National Council of Women Queensland Inc. Bridge of Peace Sisterhood Ceremony

I too acknowledge our elected representatives, Lady Mayoress, and distinguished guests. I extend a particularly warm welcome to Queensland to our international guests. I at once also extend my respects to the Turrbal and Jagera peoples who traditionally tended these lands. 

 For more than a century, the National Council of Women of Queensland has been a powerful community voice on issues that matter to the women of this State.

On far too many occasions over those one hundred and ten years, the most pressing issue has been securing and maintaining peace.

It is therefore very pleasing to see the Council and the Queensland chapter of the Women’s Federation for World Peace co-hosting today’s commemoration of the seventieth anniversary of the end of World War II.

It is particularly appropriate that this is taking place less than a week before the United Nations’ International Day of Peace with its theme, this year, of Partnerships for Peace – Dignity for All.

Since the Women’s Federation for World Peace was established in nineteen ninety-two, it has been an active proponent of the role of women in securing peace not only between nations, but between races, religions, and cultures.

As Patron of the National Council of Women of Queensland it gives me great pleasure to extend a warm welcome to the members of the Federation, especially the twenty Federation delegates who have travelled from Japan to participate in the Bridge of Peace ceremony today.

The Federation’s history reveals that the women of Japan have reached out to the women of dozens of other nations worldwide through this sisterhood movement, with friendship exchanges, study tours, Bridge of Peace ceremonies and commemorative events such as this taking place in countries as distant and different as Jamaica and Jordan, Russia and Rwanda, or Fiji and France.

The simple, moving ceremony we will witness today is a powerful symbol of the hope we all share that personal connections between individuals can lead to reconciliation, forgiveness and the healing of relationships between nations and cultures, however deep their wounds. Kaye and I also share the hope that this, in turn, will lead to genuine and sustainable peace, and it is with that hope that we wish you all well for today’s ceremony and for the lasting friendships that follow. Thank you.