Media Release
Cairns Peace Pilgrim crosses the line to pray at Pine Gap Defence Facility early Monday as Peace Convergence ends.
UPDATE: Paul Christie has been arrested and is being held at the Alice Watchhouse.
Peace Pilgrim Paul Christie has been arrested after praying on the mountain at Pine Gap Defence Facility and is being held by police in the Alice Springs watchhouse.
It is not clear what charges he is facing given the challenge to the Defence (Special Undertakings) Act 1952 by Supreme Court Judge Trigg last Thursday.
PINE GAP PEACE CONVERGENCE
Cairns Peace Pilgrim crosses the line to pray at Pine Gap Defence Facility early Monday as Peace Convergence ends.
The Peace Pilgrims continued last night building a culture of peace with lamentations, ceremony and prayer on the hills overlooking the secret US Spy base that is Pine Gap.
Paul Christie of Cairns, and a member of the Australian Peace Pilgrims, has come all this way to answer the call from the Arrernte elders, past and present, to begin the process of closing down Pine Gap.
“Before we can begin to imagine the end of our war culture and the closing of terror bases like Pine Gap we must sit and mourn, we must sit and accept, we must sit and recognize the horrors that our collective denial has allowed” says Paul Christie.
“I have been called to carry out a healing ceremony for the land and for its people, the Arrernte people, for the water that runs under the base and through us all, for the families destroyed by the US war machine and to pay respect to the ancestors who walked this land for thousands of years”
Pauli Christie Peace Pilgrim from Gimuy (Cairns)
“All honest people are converging, all cultures are converging, all faiths are converging in the dream of an end to this war culture, of a rebirth of sovereignty, of a resurrection of truth and justice for all. It is time to end the rule of the Psychopaths”
“I am one humble man that will walk the land with the permissions of the elders past and present. I do not do this as a protest but as the right thing to do, I do not disobey the state for the sake of disobedience but because what I do I feel we all must do. Face the horror, face the denial and expose it”
As the convergence of Peace Makers from across the country and the world come to a close there is a stronger sense of empowerment, inspiration and encouragement to continue together to raise awareness, build community and strengthen the network of peace makers across the world.
“The war culture will end, it is up to each of us, in our own way, to help that happen sooner” says Paul Christie.
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For more information about the Peace Convergence or any of the actions carried out ask for contact with the Media collective via
Facebook Close Pine Gap community page
Twitter: @ClosePineGap.
For specific information regarding Paul Christie’s action and for interviews contact
Margaret Pestorius 0410273604.
Margaret Pestorius after 4th October 0403214422
Graeme Dunstan 0407951688
Additional Material
Google drive pertaining to Peace Pilgrims attending the Pine Gap Peace Convergence
https://drive.google.com/open?
Background
Paul Christie is attends the convergence with the Peace Pilgrims who earlier this week entered the base to pray and play a song of lament on the hill overlooking. Their charges were thrown out of court on Thursday by Alice Springs Supreme Court Judge Mr Trigg.
See ABC online article at
See also additional media releases and media exposure from the Close Pine Gap Peace Convergence at