Out of the ashes: Celebrating queer histories

Speakers

Kevin Haunui, Elizabeth Kerekere, Linda Evans, Chris Szekely, Sandy Gauntlet, Ben Black, Nico Reason, Sage Garrett, Will Hansen, Gavin Young

Waiata and mihi

Te Hokinga Mai

E rapu ana i te ara tika
mo tātou katoa.

Tangi a te ruru
Kei te hokihoki mai e
E whakawherowhero i te pūtahitanga
Nāku nei rā koe
I tuku kia haere
Tēra puritia iho
Nui rawa te aroha e

Te hokinga mai tēna koutou
Tangi ana te ngākau i te aroha
Tu tonu rā te mana te ihi
O ngā tupuna kua wehe atu rā
Mauria mai
Te Mauri
Tangata
Hei oranga mo te mōrehu
Tangi mōkai nei
E rapu ana i te ara tika
Mō tātou kātoa
Te hokinga mai tēna koutou
Tangi ana te ngākau i te aroha
Tu tonu rā te mana te ihi
O ngā tupuna kua wehe atu rā
Mauria mai
Te Mauri
Tangata
Hei oranga mo te mōrehu
Tangi mōkai nei
E rapu ana i te ara tika
Mō tātou kātoa
E rapu ana i te ara tika
Mō tātou kātoa
Te hokinga mai
Tū tangata tonu!

Mihi

Tuia mai i runga tuia mai i raro, tuia mai i roto tuia mai i waho kia tau ki a tātou katoa te mauri tū me te mauri ora, haumi e, hui e, tāiki e.

Nō reira tū tēnei ahau ki tēnei te pito one tapu, hei titiro kei ruka ki kā mauka whakahī o Te Ahumairangi, o Pukeahu, o Motukairangi, o Mātairangi e tū ana te toka āhuru, te toka marino.

Ki a rātou mā, e mihi ana, e kōrero ana, e karanga ana ki a mātou, ko te reo kei ruka o Te Keo. Whakaroko ake mātou nei ki te taki o te keo. Kia whakatauhia ngā manuhiri i tēnei rā.

Nō reira e mihi ana ki a rātou mā koutou mā ngā mana whenua o tēnei rohe o Te Āti Awa o Taranaki Whānui, tēnā koutou. E mihi ana ki tēnei whare, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, tēnā koe e te whare. Me mihi hoki ki a koutou ngā pou o Te Pūranga Takatāpui o Aotearoa tēnā koutou.

Kei te mihi, kei te mihi, kei te mihi ki a koutou e pae ana, e tau ana i tēnei rā. Nō reira anei mātou o Tīwhanawhana e tautoko ana i tēnei kaupapa i tēnei rā. Nō reira e te mana whenua, mihi mai, mihi mai, mihi mai ki a mātou.

Ki a koutou katoa, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

I ruka i te aroha ki a rātou mā, ka aituā kua wehe ki tua o te ārai o ia tau, ia tau, ia tau. Nō reira me whakaaroaro ki a rātou, he whakaaro tino aroha ki kā whānau pani. Ka āpiti hono tātai hono rātou ki a rātou ka moe. Ka āpiti hono tātai hono tātou te huka ora ki a tātou e tau nei, ā, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, ā, tēnā tātou katoa, ka huri.

Whakarongo

He kupu tuku iho mō tēnei reanga

Whakarongo!
Ki te reo Māori e karanga nei
Whakarongo!
Ki ngā akoranga rangatira
Nā te Atua, i tuku iho, ki a tātou e
Pupuritia, kōrerotia, mō ake tonu

Tirohia!
Ngā tikanga tapu a ngā tīpuna
Kapohia
Hei oranga ngākau – auē

Whiua ki te ao
Whiua ki te rangi
Whiua ki ngā iwi katoa
Kaua rawatia, e tukua e
Kia memeha e

Whakarongo!
Ki te reo Māori e karanga nei
Whakarongo!
Ki ngā akoranga rangatira
Tēnā, kia purea te hau ora e
He kupu tuku iho, mō tēnei reanga
He kupu tuku iho, mō tēnei reanga

Whakarongo!

Introduction

Kevin Haunui: Kia ora tātou. Welcome, everyone. My name's Kevin Haunui. I'm the chair of the LAGANZ. And it's a real pleasure to have you here tonight.

So my role, one of my roles, will be as an MC. And there will be another MC joining me as well, throughout the evening. And Will over there, Will Hansen, will be doing some work as well.

But 'Out of the ashes: celebrating queer histories'. You know, it's a celebration of what we have achieved and it's also time to consider all that we have yet to achieve.

There's a whole lot going on tonight. You will know that there's a lineup of speakers, as you can see, and we thank Tīwhanawhana for opening our hui tonight. And we also thank our speakers, who have generously come along this evening. And we thank the the National Library, in particular, the engagement team, and the Alexander Turnbull Library for the support, and in helping this event to be here, to happen.

So welcome. So it is a time of celebration. So, you know, who would have thought that Out of the ashes, an event that happened in the gay archives in 1985, would have come to this type of event.

But let me just get myself together as I try and work out my notes because there's a couple of health and safety issues that we need to just be clear about. So in the event of a fire alarm, please make your way out of the auditorium using the aisle closest to you, and exit the building through the Aitken Street entrance, which is just through the lobby there. Just follow the instructions from library or security staff.

In the event of an earthquake, immediately assume the brace position by leaning forward in your seat and placing your hand on the back of your head. If you've traveled a lot on airplanes, it's a very similar position. Once the shaking has stopped, just wait again for instructions from library stuff, as evacuation may not be be necessary. This is a pretty safe building. So you can be assured that if an event like that does occur, you are in a fairly safe space. In the event of any other emergencies, just stay calm and wait for instructions as well.

Bathrooms, gendered bathrooms, are on your right as you leave the auditorium. Non-gendered bathrooms, or gender-neutral bathrooms, are to your left as you leave the auditorium.

So the lesbian and gay archives of New Zealand, Te Pūranga Takatāpui o Aotearoa was born as a trust in 1992. And so this celebration is about marking four queer anniversaries in Aotearoa, to celebrate all that we've achieved in the last 30 years, to celebrate the gay revolution — I'll just put it that way — to celebrate, also, one of the historical communities in Wellington, the Dorian Society. And we have speakers here tonight to speak to those issues. And we're also going to celebrate the zine that is being launched as well.

So what we have up next is our first lineup of speakers. And I'll just introduce them in terms of their bios. I may not read all the speakers' bios, but just to let people know the order of things.

So Elizabeth Kerekere, Dr Elizabeth Kerekere, MP Dr Elizabeth Kerekere, is going to speak about the importance of celebrating and preserving takatāpui histories. Elizabeth is of Whānau a Kai; Ngāti Oneone; Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki; Rongowhakaata; Ngāi Tāmanuhiri, identifies as she/her, was born in Gisborne, where she lives with her wife, Alofa Aiono; her dog, Indiana; and cats, Havana and Chicago. So, for those of us that know Elizabeth, Elizabeth has been focused on community issues for the last 40 years. So it really is a pleasure to have Elizabeth here tonight.

Following Elizabeth, we have Linda Evans. Linda is a curator of LAGANZ Te Pūranga Takatāpui o Aotearoa, and has been working with the LAGANZ curatorial group since the 1990s. Linda's involved in women's liberation, feminist, and lesbian feminist groups since the 70s, and she was part of the campaign for homosexual law reform in the 1970s and 80s. A long time presenter for the Wellington lesbian radio program from 1984 to 1987. So, an oral historian, an oral history curator for the Alexander Turnbull Library as well. So Linda is going to speak about the history of LAGANZ and 30th and 45th anniversaries, and some of the challenges also that LAGANZ faces.

