THE BENEFICIARIES

There are two avenues of benefit stemming from this work:

• INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES & CULTURES
• THE PEACEfire PROJECT

INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES & CULTURES

At present there is a crisis facing the future of Indigenous Australian languages. According to the most recent (2005) National Indigenous Languages Survey Report, “... among the original 250 or so languages, only about 145 Indigenous languages are still spoken to some degree. Many languages are not fully spoken by anybody, and only some words and phrases are remembered. Less than 20 languages are considered to be strong in the sense that they are still spoken by all generations... At the 1996 Census, 12.1% of the Indigenous population were Indigenous language speakers, declining to 11.1% at 2001 and 9.2 % at 2006.” To read more see: National Indigenous Languages Survey Report,

THE PEACEfire PROJECT

The PEACEfire Project is an idea for individuals and groups to create the shape of a peace symbol holding torches, candles, lanterns, FIREsticks or whatever devices suit. 

The aim of the project is to contribute to the art and practice of peace by making those  PEACEfires grow so large that they can be seen by google earth. So how might this aim be achieved? The answer is already demonstrated by the actions of the Indigenous leader, Vincent Lingari (Gurindji), immortalised in the song From Little Things Big Things Grow. 

In that sense, work is already happening to link peace groups in Lismore (Northern New South Wales) and Launceston (Tasmania) to inspire the Councils of both cities to become Australia’s first cities to declare as Cities for Peace and hosts of community PEACEfires.