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Tacoma woman attends Nobel Peace Prize ceremonies in Norway

A community organizer from Tacoma who was invited to the Nobel Peace Prize ceremonies in Norway said the trip was a “dream come true.”

Tacoma's "Peace Queen" is back from her once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Nobel Peace Prize ceremonies in Oslo, Norway.

Community organizer Melannie Cunningham got the invite after receiving the Greater Tacoma Peace Prize for her work in promoting racial reconciliation.

"It was a trip of a lifetime. It was just a dream come true," she said.

Cunningham traveled to Oslo with a film crew to document her experience. She conducted interviews with others who work to promote peace. She said those conversations solidified her belief that peace starts from the ground up.

"The work people do on a local level really does make a difference," said Cunningham.

Through her documentary, Cunningham hopes to shed awareness on the plight of the Sámi, a group of indigenous people who live in Northern Norway, many of whom are reindeer herders. The Sámi are engaged in a land battle with the government to preserve their culture and way of life.

"So, we're talking about being at the center of peace-building in Norway, but there's this internal conflict," said Cunningham.

She was also inspired by the work of Nobel Peace Prize co-recipient Dr. Denis Mukwege and the hospitals he set up in the Congo for rape victims.

One of Cunningham’s biggest takeaways from the trip is an acronym for PEACE - People Everywhere Are Created Equal.

"If you hold onto that mindset, it can govern your actions. The conflict that we have around us usually starts with someone thinking they're better than the other, but if we just hold on to PEACE, we can move together,” she said.

Cunningham expects to release her documentary in the summer of 2019.

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