A peace pou (pole) has been installed under the olive tree outside Waiapu Cathedral, Napier, and will be blessed on Sunday 6 November at 11am by cathedral priests and congregation, with the Mayor of Napier hoping to attend.

Reverend Dorothy Brooker asked for one of the peace pou for the cathedral when all 43 pou were installed initially in Hastings civic centre in late 2021.  Napier City Council generously helped to install Te Pou Rangimarie this week and it is part of the city’s International Interfaith project.  .

The pou features the words “May Peace Prevail on Earth” written in four languages –English Te Reo Māori on two side and Hebrew and Catalan inscribed on the other sides.  All the pou include English and te reo Māori inscriptions and, between the 43 pou, 80 other world languages are included. 

“The Peace Pole project began in Japan in the 1955 in response to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki so it is very fitting that the Cathedral’s Pou Rangimarie is placed beside the olive tree and plaque which declared the Cathedral a Nuclear Free Zone in 1984,” says Reverend Dorothy Brooker.

The Hawke’s Bay peace pou project was initiated by World Beyond War Aotearoa New Zealand in conjunction with Stortford Lodge Rotary.  The 43 pou were located in Hastings civic centre for a few months last year.  At the time, Hawke’s Bay woman Liz Remmerswaal, the WBWANZ national co-ordinator and lead organiser of the local project, explained that the poles symbolised a common wish for a world at peace, standing as a silent vigil reminding people to think and act in the spirit of peace. Other pou have been installed at schools, marae and other places of worship.