Archives West Finding Aid

The Pacific Peacemaker was an Australian vessel dedicated to anti-nuclear protest from the 1980s. The Peacemaker was funded by trade unions, churches, peace groups, and individuals throughout Australia and New Zealand (Aotearoa). Launched in August of 1981 by the Australian Council of Trade Union President, the project generated media coverage against Trident, nuclear weapons, and the plight of the Pacific people subject to nuclear testing and seizure of lands for military purposes. U.S. supporters, mostly on the U.S. Pacific coast, launched a two-year Pacific Peacemaker Project from 1982-1984. The purpose of this project was to raise awareness of the consequences of the continuing nuclearization of the Pacific, to focus on the impact nuclear weapon proliferation had on the Pacific Peoples, and to work for the concept of a Nuclear Free Pacific as expressed by the Nuclear Free Pacific Conference of 1980. The Pacific Peacemaker left Australia for Seattle, Washington on December 28, 1981 to protest the Trident nuclear weapons system. Pacific Peacemaker arrived in the U.S. and became one of the two flagships in the August 12, 1981 Peace Blockade of the first Trident submarine as it entered the waters of Puget Sound on its way to its home port at Bangor, Washington, drawing attention to the U.S.’s role in the continuing escalation of the arms race.

Source: Center for World Indigenous Studies