Mum, How Do You Spell Gorbatrof?

1986, 46 Minutes

Does one person have the power to change their world? Eleven year old Australian Eamon Burke thinks he can.

In 1986, the International Year of Peace and the year that the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, 11 year old Eamon Burke launched an extraordinary campaign for peace. Armed with a peace scroll of signatures from hundreds of Australian children, he travelled to the then USSR to meet with President Gorbachev and the children of the Soviet Union.

Eamon's message was simple, clear and direct. 'If people have the capacity to make bombs, then they should have the capacity to take them apart again...There's so much beauty in the world that it would be a shame to spoil it all.'

The half-hour version of this program was Australia's entry and winner of the International Year of Peace Media Award.

Film Australia the Production Division of the Australian Film Commission. © 2011 National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.