This travelling exhibition will illustrate the experience of Quakers in Australia during the challenges of the WW I period and beyond. We will pay tribute to the courage of those diverse people who expressed their faith and conviction by opposing war preparations, and the war itself, including youths who were imprisoned for refusing to undertake compulsory military training. The exhibition will address the ongoing impact of war on participants, their families, and civilians, with the aid of some personal stories, and outline the active role played by Quakers in relief work during and after WW I. The need for continuing commitment to peacemaking and non-violent methods of solving conflict within and between nations will be emphasised. Highlighting the importance of peacemaking provides a counterpoint to the WW I centenary focus on the commemoration of military engagement, and also the appropriation of the memory of war, whereby dissent is obliterated and the myth perpetuated that WW I was, and is, integral to our identity as a nation.
The exhibition will be held during NSW History Week at the Devonshire Street Meeting House on September 6, 8, 11 & 13 from 10.30am-3.00pm and on September 9 & 10 from 1.00pm-8.00pm. The exhibition will be officially opened at 6.00pm on Tuesday 9 September by Professor Emerita Jill Roe and our Presiding Clerk, Julian Robertson, will act as host.
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