On 11 September 2025 Pacific leaders endorsed the Blue Pacific Ocean of Peace Declaration.  This  affirms Pacific Islands’ support for a rules-based international order, action on nuclear weapons and nuclear waste, and timely commitments to action on climate change. These existential issues affect Pacific Islands in a disproportionate way, but leaders were also concerned that they wished to respond the ‘Pacific Way’: to call for inclusive, people-centred, and human rights based approaches to human development and peace. The Ocean of Peace declaration amounts to a small island states-backed movement committed to decolonise, denuclearise, demilitarise, and decarbonise a large part of our planet, right off Australia’s eastern moorings.

Historically, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand Quakers have had limited involvement in the Pacific, A prominent exception was the missionary work of British Quaker missionary Daniel Wheeler (1771-1840) who with his son Charles included a visit to Australia, Tahiti, and what became known as Hawaii, as part of his South Seas voyage to present the Quaker message. But outwardly, not much seemed to come of their voyage. And since then, it may hurt to say it, but Australian Friends do not appear to have kept a strong awareness of the needs and aspirations of our Pacific neighbours.

Friends supportive of the work of Quakers Australia Peace and Legislation Committee (QPLC), with Friends from FWCC Asia West Pacific and Quakers Aotearoa attending, met to discern possibilities for meaningful engagement with the Pacific. The answer arose among them to find ways to support the voices of the Pacific Conference of Churches and its call for Australia to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. A visit of Pacific Conference of Churches Representatives to Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne has thus crystallised around the end of June 2026, timed to advocate for the Australian Government to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), and announce the details at the Labor National Conference in July 2026. There are many other expected benefits to the trip:  to ground Quakers in our Pacific neighbourhood; to support relationships between First Nations and Pacific advocates against militarisation; to uplift Pacific voices in our region; to strengthen relationships between Quakers and other Australian Churches and faith groups and the Pacific Conference of Churches; and remind us of climate justice issues and consequences. 

The central pillar of the tour would be 3 days of lobbying in Canberra – coordinated by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Australia (ICAN). This will seek individual meetings with Ministers, host group meetings with relevant other Parliamentarians, and adjacent meetings.  The hope is that a First Nations advocate with lived experience of nuclear testing would also be part of this delegation. Planning also allows opportunities to commemorate key peace history, and host Pacific Way ‘Talanoa’ . A Talanoa is a practice from the Pacific – a circle of deep listening to each other as stories, insights and challenges arise and are shared.

The Nuclear Justice Peace Pilgrimage is but one small step in Australian Friends becoming more aware of the West Pacific and wider nuclear issues – and building transboundary Quaker networks to help make the world we want to see.

Adrian Glamorgan is executive secretary of Friends World Committee for Consultation. His work on nuclear abolition has been also expressed through community journalism, representing Fremantle on the international executive of Mayors for Peace, and in taking action against the nuclearisation of Fremantle-Garden Island due to AUKUS arms deals.