Following Linda is Chris Szekely. Chris Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Ruanui is the Chief Librarian of the Alexander Turnbull Library, has been since 2007. And he's going to talk about the importance of the relationship with the Turnbull Library. He's an author, his works published in Te Reo Māori and English, and his latest book is Te Kupenga: 101 Stories of Aotearoa from the Turnbull, that's been co-edited with Michael Keith and published by Massey University. And I'm sure Chris will also just highlight the future of the Turnbull as well, as an institution.

Following those three speakers— well we'll get up to introduce the next lot of things. I thought tonight that— hopefully it's not too evident, but I did, I was in a bit of a mad rush, so if there's blood splatter all over the place, I'm sorry about my shaving inabilities these days.

Nō reira, it is really good to have you here. Please give it up for the speakers when they are speaking. Unfortunately, there won't be a time to engage with the speakers in terms of questions during the session, but after all of the speakers have spoken and we go out into the lobby, you may want to engage with them there. Nō reira, nau mai, haere mai, Elizabeth.

'Takatāpui'

Elizabeth Kerekere: Kia ora koutou katoa, e tautoko ana ngā mihi kua mihia ki ngā tāngata whenua o tēnei rohe, tēnā rā koutou katoa, mihi mai, mihi mai. Ki a koutou kua tae mai nei ki tēnei pō, nau mai haramai.

So wonderful to see you all here. I always say when I look into a crowd like this, it doesn't matter what rainbow event it is, I know that some of the people I love the most in this world are in this audience. So kia ora to all of you who are close to us and have been doing this work for a long, long time.

I want to talk about kupu. You all know that this is Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori. Yesterday, we celebrated 50 years of the anniversary of the Te Reo Māori petition being presented to Parliament, and so—absolutely.

[Applause]

And inspired always, as I am. All these years of work, over half of that I've worked with Kevin, and been able to be part of Tīwhanawhana, and the tautoko and the strength that our whanau bring to all of our events, is something I will never, never stop being proud of.

But the waiata we did today, the first way it was written to welcome Te Māori, when it came back to these shores, so Hoki Mai. Come back to us. And I think about a word like takatāpui is something that our ancestors gave us. And it's reinforced in the second song they said, Whakarongo Mai. Listen to the words that we say. Speak the words that you know. And when you speak them, they're not just words, individual little things. They have stories behind them, they have lives behind them.

So when we take a word like takatāpui, that meant intimate companion of the same sex, as it was in the tiny— if you see the little dictionary, the original Māori dictionaries, they used the most commonly spoken words at that time in Te Reo, and put it in. Takatāpui was in there. And so we know that it was a normal part of life. And many other ways we know that. But when we take a word like that and we bring it to today, and we use it to embrace all of our whanau who are Māori, with our diverse genders, sexualities, and our sex characteristics, and that includes however you want to identify yourself, and we remember all of the parts of who we are have always existed.

And a word like this connects us to them. It's our whakapapa, it's our strength. But it also connects us to saying, if takatāpui was a normal part of life and accepted, we could assume that when any of our whanau from across the world came to this country, they're welcome and their and their a normal part of our lives. And it is on that basis, that's what gives us the mana, that's what gives us the power to say, this is the acceptance of who we are, the normality of who we are, the absolute incredible fabulousness of who we are, is actually built into this land. And every time we have a hui like this, we reclaim that space. We keep making the space bigger. We keep inviting more people into it. And more people feel comfortable, until the state where more people are surprised it's not there.

This is our land. We are all welcome here. We're all part of it. And just the final thing about collecting our stories. Tīwhanawhana. We're here to tell our stories, build our communities, and leave a legacy. This is what LAGANZ is about, holding that legacy safely for all of us. So recording events like this, making sure we know they happen, the physical things we create, and making sure that all the things we do online are still captured, so the record of them 100 years from now. There'll be decisions, things that happen this week in our lives, at these events. 100 years from now, one of our descendants is going to be looking at that and say, "That was my nanny. That was my uncle. That was my non-binary whanau that were there doing that thing."

