LPM Official Launch

When faced with a global trend of escalating violence, it appears lasting peace is an elusive goal. Even though the United Nations has pursued peace as a core mandate for more than seventy years, "conflicts continue to rage claiming countless lives, displacing millions of people, and threatening to destroy our common heritage" (UNESCO, 2018, p. 20). 

Even though there are over one-hundred and fifty peace museums and organizations in the world, in the Global North and South, peace museums mainly focus on conflict and war outcomes. Still, they don't illustrate How can we have reconciliation? How can we talk with one another? What are the steps to create long-term peace? 

The new virtual Living Peace Museum (LPM) in Vancouver's Lower Mainland, British Columbia, Canada, is a non-profit organization committed to awareness and understanding of peace heritage traditions. The LPM encourages culturally diverse interpretations of peace locally and globally in partnerships with cultural communities. 

The seeds of the museum began when Kimberly Baker, a museum educator, UBC P.h. D Candidate and artist began presenting a series of public talks about Dr. Sultan Somjee's museum theory of utilizing the African philosophy of Utu and Indigenous methodology, which prompted sixteen community peace museums in Kenya. The community peace museums formalized in 2004, as the Community Peace Museum Heritage Foundation (CPMHF). The audiences expressed the desire to have a 'peace museum' in Canada, and community members came together as a board to create the LPM. Somjee's theory and methodology became known as 'Somjee's Way.' His approach expands our understanding of what peace is through kaleidoscopic cultural approaches to peacemaking. Somjee is an LPM board member and encourages us to celebrate peace through cultural unity and sustain the natural environment through re-education, exhibits, collections, and collaboration with Elders and Indigenous communities. Today, the LPM is committed to fostering peace and harmony among diverse local and world cultures.

Today, we are pleased to announce the new virtual Living Peace Museum (LPM) in Vancouver's Lower Mainland, British Columbia, Canada.