By Pauline Jasudason
About 150 people across faiths, cultures and generations gathered for Sydney’s first Picnic for Peace on Sunday 31 August, an event aimed at uniting communities and re-asserting shared belief in a society where all belong to each other.
An initiative of the Justice and Peace Office of the Archdiocese of Sydney, the picnic was executed collaboratively with dozens of religious, cultural and community groups, as a way to stand for peace in a joyful, community-building way.
It aimed to help counteract the division among peoples seen in other parts of the world that is now also playing out in Australia, said Fr Peter Smith, Justice and Peace Promoter for the Archdiocese of Sydney.
He noted there seemed to be increasing conflict, even violence at times, in reaction to diversity in Australian society.
“Wouldn’t it be nice to dream of a city,” he said, “where everybody valued other people even if we have divergent ideas, divergent lifestyles, divergent opinions, and we’re a country, and indeed a city, that could just welcome the stranger, care for each other – to recognise that we are all human beings, all struggling with the same kinds of issues?
“Part of the dream is to stop the ‘othering’ of people, to stop this divide between ‘us’ and ‘them’, that we’re all one human family working together for the common good.”
Picnic rugs dotted the Wentworth Common oval at Sydney Olympic Park on the sunny, late-winter morning. People shared snacks and food from their respective cultural heritages and struck up conversations with strangers.
Brendan Kerin from the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council performed a Welcome to Country ceremony weaved with storytelling, and the day was punctuated with singing and dancing from across cultures.
Tony Holden, who attended with his family, said he enjoyed the multi-cultural event.
“Peace, to me, means a world where there’s no fighting and everybody’s content,” he said.
Wies Schuiringa, whose extensive experience in peace-building includes work in child protection, counselling and preventing domestic violence, in government and non-government settings, offered to be a ‘Living Library’ and share her wisdom with interested picnic-goers.
Zeke, a teen who attended with his parents, said he learnt a lot from listening to her.
“It was interesting to hear how normal people can work for peace,” he said.
The event came to a close with a Bollywood-style conga line joined by the crowd. Similar peace-making plans for the coming months include table talks, online and community unity initiatives, and kitchen table conversation-type events.
Register at ‘Peace Beyond the Picnic’ at https://www.picnicforpeace.org/get-involved.
