Implementing the principles of kotahitanga/unity and manaakitanga/hospitality in community peace activism: An experiment in peace building

The group ‘Peacing Together’ formed in 2015 to encourage and promote the values and actions of peaceful community, through a series of events culminating in a festival celebration, held on World Peace day, in Otepoti/Dunedin, Aotearoa/New Zealand. ‘Peacing Together" had a diverse conception of peace rooted in locally interpreted cultural concepts of kotahitanga/unity, manaakitanga/hospitality, alongside spiritual values (Buddhist, Yogic, Indigenous, Muslim) and a commitment to honouring the ‘unity within our diversity’. This led us to use bicultural and anarchistic methods of organization to create the event called Kotahitanga Manaaki te kawa and in turn directed us to focus on community building as our key method of peace-building within this project. This paper is a case study of the event we created and facilitated.

First, we will explain the theoretical base for our activism based in the concepts of kotahitanga, manaakitanga and ‘unity in diversity’ and the kaupapa (agreed principles) we stood by in our organising to ensure that we stayed close to our theoretical and values base. Second, we discuss what was achieved in the actual event. Third, we discuss successes and failures of our organising process, which was based on an organically formed decision making process that honoured a peaceful kaupapa. Finally, we summarise our learning and discuss areas for continued reflection, as well as the future of ‘Peacing Together’. This case study highlights the importance of agreeing core values as a practical base for peace activism through community building.