Australians say ‘G’ day’ to Potatoes for Peace!

Potatoes for Peace have been enjoying their Antipodean adventure down under to New Zealand. They hopped over from New Zealand’s South Island and continued their peace building activities in Melbourne, Australia and were greeted with an enthusiastic “G’ day potato friends”.

It was all systems go for Potato Kylie and Potato John as they had to get straight to work on running their first pilot school programme in Australia, with over 80 students in Heidelberg primary school in Melbourne over 4 days.  These students were aged between 6 to 7 years old and have been our youngest participants to go through the Potatoes for Peace programme thus far.  Although, a different and much younger age group, it was wonderful to see the students engaging with Potatoes for Peace, being curious and open, as well as having lots of fun in the process.

Potatoes for Peace received amazing support and knowledge exchange from teacher extraordinaire Annie. It’s always wonderful to get positive and constructive feedback from teachers who collaborate in the programme, critical to enabling the development and learning of Potatoes for Peace.

The children were thrilled to meet Potato Kylie and John and enjoyed creating their potato friends, whilst learning about differences, kindness and how we should treat each other. The students were delighted to take home their special Potato friend but they also commented that they learnt how to care about the feelings of their potato friend and in one child’s words that “we are all different”.

Potatoes for Peace were privileged to be present during ANZAC day, the national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand and also learnt about the country’s indigenous cultures though Potato John, of Aboriginal descent. 

Finally, after their busy schedule of teaching in school, Potato John and Kylie headed to the phenomenal, Immigration Museum in Melbourne.

The Potato people were warmly received by staff within the museum and were allowed exclusive access to the current exhibition on identity, which explores what characteristics makes us who we are. As well as recounting the history and experiences of immigration to Australia, the Museum, also rehumanised migration in a visceral, poignant way, illustrating how immigration and the resulting cultural diversity contributed to shaping Modern day Australia. Many school groups also visited the museum accompanied by their teachers and the Potato people were pleased to see the younger generation so engaged and eager to learn about the ‘other’

The Potato people are certainly sprightly spuds, forging new friendships and taking every opportunity to inculcate their message and values to educate for a more peaceful and accepting society.  With their bags packed, where will Potatoes for Peace be heading to next?