listen now: mp3 audio of the event 
mp3 audio file of the Peace Train event, by Peta Waller-Bryant, a young person on the train:
Peace Train
by Peta Waller-Bryant
from YAPRap January 2007
When Cat Stevens wrote the lyric 'Ride on the peace train', I don't know if he expected a big group of the Sydney community to be doing just that 35 years later.
I was lucky enough to join them on 25 November kicking off from Bankstown station at 12:12pm.
The project was funded with grants from the NSW Minister for Youth and the support of Bankstown, Hurstville, Rockdale and Sutherland Councils. A number of youth councils and youth advisory committees from these areas joined together to create the Peace Train, aiming to promote community harmony in the wake of the Cronulla riots last summer.
"It's important to move away from the whole riot issue and move into a more positive direction," Bankstown Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) member Sama explained. "We can actually work with youth - not with the government, or the media when they have their spin on the situation. We can actually reframe the issue of the riots."
Bankstown YAC also said that the riots did put a negative spin on young people in the Sydney area, but it raised the opportunity for them to take a stand and prove that young people aren't the way they were represented.
It was an interesting thing to note, that the Peace Train wasn't what I expected. When I imagined an event reacting to the Cronulla riots a year on, I anticipated a protest - but the Peace Train was no such thing. It was a celebration of diversity; every chat I had with the passengers was over a consistent rhythm coming from the absolute conglomeration of cultural musical instruments. Never before had I heard Chinese, Jamaican, Arabic, African and Indigenous Australian instruments playing to the same beat - and this was a truly inspiring thing to hear. 
Music is an element that can be found in all cultures in one form of another, it's a unifying aspect that was central to the day and it was what made it so successful. Everyone could get involved in the beat and share the joy in it. "I think it's great, we've had many opportunities to interact with each other and speak to people we normally wouldn't have spoken to, it's very positive" Sama explained.
Even the large number of transit officers on the train got into the fun - bopping along to the music.
Originally the project had been planned to occur on a timetabled train, but in the later days of the project, State Rail provided a dedicated train going all the way from Bankstown to Cronulla without changing. However, this didn't mean the general public couldn't get on - meaning a lot of confused passengers at the bubble of activity.
I also spoke to Tom, a community development worker in Bankstown. "It's up to our generation now to invoke change" he said, "young people just need to have some solidarity in their causes and realise that they are our future - we are our future." The day was a good example of this, Tom explained, because they were reclaiming public space and sending out a message that the violence portrayed would not be tolerated.
It was a shame however that the group didn't fill up the train. There were still a lot of empty seats when we got to our destination. However, the group gained a lot of members walking through Cronulla to the beach where the rest of the afternoon held a lot of workshops and performances from various musical and theatrical groups from around Sydney.
Regardless of the fact that the event tried to turn away from the message that the riots portrayed, racism is still an issue for Sydney's community. "(Racism) is a problem everywhere: it's not exclusive to Australia and it's not exclusive to a certain region within Australia. But I think it comes from a lack of understanding with one another." Sama from Bankstown YAC also said. "We really need to speak to each other and create lines of education and communication with one another. Hopefully that will alleviate the ignorance." 
Tai, also from Bankstown YAC, raised the question, "Why are we thinking negatively when we could be thinking positively?"
Sam from Marrickville was a major part of the celebrations, making some great music on the train. "I wanted to celebrate Australia's diversity and be part of something that is repairing rather than something that is damaging this planet." He also mentioned that events like the peace train reverse the perception of young people's connection to the riots. "With our thoughts we make the world and I just try and think about the good things, celebrating helps me do that... If you have negative thoughts and think about the differences in society and negative things like that, it perpetuates a society that's unhealthy."
The Peace Train was successful because it was innovative and accessible. All people wanting to get involved had the event basically come to them, because of this, it brought together communities from all over Sydney. The general consensus on the train was that it was more important to celebrate than to protest, that focusing on the good would go further in inspiring the community to join them. The revelers also said that more projects like this were essential to turn around the attitudes Australians have towards their neighbours.
The Cronulla riots had a devastating effect on the community last summer and the one-year anniversary passed without hassle - partly because of the major police presence.
"(The Cronulla riots) had a very big effect on Sydney so it's a great thing to be supporting peace, hopefully we can have an equally big effect" Lily Francis, another 'peace-passenger' said. "It's obvious it was horrible what happened but I think it's created a lot of awareness in the community of the need we have for peace."
The question is though, where can this awareness go? It will take more events like the peace train to bring the community together and show the world that Australia is willing to celebrate its diversity.
more info
myspace site:
www.myspace.com/peacetrain06
media coverage:
- Peace Train Celebrates Diversity (293KB JPEG file) - Sunday Telegraph 26/11/06
- Muslims scared to go back to Cronulla beach - Sydney Morning Herald, 26/11/06
listen now: mp3 audio of the event
mp3 audio file of the Peace Train event, by Peta Waller-Bryant, a young person on the train:
