SYDNEY, Q Station Manly – The dedication of the second IIPT (International Institute for Peace through Tourism) Global Peace Park in Australia was celebrated on Wednesday at Q Station, Sydney, Australia, in collaboration with SKÅL.
Gail Parsonage, President of IIPT Australia presented the IIPT plaque to Suzanne Stanton, Director of Q Station, with special guest Hon. James Griffin, Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment and Veterans, who did the honours for the official opening of the IIPT Global Peace Park, joining about 450 other IIPT Peace Parks around the world. Valued partners and coalition members, Sue Badyari, World Expeditions and Sandra Vardanega, Flight Centre Travel Group, travelled from interstate to Sydney for this special occasion with Alfred Merse, President of SKÅL International Australia, also attending the celebration.
The purpose of IIPT Global Peace Parks, is to form throughout the world, a dedicated piece of land which is a demonstration of our commitment to building a Culture of Peace.
By putting aside space for these Peace Parks, we believe it will help to focus the visitors and host: To nurture the growth of peace and understanding at home and throughout the world; To enhance the awareness of the community’s commitment to peace and a healthy environment; To create common ground for the community to come together for celebration of their people’s land, heritage and culture and the common future of all mankind; To reflect on our connectedness as a Global Family and the power of Tourism which can make this happen.
Q Station in Manly is a significant historic and iconic tourism location, which once served as the Quarantine Station for migrants arriving in Australia. Visitors of the Q Station Peace Park can sit on the bench for reflection time, while listening to the soothing sounds of the waves from Sydney Harbour. They can also read the IIPT Credo of the Peaceful Traveler which is pinned up on the outside wall of one of the historical buildings.
IIPT’s objective is to harness the powerful tourism industry into becoming the World’s First Global Peace Industry, and that every Host and Visitor is in fact an Ambassador for Peace.
You can also visit Australia’s first IIPT Global Peace Park at Lone Pine Avenue and Park in Leura, Blue Mountains.
For any further information, please contact Charlene Canning (IIPT) at charlene@IIPT.org .
This is a timely important conference, very pleased to send a team of representatives from Sri Lanka
In a world of increasing racial and religious supramacies it is reassuring to see the emrgence a small initiative towards peace and international understanding. I hope this will be an active growthpoint towards a new universal common sense and social norm that privileges a humane desire to know and appreciate others beyond political rhetoric and groupism. The single most important challenge is to develop interest in others while building the capacity to reach out and see emotional issues from their standpoints. It has been many decades since the foundation of Peace Park in North America, Auroville in India, hundreds of alternative communes worldwide, not to forget the American PeaceCorp programme which had spread peace and cross-cultural understanding throughout the globe..yet war mongering continues as an unmitigated parallel curse to humanity. In tourism it is now more than three decades since the first conference on Tourism as a vital force for Peace was held in Montreal (1985), yet the call for peace (nameste, sabaidee, shalom, salam and many many more) remains rhetorical. It’s time we as humans anywhere and everywhere practice the goodwill initiative of saying hello to the stranger with a genuine desire to know others out of a habit of love and curiosity. We ought to cultivate xenophilia rather than xenophobia. To love is more beneficial than to hate. Peace Brother!
A truly worthwhile and welcome initiative. I will be visiting Australia this month, and will certainly make an effort to visit this Peace Park when I go to Sydney. In a world that seems to be becoming increasingly intolerant, it is so very important to use every avenue, including that of tourism to promote cross cultural understanding, tolerance and ultimately – global peace.