- Events
- Carrying Aotearoa’s queer memories
Kawe Mahara Queer Archives Aotearoa volunteer Reuben Love will discuss how public programming and taonga can engage with and strengthen our queer communities in Aotearoa.
Join us online for this event.
Kawe Mahara — To carry our queer memories
Kawe Mahara Queer Archives Aotearoa (formerly known as the Lesbian and Gay Archives of New Zealand Te Pūranga Takatāpui o Aotearoa) is a rich pātaka of queer taonga and stories.
Kawe means ‘to carry, convey, bear’ and mahara means ‘memory, recollection, knowledge’. Kawe Mahara stands for carrying the memories of all our takatāpui and queer communities in Aotearoa from the past, present and future, so that our communities can grow and thrive.
Having survived an arson attack in the 1980s, and kept alive by volunteers through decades of discrimination, Kawe Mahara is a testament to the power of community archives.
Public programming as archival justice
The Public Engagement team at the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa has worked with Kawe Mahara’s collections and Aotearoa’s queer communities to create zines, celebrate key anniversaries, create intergenerational art and facilitate kōrero that supports stronger relationships and understandings between generations and between the Library and Aotearoa’s queer communities.
Join event coordinator Reuben Love as they kōrero to how artistic expression, public programming, and community outreach can respond to historical and ongoing silences within our queer archives.
They will also share their exciting work with the Board of Kawe Mahara Queer Archives Aotearoa in inaugurating Aotearoa’s first Queer History Month in July 2024.
Register for a link to join this talk
This event will be delivered using Zoom. You do not need to install the software in order to attend, you can opt to run Zoom from your browser.
Register if you’d like to join this talk and we'll send you the link to use on the day.
About the speaker
Reuben Love (he/they) (Pākehā) is a volunteer kairuruku kaupapa with Kawe Mahara Queer Archives Aotearoa and a kairuruku kaupapa with Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa. They are excited by the potential of weaving stronger queer connections between communities and institutions.
Connecting to collections talks
Want to know more about the collections and services of the Alexander Turnbull Library and National Library of New Zealand? Keen to learn how you can connect to the collections and use them in your research or publication? Then these talks are for you. Connecting to Collections talks are held on the 3rd Tuesday of each month (February to November).
Look at some of the previous talks in the Connecting to collections series.
Connecting to collections 2021
Connecting to collections 2022
Connecting to collections 2023
Whakawāhine activist Carmen Rupe on Parliament steps, 24 June 1975, by an unidentified Evening Post staff photographer. Ref: EP/1975/2576/4A-F. Alexander Turnbull Library.