On Saturday 21 September 2024, UPF New Zealand joined communities around the world in marking the United Nations International Day of Peace. The commemoration was held at the Te Tuhi Centre of Art in Pakuranga, East Auckland — a space well suited to an event that combined civic ceremony, cultural celebration, and quiet reflection. At its peak, more than 80 people attended the three-hour programme.
This year’s gathering carried particular weight. 2024 marked the 25th anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption of the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace — a milestone document that reframed peace not merely as the absence of armed conflict, but as an active, lived commitment in families, communities, educational institutions, and governments. A quarter-century on, the declaration remains as urgent as the day it was signed.
Co-Sponsorship with IKPACT
The event was co-sponsored by UPF New Zealand and the Indian Kiwis Positive Aging Charitable Trust (IKPACT) — a partnership that reflected the multicultural character of both the event and the community it served. MC Garpreet Singh guided the programme with skill and warmth, creating an atmosphere in which distinguished guests and community members alike felt genuinely welcome.
Distinguished Guests
The occasion drew several notable civic figures whose presence underlined the event’s significance:
- Hon. Jenny Salesa, Member of Parliament, who offered a congratulatory message recognising UPF New Zealand’s contribution to Auckland’s peace and interfaith community
- Morrin Cooper, former Mayor of Howick, whose long civic career in East Auckland gave particular resonance to his presence at a Pakuranga venue
- Ms. Adele White, Local Board Representative, who brought the voice of local government to the occasion
- Harjit Singh, Chairman of IKPACT, who offered formal greetings on behalf of the co-sponsoring organisation
A Culture of Peace: Diversity, Harmony, Unity
UPF New Zealand’s presentation at the event focused on the values at the heart of a genuine culture of peace: diversity, harmony, and unity as one family of humanity. These are not slogans — they are descriptions of what UPF believes is actually possible, when communities choose to invest in the relationships and the institutions that make shared life good.
The team shared on the importance of service learning and healthy families as the practical building blocks of a culture of peace — grounding the afternoon’s reflection in the conviction that peace is not merely a diplomatic achievement, but a daily practice cultivated in homes, schools, and communities across Aotearoa.
Cultural Performances
The programme was enriched by a series of performances that brought the cultural diversity of Auckland’s community vividly to life:
- Chinese traditional and modern song and dance — showcasing the beauty and range of Chinese cultural expression, from classical forms to contemporary performance
- Indian traditional and modern performances — bringing the colour, energy, and spiritual depth of South Asian arts to the Te Tuhi stage
- A meditation practice — offering all attendees a shared moment of stillness and inner reflection, a reminder that peace begins within before it extends outward
19th Anniversary of UPF’s Founding
The event also coincided with a significant milestone in UPF’s own history. The Universal Peace Federation was founded on 12 September 2005 in New York, by Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon and Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, in the presence of 1,200 leaders from around the world — including current and former heads of state. The 2024 UN Peace Day event marked UPF’s 19th anniversary: nearly two decades of working, across more than 100 countries, to build the institutional and relational foundations of lasting peace.
As New Zealand’s own Foreign Minister, Rt Hon Winston Peters, told the UN General Assembly during September 2024: the structures of international peace need accountability and reform. UPF’s vision — of a renewed, more effective international architecture grounded in shared values and genuine interdependence — has never been more relevant.
Peace Begins Here
Looking at the world in September 2024 — ongoing conflict in Europe and the Middle East, tensions in the Indo-Pacific, environmental pressures bearing down on Pacific Island nations — it would be easy to feel that gatherings like this are too small to matter. UPF New Zealand’s conviction is precisely the opposite: that the culture of peace is built exactly here, in rooms like this, among people like these, choosing relationship over division and hope over despair.
More than 80 people did that on a Saturday afternoon in Pakuranga. It was enough. And it always will be.
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