MEDIA
JOHN MILLER'S PEACE AWARD MIHI

NZ's Media Peace Awards - a Special Achievement Award to John Miller for his significant contribution to fostering peace and understanding through the medium of photography,
12 November 2003

By JOHN MILLER

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The struggle against GE in New Zealand - Large size billboard | Greenpeace
Photos: John Miller

I wish to express my sincere thanks to the Peace Foundation for this award, which, I have to admit, is a most unexpected and pleasant surprise.

It is really great to receive such an acknowledgement and appreciation of one's work.

I'd also like to thank all those who have helped, encouraged and sustained me in my activities over the years - kia ora to you all.

Although this award is made to me personally, I really consider it a recognition of the value and worth of the social activism of all the people who feature in my photographs you are now seeing up there - images spanning more than three decades:

- The struggle against Apartheid sport and the regime that perpetrated it;

- The cruel and unjust conflict in Vietnam;

- And this country's stand against the insanity of the nuclear arms race [an instance here where the prime minister of the day did listen to the people!].

And now it is with a sense of bemused déja vu that people of my generation and older, contemplate yet another cycle of anti-war protest. It has been most heartening and gratifying to see the activism and enthusiasm of younger generations as they join in on such issues as the current Middle East conflicts as well as the integrity and safety of our environment and food supply .

Much of my photography has tended to feature issues and causes which I support.

When I started out photographing student demonstrations in the late 1960s, I never realised I would end up with a photographic archive of New Zealand activism - it has just seemed to have grown to the point, [where], with the passing of time, it now provides an interesting window on the past - to remind us how things were, and in some cases - how they don't seem to change much at all.

What of the future?

Well, those of us who experienced the Vietnam [War] street marches, lament how the present day hyperpower (a French term, I believe) doesn't seem to have changed its ways and now we have the shadowy priesthood of the Project for the New American Century (now securely ensconced in the White House) attempting to create some sort neo-Straussian (1) global playground for international corporates - and, of particular concern, using military force to implement its privatisation agendas in countries like Iraq (which, as Naomi Klein has recently pointed out, is a breach of international law(2).

It is thus important that independent photographers in this country give an alternative viewpoint in what will become a test of wills - that will impact here - between those global forces [that] pursue an agenda of self-aggrandisement and sequestration of planetary resources for the wealthy few, and those who struggle for social and economic justice and equality or all.

At this time, it's good to have the Peace Foundation by our side and may I also join in extending 20th birthday congratulations - an anniversary also of the May 1983 Women's Peace March, which contributed much to us attaining our nuclear-free status*. And, of course, next March marks the 20th anniversary of the last American ship visits [to our shores.]

I wish the Peace Foundation every success in its endeavours for the next 20 years.

1. See:.Noble lies and perpetual war: Leo Strauss, the neo-cons, and Iraq. Danny Postel <http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/> 16 - 10 - 2003. http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-3-77-1542.jsp

2. See: Iraq Is Not America's To Sell - International law is unequivocal - Paul Bremer's economic reforms are illegal. by Naomi Klein; The Guardian ; November 07, 2003
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=4465

* An unintentional gaffe - the sequence of the 20 Media Peace Awards ceremonies held to date began, of course, in 1984.