Wellington as a Peace Capital

Wellington City and its citizens have been active in promoting peace, tolerance and understanding in the local community and in the world.

Wellington became a Nuclear-Weapon Free Zone in on April 14th, 1982 by decision of the Wellington City Council.

A sign announcing Wellington as a nuclear-weapon free ingzone was erected near the airport. In 2004 this was upgraded to a sign welcoming visitors to Wellington – the capital of Nuclear Free New Zealand

In 1993 Wellington was declared a Peace Capital by Mayor Fran Wilde. Incoming Mayor Mark Blumsky re-dedicated Wellington as a Peace Capital in 1995 and a plaque commemorating this was installed in Cuba Mall.

Mayor Kerry Prendergast is a member of Mayors for Peace. Wellington hosted the first New Zealand Mayors for Peace meeting in 2006.  (Please also see "A Message from Mayor Kerry Prendergast to the Secretary General of the Japan Council Against A & H Bombs").

Wellington was designated a World Health Organisation Safe City in 2006 in recognition of the city’s efforts to prevent violence and increase people’s feelings of personal safety.

Wellington maintains Sister City links with cities in China and Japan in order to develop positive cultural, sporting, economic and political relationships. In 2006 Wellington hosted the Sister Cities 25^th Anniversary Conference, at which time a Sister City relationship with Beijing was formalised.

Wellington City has also planted a number of trees, and installed a range of sculptures and monuments, commemorating peace and peacemakers.  The Wellington Peace Walk is a trail visiting these sites through the botanical gardens and inner city can be viewed through a leisurely walk.  Other monuments can be visited by bike, car or public transport.

Sign outside Wellington Airport
welcoming visitors to the capital of Nuclear Free New Zealand

Letter of Mayor Fran Wilde dedicating Wellington as a Peace Capital

Dear Hiroshi Taka

On behalf of the City of Wellington, thank you for your warm greetings on the 25th anniversary of our Nuclear Weapons-Free declaration – they are most appreciated.

Over the past 25 years, the nuclear-free status of both our city and country has consolidated, and in respect of nuclear-free arms and ships there is now agreement by all major political parties.

Wellington City and the people of Wellington remain committed to a peaceful society, not just in terms of relationships between nations, but also relationships between citizens.

So we are very proud to have attained World Health Organisation Safe Community status in June last year – the only capital city of any country to be recognised in this way to date.

Thank you again for your very kind greetings.

With warmest regards

Kerry Prendergast
MAYOR 

Wellington Peace Heritage Walk

 Wellington City has planted a number of trees, and installed a range of sculptures and monuments, commemorating peace and peacemakers. The Peace Heritage Walk takes a route through the Central Buisness District & Waterfront, Botanical Gardens and The Parliament and Railway Station that can be leisurely walked. Other sites of interest can be visited by bike, car or public transport. 

Download the Wellington Peace Heritage Walk site listing here

Download the Wellington Peace Heritage Map here

Central Business District and Waterfront 

 The section of the walk through Wellington's CBD and Waterfront includes the sites: 

  1. Peace Capital Plaque

Cuba Mall
Installed 1995
Plaque honouring Wellington as a Sri Chinmoy Peace Capital City

 

 

2. Te Aro Park 

 Dixon and Manners Streets
Traditional site of protests against war and in favour of peace. Designed in the shape of a waka (Maori canoe) representing the fact that all peoples of Aotearoa-New Zealand have migrated here from other countries. 

 

 3. Rabin Memorial

Harris Street. Installed in 2000
An olive tree and a granite memorial to Nobel Peace Prize winner Yitzhak Rabin.

 

 

 

 

 4. War Refugees Plaque

Plaque recognising war refugees and inparticular the polish child refugees from World War II that were accepted by New Zealand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  5. Nuclear Free Wellington Sign

Museum of Wellington. The sign commemorates the Wellington City Council declaring the city a nuclear weapons free zone in 1982. 

   

 

Peace Walk – Botanical Garden

The section of the walk through Wellington's Botanical Gardens includes the sites:  

 7. 'Peacemaker'

Chris Booth, 1991
Comprising basalt boulders given by the Ngati Kura iwi of Northland. Peacemaker particularly attempts to communicate the choice of being peaceful among human beings. This is a companion sculpture to one in Matauri Bay, Northland, commemorating the final resting place of the Rainbow Warrior – the peace ship bombed by the French Secret Service.  

8. Body to Soul

Mary-Louise Browne, 1996
A black granite stair-case with 13 steps engraved with a word sequence BODY to SOUL.

9. Peace Garden

Includes Hiroshima Peace Flame, ignited by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and presented by the Japanese people to New Zealand in honour of this country's prohibition of nuclear weapons. Also includes the Hiroshima Stone from the former Hiroshima City Hall and Hone Tuwhares poem, No Ordinary Sun and more.

 10. Nagasaki Tree

Planted by Mayor Kerry Prendergast in 2005

A camphor tree originating from a tree that survived the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

For more information see: Nagasaki’ Tree for Wellington’s Peace Garden

 11. Kauri Tree

This Kauri Tree was planted to commermorate a Unitd Nations Asia-Pacific Disarmament conference in Wellington.

Peace Heritage Walk - Parliament and Railway Station

12. Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Sculpture

Parliament library gardens
Sculpture commemorating the Aug 9, 1945 destruction of Nagasaki by a nuclear bomb.

 

13. Kate Sheppard Gardens

Camellia garden commemorating suffragettes who campaigned to gain women the vote

 

 

 

 

14. Sonja Davies memorial

Parliament grounds, 2006
A kowhai tree and plaque dedicated to Sonja Davies, parliamentarian, trade unionist and an advocate for peace and social justice.

 

 

 

 

 

15. Pou Whenua

Ra VIncent, 2004

Wai-titi landing marker, a gift from Te AtiawaTaranaki to Wellington City as an expression of the treaty relationship between the peoples of the region.

 

        

  

16. Gandhi Sculpture

Gautam Pal, 2007

This statue was gifted to Wellington by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, to honour the efforts of Wellington people for peace nad non-voilence in the tradition of Mohandas Gandhi. 

 

 

 

Other Peace Monuments and sites 

Antarctica Monument

Mt Victoria Summit.
Dedicated to the world’s first international nuclear-weapon-free and demilitarized zone.

 

 

 

 

  

 

Parihaka Memorial

Massey University Grounds, Buckle Street
Memorial to the Maori from Parihaka pacifist community who were imprisoned in Wellington and forced into slave labour.

 

  

 

 

 

Peace Foundation Wellington Office
James Smith Building, 2^nd Floor.
Corner of Cuba and Manners Malls.

Visit the Peace Foundation. Meet our staff. Check out our peace resources. We are part of the Centre for Global Action which also includes Amnesty International, Council for International Development, Dev-Zone, Global Education, Oxfam, UNICEF and the United Nations Association.