THE most powerful weapon against war, says George Gittoes, is art.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The artist and filmmaker has spent much of the past 45 years documenting the worst humanity has to offer, having lived through genocide in Rwanda, carnage in Somalia and conflict in Cambodia, Bosnia, Yemen, the Congo and Iraq.
Most recently, Gittoes and partner Hellen Rose based themselves out of Jalalabad, in Afghanistan, where the pair run an artist collective, The Yellow House.
But it was in Launceston this week that Gittoes extolled the virtues of creativity and communication.
Gittoes was compelled to visit Tasmania in preparation for the Community Festival for Peace.
The festival, which will run from July 10 to 12, is centred around using creativity to express peace and goodwill.
"We were in Afghanistan when we got the first email from Belinda Cotton, and what appealed to me was that it was the year when everyone else was, in a sense, celebrating a senseless war at Gallipoli, and everyone was saying this is what made our nation," Gittoes said.
"I like to think of what our nation would have become if all the most talented men in the country hadn't been killed in the First World War."
Gittoes delivered two talks at QVMAG Royal Park this week: one for school children and one for an adult audience.
His overarching theme - as might well be expected from the 2015 Sydney Peace Prize recipient - was peace.
"The reason why I agreed to it and wanted to do it was I thought it was fantastic. It was one city, just one city in Australia, that was doing a peace theme," Gittoes said.
"It was particularly relevant to me because I've been out to Uruzgan Province and Tarin Kot and I'd met a lot of the beautiful young Australian soldiers who'd spent 15 years in Afghanistan and I'd read with tears every time one of them had been killed and thought of their families."
Gittoes said his experiences had shown the power of creativity over weaponry.
He said he had made headway with the Taliban in Jalalabad, who respected and appreciated the work he and Rose had done with Afghans.
His next step, when he returns to the Middle East in August, will be to try to meet the leadership of Islamic State.
"I'm quite happy to make one of my next projects out of Bagdad and have dialogue with IS and my experience with the Taliban is that you can have dialogue, and that's what we should be doing."
For details on the Community Festival for Peace, visit tamarcommunitypeace.org.au/