These pages present case studies from participants in the Thousand Cranes Peace Network.  They offer a range of approaches and strategies for the use of paper cranes and other materials in projects and activities to promote peace, non-violence and tolerance.

Please note that no responsibility can be accepted for updating links and email addresses.  


Links to further case studies on the Web can be followed from our Peace Links and Resources pages.
 

Rock Eisteddfod
Seaview High School, South Australia

Seaview High School is an Asian Focus school in South Australia.  In 1998 for the Rock Eisteddfod we mounted a 1 hour dance piece that toured to our sister schools in Himeji and Okayama, Japan.  Whilst on tour we spent 24 hours in Hiroshima, and visited the Peace Park and Museum. The experience was felt by students and staff alike.

We wanted to share what we had learned about sadness, loss, grief and the hope that the gesture of forgiveness can bring.  So we decided to use this as our theme for this year's piece.

 

Our piece started before the bomb, then after the bomb and worked forward and backward to meet in the middle - the exploding of the bomb, which had a flash of bright light as our ending.  Before the bomb we featured the story of Shin's tricycle; after the bomb came the story of Sadako and the 1000 paper cranes.  For the morning of the explosion our dance followed people before and after the bomb simultaneously - the tea ceremony with radiation victims, digging in the fields with digging for bodies.

We also featured a group of dancers using the Butoh style of dance in front of a wall, in the shape of the A-Bomb dome.  The impressions moulded into the wall reflect the way people's shadows were etched on stone walls and roads by the blast.  The floor cloth was an aerial view of Hiroshima after the bomb, taken from the diorama in the Peace Museum, so the stories were suspended over the city where the bomb exploded.

The soundtrack was sad and full of regret contrasted with slow, powerful, uplifitng choreography to express positive and hopeful ideas.  The music from Pink Floyd - 'High Hopes' captured the atmosphere of hope and courage which pervades Hiroshima.

The school got behind our project, especially the Asian Focus group, folding paper cranes to place on the seats and to hang on a mock up of the Children's Memorial in Hiroshima Peace Park which we set up in the foyer.

We were fortunate to win the live event in South Australia.  The piece made a huge impression on the audience and we got great feedback about it. The mock up of Sadako's statue got lots of comment in the foyer.

In travelling this path we believe that our students gained access to many facets of life learning and personal development - rarely can these be expressed and experienced with such conviction and passion as through this performance.

Bob Weatherly  Seaview Eisteddfod Coordinator  Arts Coordinator  weathebo.staff@seaview.schools.sa.edu.au

Ian McCloud  Seaview Eisteddfod Artistic Liaison  Drama Teacher

Cranes Going Global
Oshkosh Public Library, Wisconsin USA

Each summer the Winnefox Library System in Oshkosh, Wisconsin sponsors a summer reading program for children. For summer 1999 the theme was 'Go Global: Read!' and a very important part of the program was the story of Sadako.  A special family program about Sadako was held with video, books and stories of other children who have made a difference in the lives of others.

The Oshkosh Public Library (which enrols about 4000 children in the program) kicked off a four county initiative to fold 1000 (or more) paper cranes.  We have a very large Hmong community in Oshkosh and the children volunteered to teach other children how to fold. A crane folding station was set up in the library as well as 24 other libraries in the four county area.

By the end of the program, inspired by the story of Sadako and her classmates, children folded 1,301 cranes for peace to be sent to the Children’s Peace Statue in Sante Fe, New Mexico. . The origami cranes were displayed in the Children’s Department of the Oshkosh Public Library before they flew south  [picture at right].  This was a wonderful project and will probably become an annual event.

Renee Miller
Winnefox Library System
miller@winnefox.org

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The Flight of the Cranes - Skylar's Mission
Pleasant Valley, New York USA

My third grade class at The D’Aquanni West Road School in Pleasant Valley read the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr.  A boy in the class, Skylar Blum, decided he would like to help children with leukemia, like Sadako.  Skylar set out to raise money by making 1,000 paper cranes.  His whole class helped him reach this goal.  All proceeds went to The Leukemia Society of America in the name of Paul Daubman III - Paul is a three-year old boy from Pleasant Valley - and also Mr Harth - our school secretary's husband.  Both are fighting their own battles with leukemia.

Skylar's mission has been an inspiration to all of us - we have raised more than $6,000.  The children's garland of 1,000 cranes was presented to The Leukemia Society of America with the final donation. They are displaying this lovely work of art at Albany , NY Children's Hospital to add joy to the lives of children battling this disease.
 

Jeanette Hicks
alandjeanette@earthlink.net

Cranes by the seaside -
Holiday Inn, Coogee  NSW  Australia

I am the Conference Manager at the Holiday Inn, Coogee, Sydney NSW.  When I first heard about Sadako and the thousand paper cranes in around May 2000 I was very moved by her story and decided to launch my own Peace Project at work to raise awareness of the importance of promoting world peace and to show that all of us working together can make a difference.  Not everyone thought this would succeed - after all, people come to the Holiday Inn to relax and unwind!

I gave out literature and coloured paper in all the different departments, other sister hotels, guest rooms, and conferences being held on the premises.  I also mounted a display with Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr, along with folding instructions.

In just three days we could feel and notice a difference in the hotel.  Everywhere you went, people were folding cranes, helping each other, laughing at how some of the folds turn out, & some of the staff were bringing in cranes that their children had made at home.  People began to request copies of the book, so I had to order them in.

The project came to a head when we hung all our cranes on 15 September for International Peace Day.

I hope to continue with this project and this time I plan to give a token of recognition such as a crane clip or button to people that contribute towards our project.
 
Kristina Jamieson
holiday3@ozemail.com.au

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Last modified 27 September 2006