SGINZ News

Full House for Peace Festival

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:34:38 +1300

Performers in the Summoning Hope Oceania Peace Festival at the Wellington Opera House combined art, dance and theatre into a emotional experience described by show director Anna Marbrook as "incredibly moving."

Hosted by Soka Gakkai International of New Zealand, the festival attracted a full house of 1100 people on Sunday, 20 November with 250 performers, professionals and amateurs alike, from all over New Zealand volunteering their time for the show.

Absurdist Comedy

“I have never worked with such a diverse range of performers in terms of age, ethnicity and experience. Top artists rubbed shoulders with relative newcomers, said Marbrook

"Being backstage during the show was like a cross between a Fellini film and a meeting of the United Nations. It was an incredible collaboration of 250 performers unified joyfully through dance song and theatre. One person in the audience commented that the show was incredibly moving, they felt no division between the show and the audience. This was a great achievement.”

The Oceania Peace Festival featured diverse performances ranging from the traditional Japanese Taiko drumming to urban bucket drumming, a mass choir led by Bert van Dijk to original song compositions by duo Sally Stockwell and Sarah Maccombee, hula to butoh, comedy sketches and acrobatics . The show was a celebration of life and the human spirit triumphing over adversity.

The Grand Finale

For New Zealand General Director, Jimi Wallace, the festival was a great way to bring people together to promote a culture of peace. “We need to come together in difficult times. Culture opens the heart and creates understanding between people. So, the festival is a way of promoting peace and understanding among people. This is very much needed in the current time.”

‘It starts with one’ theme for sustainable living exhibition

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 11:46:47 +1300

A vision for sustainable living and the power of individuals to initiate positive change is the theme of an international exhibition launched by Wellington Mayor Celia Wade Brown at Parliament on Saturday, 19 November.

Inspired by the Earth Charter, the “Seeds of Hope: Visions of Sustainability, Steps Toward Change,” it has been seen by more than 1.5 million people from 27 countries since first going on display at Johannesburg nine years ago.

For the Wellington Mayor, the exhibition stresses the connection between people and the environment. “I love the way the exhibition embraces a great variety of cultures and issues, whether it is water or reconciliation between peoples. It ties in with the interconnectedness between human beings and the natural world”.

Produced by Soka Gakkai International (SGI) and Earth Charter International, the New Zealand launch of the exhibition has been organised by SGI in New Zealand with the support of UNICEF and the NZ National Commission for UNESCO.

SGI New Zealand Director Jimi Wallace says the exhibition carries the message, “It starts with one,” slogan of a 2010 Earth Charter International campaign.

“A positive vision for sustainable living expressed in the Earth Charter and examples of eight individuals and groups from the Arctic through to Eastern Europe who have successfully taken action for change, are included in the exhibition.”

Charles Chauvel MP, who co-sponsored the launch at Parliament, said “Having the exhibition here in Wellington as a result of SGI sponsorship reminds us that SGI President Daisaku Ikeda was one of the proponents of the UN Decade for Sustainable Development”. With the UN Decade expiring in three years, the exhibition “reminds us that there is so much more work to do until we can say that we have truly taken up the challenge of ensuring that all policy is economically, socially and environmentally sustainable.”

SGI New Zealand is part of a world-wide grass roots Buddhist lay organisation which promotes peace, culture and education based on humanism.

What: Seeds of Hope: Visions of Sustainability, Steps Toward Change Exhibition

When/Where: Kilbirnie Library, Wellington, 2 December 2011 –12 January 2012

War Memorial Library, Lower Hutt, 14 – 27 January 2012

Petone Library, 28 January – 10 February 2012

Entry is free.

ENDS

SGI New Zealand Director Jimi Wallace says the exhibition carries the message, “It starts with one,” slogan of a 2010 Earth Charter International campaign.

SGI New Zealand is part of a world-wide grass roots Buddhist lay organisation which promotes peace, culture and education based on humanism.

What: Seeds of Hope: Visions of Sustainability, Steps Toward Change Exhibition

When/Where:

Kilbirnie Library, Wellington, 2 December 2011 –12 January 2012
War Memorial Library, Lower Hutt, 14 – 27 January 2012
Petone Library, 28 January – 10 February 2012

Entry is free.

New SGI NZ website launched

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 20:24:26 +1300

A complete overhaul of SGINZ.org was launched today. The website has a new design with improved features such as printer friendly styles and optimisation for mobile phones and other handheld devices with small screens. Mobile devices will be automatically redirected to http://m.sginz.org .

More content and an online shop are coming soon.

9th Annual Joint Brass Band Concert

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 15:44:32 +1200

Coming soon at the SGINZ centre Auckland: the 9th Annual Joint Brass Band concert. Admission is free. Refreshments are provided.

"Music could perhaps be called the most truly human form of dialogue we are capable of. Though people may differ in the color of their skin, the language they speak, their customs and ways, or the material culture which surrounds them, the power of music makes it possible for them to instantly communicate and respond to each other's innermost feelings."

Daisaku Ikeda

Oceania Peace Conference (OPC) 2011 announced

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 14:44:02 +1200

The Oceania Peace Conference 2011 for the Oceania region has been announced under the theme "Writing our own chapter in the history of Human Revolution".

The conference will be held in Wellington from 17 to 20 November 2011. More information will be available soon.

March 16 Celebration 2011

Sun, 06 Mar 2011 18:27:47 +1300

On Sunday, 20 March, 1:30pm to 3pm, we are celebrating March 16th, Kosen Rufu Day. On this day in 1958 the responsibility for Kosen Rufu was passed on to the youth.

Everyone is welcome, please join us!

"For the members of the SGI, kosen-rufu means the ceaseless effort to enhance the value of human dignity, to awaken all people to a sense of their limitless worth and potential."

Daisaku Ikeda

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New Zealand youth reject nuclear weapons

Wed, 05 May 2010 14:38:00 +1200

Majority of New Zealand Youth Surveyed Totally Reject Nuclear Weapons

More then two thirds of New Zealand youth reject the use of nuclear weapons under any circumstances, according to the recent nationwide survey.

A slight majority also believe that the New Zealand government is not doing enough to abolish nuclear weapons.

The New Zealand survey was part of an international poll on youth attitudes towards nuclear weapons leading up to the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) talks in New York this week.