Imagining peace_ One hundred years of WILPF in Aotearoa new Zealand

Abstract or Summary

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) has been active in Aotearoa for one hundred years, working for peace and security through challenging the causes of war and its root causes of violence, while working to dismantle the structures of gendered power – patriarchal, economic, political and military. Geographically positioned in the south west Pacific, WILPF Aotearoa has grown over the decades into a clear sense of Pacific identity and is now part of an extensive Asia/Pacific region in WILPF’s regional structure. In this reflection we look to our formative influences, examine how our organisation currently functions, locally and internationally, and consider what might serve us well for the future in Aotearoa. We draw on current International Vice-president Catia Confortini’s analysis of a feminist critical methodology and the tool of ‘feminist compassion’ in the development of WILPF as an international organisation. We acknowledge as our foremothers did that our work will always require ‘the most strenuous and adventurous effort of mind and spirit.’