About Peacebus.com

Peacebus.com captain, Graeme Dunstan is heading to Cairns to make lanterns and agitate for Australia withdrawal from the Afghan War. In Townsville he organised a Speak Out against the Afghan War outside the Lavarack Barracks on 13 August. Here the media release and above the report in the Townsville Bulletin Saturday 14 August. Report coming. Peacebus.com journeys for justice, occupies public place with artful dissent and supports others to do likewise. This way the Graeme gets to meet the visionaries, the outraged and the change makers in these times. As a grey haired elder he bears witness to the currents for change and helps out best he can. Graeme led a flag making project for NAIDOC Week in Rockhampton. Photo above from NAIDOC March in Rockie 9 July by Chris Ison of the Rockhampton Morning Bulletin. Report coming. While there he made contact with peace activist friends there and did some plotting for resistance to the Talisman Sabre US-Oz war games at Shoalwater Bay next year. On Saturday 19 June he was at the Jaggera Cultural Centre in Musgrave Park, West End, celebrating the 80 day Women's Peace Walk from Brisbane to Canberra. There he met Hamish Chitts, founder of Stand Fast, and with his assistance, changed the Peacebus.com mural. Graeme came to Brisbane via The Dreaming where he found the Black History presentation by Land Rights activist, Gary Foley, inspired and inspiring. Above a photo and Gary and Graeme, first meeting in 30 years. He had come from Rainbow Region and celebrating the 37th anniversary of the Nimbin Aquarius Festival which seeded so much counter cultural transformation in the district. He supported is Aquarian friend and fellow artful activist, Benny Zable, who was charged with trespass on Australia Day last. Photo above. He came to Nimbin from a journey to Goodooga and a meeting with aboriginal elder, Michael Anderson, the last survivor of the founders of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra 1972, Australia's longest running protest. Michael was convenor of the New Way Summit on Aboriginal Rights which took place at ANU in Canberra 30 Jan to 1 February. Michael was also one of the mob of young land rights activists who attended the 1973 Aquarius Festival in Nimbin. So it will be a meeting of Aquarian elders plotting a human rights/activist/ eldership gathering on his land there. Above Michael and Graeme with the flag that Graeme painted up based on the design of the flag flown at the founding of the Tent Embassy in 1972. Above a flag raising at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy 28 April with elder in residence Auntie Jude Kelly, Shiralee Hood and Jude's two sons, Luke and Mica - an appropriate start for the Journey to Goodooga. Graeme attended the Australian Quaker Centre on the shores of Lake George near Bungendore where he spent the Anzac Day weekend in retreat with a group of peace activist Christians interested in Putting an End to War. Such an affirmation for the heart and the spirit, he could not keep from singing! There he did some plotting for peace; in particular some planning and cooridination for resistance to the 2011 US -Oz war games at Shoalwater Bay (known as Talisman Sabre) and a lantern presence at the next Anzac Day observance in Canberra. Viva the Anzac Peacemakers! Here an illustrated report. Graeme was in Newcastle on 28 March for the fifth annual People's Flotilla Blockade of coal ship movement of Newcastle Harbour. The event was organised byRising Tide, the most active (in the sense of direct action) climate change resistance group in the land he helped out by rigging flags and banners in support. Maybe 300 people, lots of kayaks, lots of cops but no coal ships. Success! Everyday we stop coal exports is a day closer to stopping them forever. He had come from Canberra where, on behalf of Stand Fast veteran's against against the wars, he had been preparing on an artful welcome for US President Obama, the Nobel Peace Laurette who promotes war. But Obama baled out. Above the banner he painted up - design courtesy of his daughter, Softly Dunstan of Mighty Nice Studios, Sydney. And a prototype cardboard MQ-1 Predator Drone for the fleet he was planning to assemble. See On Making a Cardboard Drone. Here the media for the aborted protest. Here the blog. During December he was in and around Sydney helping organise amongst veterans resistance to the US wars on Iraq and Afghanistan. Based on three years at Duntroon 45 years ago he was "welcomed aboard" as a member/organiser of Stand Fast. He has been advocating a rally of veterans in Canberra on the Anzac Day weekend 2010. He was witness to the climate change activism which manifested at the Helensburgh Climate Camp of 9-11 October 2009. See illustrated report. During August he was in the Rainbow Region of NSW helping organise the resistance to the Repco Motor Rally through the Tweed Valley and beyond on 3-6 September. Success. See his report and also his blog of sorts. Prime Minister Rudd came to Lismore on 24 August and the HEMP Embassy took the Big Joint to meet him. Peacebus.com was there in support of the Nimbin HEMP Embassy. See illustrated report. Peacebus.com was a presence in Yeppoon-Rockhampton for the Peace Convergence and in resistance to the biennial US-Australian war games at Shoalwater Bay known as Operation Talisman-Sabre, 6 - 26 July. He kept a blog of sorts. Anillustrated report is in the making. Graeme Dunstan was Marshal of the 2009 Nimbin Mardi Grass Parade of Sunday 4 May. The Obama banner he painted up for it was designed by his "clever like a monkey" daughter