KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – This Remembrance Day there will be a ceremony with a difference in Point Pleasant Park.
Halifax Remembers Peace: K’jipuktuk 2019 commemorates refugees and other civilian casualties of war. As many as 90% of casualties in modern wars are civilians. The ceremony also serves as a reminder of the environmental damage caused by wars.
So as not to interfere with traditional Remembrance Day ceremonies the event will start at 3 PM.
“It’s a historic event in that this will be the first time for us to have this take place in Halifax, says Kathrin Winkler, one of the organizers.
“By highlighting war’s devastating effect on civilians and the environment, we challenge governments to count all the costs before seeking military solutions to complex human problems,” states a press release issued by the organizing Nova Scotia Voice of Women for Peace.
“The Voice of Women for Peace has for a long time supported the White Poppy for Peace initiative. It’s our position that there are many unrecognized victims of war, and where’s the space for them? The narrative needs to be broadened,” says Winkler.
“This is about the gamut of civilian casualties that ripples outwards, refugees, children, mothers, victims of ecocide, and so on,” she says.
The Halifax Remembers Peace event will include music and a presentation by poet laureate, Dr. Afua Cooper. Wreaths will be laid to recognize often overlooked victim groups, including refugees, women, medical and aid workers, children, conscientious objectors, civilian and military PTSD sufferers, child soldiers and veterans for peace.
This is not in competition with the traditional ceremony, but we do want to counteract the narrative of the patriarchal military complex, a narrative that does not offer space for talking about peace, Winkler explains.
“The old structures and traditions that we are clinging to have gotten us where we are today,” Winkler says. “Now we are in a climate emergency, and really everything has to change.”
Halifax Remembers Peace: K’jipuktuk 2019, November 11, 2019, 3pm. Point Pleasant Park, at the Gazebo. Facebook event here.
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