up survey pegs, ploughed the stolen land and blocked roads.
Hundreds of protestors were arrested and kept in prison without trial.
In 1881, 1600 armed troops marched into Parihaka where 2000 unarmed Maori sat in silent protest.
Parihaka was destroyed and Te Whiti imprisoned.
His example continued to inspire peaceful protests for more than a century, leading at last to the Waitangi Tribunal.
Archie Baxter (father of James K.) was strongly pacifist when World War 1 began.
When he refused to join the army he was paraded at gunpoint down the main street in Dunedin.
He spent months in prison doing hard labour and was eventually shipped to the war front in France.
Baxter wrote, "I believe if enough people in each country stood straight out against war, the governments would pause and be compelled to settle their disputes by other means."
The army was worried that his anti-war beliefs would spread, so officers tried to convert Baxter by starving him, beating him, tying him to a post, and exposing him to shell-fire.
"It's your submission we want, Baxter, not your service," said one officer.
During his ordeal Baxter received support from many ordinary soldiers who admired his courage in sticking to his convictions.
He witnessed the slaughter of many of young Kiwi men and later wrote about it in his memoir We Will Not Cease.
Ormond Burton went from hero to zero when he became a pacifist after the 1914-18 war.
He served in Gallipoli and France and was awarded two medals for bravery.
He returned a changed man, believing that war is just waste and destruction.
In the 1930s Burton helped to form the Christian Pacifist Society and as World War 2 loomed, it went public.
Burton made speeches in the streets and published anti-war notices.
Speaking out against the war was soon made illegal and Burton put in prison.
The Deputy Prime Minister, Peter Fraser, visited and asked him to stop speaking, but again and again Burton spoke out and each time he was fined or imprisoned.
In 1942 Burton was sentenced to spend the rest of the war in prison for publishing material that could undermine the war effort.
He'd written, "The war makers talk mostly in terms of tanks and planes and not in terms of human flesh, blood, misery, malnutrition."
New Zealand has had many other peace activists, such as the anti-nuclear protesters of the '70s and '80s.
Why don't we celebrate our peace heroes as we do our war heroes? Perhaps because we are not comfortable with pacifism and activism.
These protestors all openly challenged government authority, and sometimes broke the law to make their point.
There's also a feeling that war may be a necessary evil (it seemed the only way to remove Hitler, for example).
However, peace activists play a vital role in questioning whether a war is really justified, and are often a lone voice.
Our peace heroes remind us that "war is never a good idea" (in the words of peace writer Alice Walker).
There are alternatives to war which are often not seriously tried: negotiation; protest; economic sanctions; peace-keeping; and fighting poverty.
The United Nations budget for peace-keepers is equal to just 0.5% of the world's military budget.
If rich countries gave a tiny fraction of their massive military spending to improving living conditions for the poor, it would reduce the likelihood of conflict (and the roots of terrorism).
Tomorrow is Peace Day and also Ceasefire Day, a time to quietly reflect on things that bring people together in constructive ways.
Raymond Huber is a Dunedin writer.