Softly Dunstan and painted with the assistance of Mardi Grass volunteers, My Wiman, Raphael Bardin and Robin. Illustrated report. As part of the Easter protests against the environmental destruction of the Barrick Gold mine at Lake Cowal near West Wyalong on 12 April 2009. See illustrated report. Peacebus.com blockaded the mine gate at shift change and Graeme later charged with obstruction. Peacebus.com supported the fourth annual Peoples Blockade of Newcastle Harbour on 21 March 2009 with flags and banners. That day no coal ships left the Harbour, the biggest coal port in the world, because of our flotilla presence. Victory to the People! See Graeme's report Ending coal one day at a time. Above is part of the Climate Action Summit crowd who circled the federal Parliament on 3 February, its first sitting for 2009. Peacebus.com was there. Peacebus.com was also part of the Stop the Intervention Rally later that day and was in residence at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy 25 Jan to 5 February. See report. Below is Auntie Isobelle Coe at the sacred fire on the afternoon of 30 January. Peacebus.com had travelled to Canberra from Wonthaggi in Victoria where he participated in protests against the building of a desalination plant near Wonthaggi. Another story of ALP-corporate corruption in these times, see report. Below a photo of the local activist on the jetty at San Remo, Victoria, 7 January 2009, in one of a series citizen initiated actions in resistance. Before that Peacebus.com had assisted GM free protestersin an action outside the gates of Corio College in Geelong, Victoria, where Prime Minister Rudd and his Cabinet were meeting interested local citizens in a tightly controlled exercise in pretend democracy, 7 December 2008. See report. Graeme had been invited to the two above protest actions by an activist whom he met at dawn on the 3 December 2008 at the Eureka memorial in Ballarat, Victoria amongst those who celebrated the 154th anniversary of the Eureka rebellion. There Graeme burned an effigy of Australian Federal Police Commissioner, Mick Keelty, in protest at the white wash by the dud Rudd government for his Terror War excesses under the Howard regime. See report. 2008 was a busy year of protest for Peacebus.com. On Saturday 1 November he supported his Newcastle Rising Tide friends to mount a climate change action at the Bayswater Power Station near Muswellbrook. He painted up the banner for the action. See illustrated report. And before that he was in the Blue Mountains making lanterns and deploying flags for the Festival of Joy at the Katoomba Community Gardens on Saturday 18 October. Have flags and lanterns, will travel. Graeme gets around. In Corrimal, Wollongong. On Saturday 11 October, he supported a local citizen action to reclaim a small patch of escarpment rain forest from inappropriate development by the late father of ICAC declared-corrupt property developer, Frank Vellar.. Photos posted.. He addressed the Environmentally Concerned Citizens of Orange (ECCO) on 24 September 2008 on the toxic consequences of cyanide leach gold mining. Orange citizens, already concerned about the overweening thirst of the Cadia gold mine, are faced with the prospects of another gold mine at near by Lucknow. Graeme was outside Australian Federal Police headquarters in Canberra calling for the sacking of the Commissioner, Mick Keelty, on 19 September. Mick had been before the Clark Inquiry into his Terror War policing under the former Terror War prime minister, John Howard. See report. Graeme Dunstan under the banner he painted for the Newcastle Climate Camp rally 13 July 2008 Peacebus.com was an active contributor to the Climate Camp which took place in Newcastle 10-15 July. On Sunday 13 July a rally of 1000 people closed down the coal loader for 7 hours. Happy Wheels was stopped and searched by cops on two separate occasions. See Graeme's report Graeme celebrated Independence from America Day in Byron Bay on 4 July with a small but feisty action. See 53 minute YouTube. He celebrated the 35th anniversary of the Nimbin Aquarius Festival by convening an Honorable Elders camp under the Nimbin Rocks on 16-19 May. See illustrated report. Graeme Dunstan at Honorable Elders Camp 19 May 2008 For the previous months of 2008 he has been on the road with Cyanide Watch, the direct action campaign to bear witness to the cyanide crimes of the gold mining industry and their suppliers. In association with a video illustrated presentation on Zapista resistance in southern Mexico at The Carrington Hotel, Katoomba, NSW, on the evening of 11 April 2008, a Cyanide Watch action took place by the rail. See In Katoomba Cart Wheeling Cyanide Free. There have also been Cyanide Watch actions outside the gates of the Barrick Gold mine at Lake Cowal, Easter Sunday 23 March and before that outside the Stawell Gold Mine in Stawell Victoria 19 March. Here is a report of the Cyanide Watch was outside of Orica's HQ in Melbourne on Friday 29 February. Peacebus.com began its 2008 actions by was assisting at the Sorry Day actions and celebration at the Tent Embassy on the days 9 through 13 February 2008. Peacebus.com aims to contribute to the building of sustainable resistance to Earth destroying corporate greed. For insight, check out Peacebus.com praxis. And in between actions of witness Graeme is a father and grandfather. Here above Iggy Bravo (5 years) and his brother Baxter Valentine Price (2 1/2 years) as superheros. And below his far away in Mexico grand daughter, Dixie Valentina Dunstan Valderrama, now 2 years old and presently visiting Oz.