Lest we forget - all who died on country
Making Peas/ce after the Frontier Wars

Movement for the Commemoration of the Australian Frontier Wars
Lest we forget - all who died on country
Movement for the Commemoration of the Australian Frontier Wars
On the 20th anniversary of the first harbour bridge Walk for Reconciliation, we want to share our support for the reconciliation between Australia’s Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.
#StillWalkingForReconciliation
Arrernte woman Bev O'Callaghan has always cherished the Desert peas that flourish in her garden in Alice Springs. Recently the blood-like colours of the flowers suggested a story to her. When Bev wrote ‘The Legend of Sturt’s Desert Pea’, she was unaware that the flower held ancient dreaming stories across Australia of being a flower of remembrance before the time of colonisation.
Bev uses her story and the commemorative pea flowers to foster understanding and conciliation in schools around the conquest and settlement of our land.
Floral activist Hazel Davies was introduced to Bev 6 months ago after 7 years of Making Peasce . They have now partnered together to help the little pea flower sing its song of truth and hope.
News agencies please use contact link for your complimentary Peasce Making resources. Limited supplies including a 6 Pack of Desert Peas.
Desert Pea peasce making packs for remembering all who died on country for country.
Thousands of people from diverse histories and cultures are wearing their own Desert Pea as a tribute and in dedication to reconciliation.
School Pea Packs contain 24 peas, with information about the pea and the frontier wars information for teachers.
To request an executive schools pea pack contact us.
“The fragrance always remains on the hand that gives the flower” …Mahatma Ghandi.
Change the heart of the nation
I wear this pea flower as I pledge my loyalty to the recognition and sovereignty of all First Peoples of this land we now call Australia,
And to going forward together for their rights, liberties and respect with all my thoughts, words and actions.
May be said with or without the words, “under God.”
Written by Chris Pelterre Tomlins. Arrernte traditional owner and mentor for Making Peasce
We acknowledge the First Peoples as custodians of the lands and islands now known as Australia where we live as guests.
We pay our respects to the elders past, present and emerging who own the rich heritage and culture from whom we have so much to learn as we share in a journey of healing and restitution following the tradgedies of the Frontier Wars and intergenerational effects.
Welcome to the Making Peas/ce movement that started with the recognition of the Desert Pea blood flower being a symbol of memorial for the First Peoples who died through invasion and the effects of colonisation of what is now called Australia.
There are strong similarities 10,000 years later to the Flanders Poppy and European Wars where blood has been spilt and a flower grows to symbolise new life, healing and hope while remembering the fallen.
Their blood cries out from the ground.
More recently known by the explorer and invader's name, "Sturts Desert Pea" this flower has song lines going back tens of thousands of years that belong to the First Peoples of where it grows across the arid interior of the continent.
Floral activist Hazel Davies is of British heritage and was born on Dhurrawall land near the site of the first Aboriginal massacres of the colonising period.
With 40 years’ experience as a professional floral designer, poet, writer and teacher, Hazel has co-ordinated the professional floristry teaching program at Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) for 15 years.
Hazel specializes in wreath making and commemorative liturgies, using flowers as symbols in private rituals and public ceremonies. In 2008 she went on to study the symbolism and sacramentality of flowers like the Flanders Poppy in Australian society through a Bachelor of Theology at Charles Sturt University.
In 2014 in partnership with traditional owners, Hazel founded the Making Peasce Movement, to raise the history and profile of the Sturt's Desert Pea as a commemorative flower for the Frontier Wars and massacres.
In 2015 Hazel wrote the iconic poem entitled 'The Poppies and the Peas’ which has been listed in the world catalogue of resistance poetry.
Hazel currently lectures in flora recognition at CIT, while growing the Making Peasce Movement alongside traditional owners.
Thank you Common Grace for helping to plant the seeds of truth at a place which perpetuates error.
We who came to this land now called Australia by birth or migration live upon stolen sovereign lands. In 2020 the voices of those who took these lands from its original peoples remain clearly audible through our history and curriculums.
These stories are further perpetuated and become visible in statues like the one under costly refurbishment at Botany Bay.
As our national origin myth continues to cover the truth of our ‘unsettling ‘ of this Great South Land, the memories of land and peoples lost continues to traumatize our aboriginal brethren.
Why is it that our government can so easily part with 48.7 million dollars to commemorate Cook's arrival? Why is it that we cannot find the courage, the time and money to facilitate a national day of mourning and acknowledgement for the Frontier Wars and massacres?
We as a nation know well the language of remembrance in our ANZAC stories.
We've paved our roads and decked our halls with poppies.
It's time to make peasce.
To read Brooke Prentis' words, spoken at Kurnell at sunrise on the 29th of April 2020, click HERE.
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