The 30th Biennial IPRA Conference

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

​

Celebrating sixty years since International Peace Research Association was first founded in 1964, the 30th IPRA biennial conference, warmly welcomes you to join the largest body of global peace researchers, students, academics and community-based practitioners to Aotearoa New Zealand from 5-8 November 2025.  The conference theme is “Peace, Resistance and Reconciliation | Te Rongo i Tau, Te Riri i Tū and Te Ringa i Kotuia” will gather inspiring thought leaders of activists, artists, community practitioners and researchers to reflect on the intersection of peace, resistance and reconciliation.

 

We welcome all participants to this conference to bring their visionary research and ideas to share with like-minded community.  Māori are the Indigenous Polynesian people of Aotearoa and consider the Māori village of Parihaka Pā to be the birthplace of non-violence resistance.  Here, Māori resistance to colonisation became a genesis of a worldwide, non-violence movement that spread to India, the Americas, and throughout the world. 

 

Almost sixty years of peace advocacy has advanced the struggles of many people who have experienced injustice, genocide, racism and colonization.  We call on students, communities and researchers to ignite the call for peace, cultural, social, psychological, physical and spiritual wellbeing for all beings living on this shared planet. The 2025 IPRA General Conference welcomes leadership change makers and flax/ grass roots initiatives to share in local, national and international wisdom amongst the gathered collective. 

 

Our conference takes place near Parihaka Pā, once a thriving village and the seedbed of passive resistance within Aotearoa New Zealand.  This conference will begin at another special space, Ōwae Marae, located on the site of the ancient Manukorihi Pā. We will then move to the Devon Hotel, New Plymouth 5-8 November 2025 for the conference proceedings.  Taranaki is an important region of Aotearoa New Zealand, as it was the place where the New Zealand Land wars began in 1860 between Europeans and Māori.  The land holds both the memory of love, pain and forgiveness – a recipe for reaching our highest selves and known wisdom. 

           

 

TOPICS FOR CONSIDERATION

 

The IPRA 2025 Conference welcomes papers and proposals which explore the following Major Thematic Areas, alongside other Sub-Themes within IPRA’s various Commissions. Applicants are encouraged to creatively link their proposals to one or more of the following themes and/or sub-themes: 

 

Thematic Areas of “Peace, Resistance, Reconciliation | Te Rongo i Tau, Te Riri i Tū, Te Ringa i Kotuia”

 

• Building peace movements for justice: experiences, theory and methods

• Creative spaces to grow peace and justice

• Healing wounds, histories and hearts

• Holistic healing for shared planet stewardship

• Indigenous wisdom and peace

• Interculturality and ethical communities 

• Movements of antiwar and political violence

• Peace, education and justice

• Reconciling past grievances for a shared future

• Regenerating restorative justice and community building

• Rethinking sustainability for peace and justice or

• Transformational non-violence movements

• Youth-led and community peace activism

​

 

IPRA Commission Sub-themes:

• Advancing peace education: theories and history

• Art, music and the culture of creating peace

• Creating alternatives for humanity living in crisis

• Development, political economy and sustainable peace

• Gender and peace

• Human security and society

• Indigenous peacebuilding knowledges and practices

• Lifting out of climate, economic and humanity crisis

• Media, conflicts and journalism

• Memory, museums and peacemaking

• Nonviolence and peace movements

• Peace and ecology in the Anthropocene

• Transformative pathways towards peace and justice (PPJ)

• Youth, sports and peace

• ​

 

FEATURED SPEAKERS

​

​

​

​

​

​​

​

​

​

​

​

​

WHAREHOKA WANO (Taranaki, Te Atiawa, Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Tama, Ngāti Awa) is a well-respected teacher, actor, and leader. After a 30-year career in education, Wharehoka took up the CEO role for Taranaki Iwi in 2016. More recently he has moved in to the Pou Whakahaere (CEO) role for Te Tōpuni Ngarahu the Ngā Iwi o Taranaki Regional Body. As a tribal leader with whakapapa to Parihaka, peace and reconciliation are integrated parts of all that he does, and his leadership style encompasses those values.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​​

​

​

​

​

​​

​

​

​

​VIVIAN TATIANA CAMACHO HINOJOSA (Quechua) is the Vice Minister of Ancestral Traditional Medicine of the Ministry of Health of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. Dr. Camacho is also a High-Level Commissioner for the Pan American Health Organization, has worked as the Coordinator of Health for the Bolivian Peoples, and has represented the Andean Region in the Latin American Coordination within the World Movement for Peoples’ Health. She is a Midwife and Promoter of Respectful Birth and Ancestral Midwifery, and is a Specialist Surgeon in Interculturality and Health.

​​

​

​

​

​

​​

​

​

​​

​

​

​

TONGA KARENA is a Māori scholar and activist who holds the role of Pou Tikanga at Tui Ora Taranaki, providing cultural vision and leadership.  As a tribal leader, Tonga provides expertise and revitalisation in the field of Parihakatanga, Pacifism, Revolutionary Nonviolence, and Indigenous peace traditions within Aotearoa New Zealand.

​

​

​

​

​

​​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​PUNA WANO-BRYANT (Taranaki, Te Atiawa, Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Awa) is an advocate for Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Māori land issues, social justice, reconcilliation and mātauranga Māori.  As a Māori female leader, Puna is heavily involved in tribal and social development, governance, local and central government advocacy and grass roots community implementation. She is the General Manager at Parininihi ki Waitōtara.

​

​

​​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​​​​​​

​​

MALAKA SHWAIKH is a Palestinian academic from the Gaza Strip, currently based in Scotland where she teaches and researches prisons as spaces of power, resistance, and peacebuilding. In addition to her research commitments, she is a trustee of Firefly International and St Andrews Education for Palestinian Studies. In 2021, she co-founded FreelancersinGaza.com with Candace Amani to connect youths in Gaza with clients around the world and provide them with mentorship. Dr. Shwaikh currently serves as the Vice President of the European Peace Research Association.

​​

​​

​​

​​

​​

​​

​​

​​​

​​

​​​​

​​

​​

​​​​​​​​​​​​​

ASMI WOOD (BE LLB PhD) is Distinguished Professor at Australian National University, a Barrister and Solicitor specialising in Constitutional recognition of Indigenous People, ethics, humanitarian and international law.  He teaches law at the ANU Law School, was awarded the ANU Indigenous Alumnus in 2020, and was made a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK) in 2017.

​​

​​

​​

​​

​​

FOR GENERAL PARTICIPATION:

IPRA members, independent scholars, and students (graduate and undergraduate) are welcome to attend the 2025 conference as participants! We will be adding the General Registration link SOON! Please stay tuned!!

​

The IPRA 2025 PRESENTATION PROPOSAL FORM process has long been closed, and a full program of accepted and attending panelists, paper presenters, cultural workers, and other guests will be appearing here prior to the conference itself.

 

For more information, please contact us at: ipra2025@gmail.com

​​