And as I close, I want to acknowledge Chris, when you come up to speak later, I was going through a lot of my old papers and I found the indigenous librarians form, the first I believe of its kind in the world, and Chris was one of the people who organized that. I still have all the papers. I was at that hui. And we cannot underestimate how important it is when we stand up and, no matter that no one else has done it before, no matter that some people say you shouldn't do it, that people stand up and do it anyway. I always say find your mates, the people around you, and do it anyway, go for it. And just nō reira, thank you all for being here tonight.

Takatāpui is one word. There are many others. Whakawahine, tangata ira tāne. There are many, many more words we want to find from our past. And we will create and develop them so that they're real for us now. And this is the place that holds the journey of that discovery, the journey of who we are, and what we form together. Kia ora.

History and future of LAGANZ

Linda Evans: Kia ora kotou. As Kevin said, my name's Linda Evans and I'm part of the curatorial team of LAGANZ. I'm going to talk a little bit about our early history, a few glimpses of our collections along the way, and then a little about the challenges we've face in the future, some of them already referred to by Elizabeth.

So LAGANZ, Te Pūranga Takatāpui o Aotearoa, was born out of the National Gay Rights Coalition. So it has an activist birth and continues with many activist collections. And at times in its history, has been very much a part of the activism.

The National Gay Rights Coalition, which was formed around 1976, was one of the few organizations to really seriously try to create a National Organisation, and was very committed to the idea of resources and the sharing of resources and archives. And one of its members set up what became the Lesbian and Gay Rights Resource Center. But it started out being the NGRC's own resources and papers. But then collections of other organisations papers were added to that.

The reason that I've put Glenda Gale here, who some of you may know, is that the organisation was able to get two PEP workers, which is kind of a feature of a time of high unemployment, it was a project employment workers. And community groups could get people to come and work on particular projects. And Glenda organized those first filing cabinets full of material. And I remember visiting her in the NGRC room in number six Boulcott Street, which was a building of many activist groups, the Women's Center, the Gay Community Center, Women's Health Center, the Lesbian Center, Amnesty International — many, many groups had rooms and premises there.

The thing about the archive, also, is that it's always had attention from librarians. And it's had a lot of voluntary time and effort put in by people who've had some professional training, as well as a lot of volunteers. So this is the second organiser of the archives, Chris Masters. He was a librarian at the fire service. And so he organised the room— there was a room in the basement where they expanded into, and he was also became at that time a collective, and he was particularly keen in providing services to other people and groups.

Now this is a little— this is when it moved upstairs to its own premises on the second floor of 6 Boulcott Street. And Paul Smith, who's over on the far side, he was the one who did first set up the collection. Then there's Phil Parkinson, who became the curator after Chris Masters. And then you might recognise, or you might not, Roger Swanson, who was working at that time. And he's worked with the archives all the way through. So that's when they just moved into the new room and were setting it up. And this is one corner of it once it was set up.

Now unfortunately, it did really well during law reform, did really well at the beginning of the HIV AIDS epidemic, produced a lot of resources and supported activities, supported lobbying, you know, was really, really an incredible resource for many communities. But just after the Homosexual Reform Bill had passed in July '86, and came into force in August '86, 11 September there was an arson attack. And this is Phil Parkinson a day or so afterwards, when he was allowed to go in to have a look at what had happened. So this is the event that 'out of the ashes' refers to.

And this graffiti makes it clear it wasn't a random attack. It was a building with a lot of people coming in and out of, so you might have said, "Oh well, could of just happened." But it was really clear who it was targeted at.

So, Phil worked at the Turnbull Library at the time. And many of his colleagues helped with the salvage of the collections. It was quite good, a lot of material was singed, some material was actually destroyed, but a lot could be salvaged.

And the Turnbull Library offered a floor, part of a floor, at one of the buildings it then occupied, because it wasn't at that point in this building. And it was called the Ford Building. And then an arrangement was made between the group, the Lesbian and Gay Rights Resource Center, as it was still called, and the Turnbull Library. And then you can see, in 1988, the name you'd see the first time, the name, the Lesbian and Gay Archives of New Zealand is in there. And the first two curators, Sarah Knox and Paul Parkinson are there as well.

So after that time, as Kevin referred to, there was a further trust document created in 1992. There have been various agreements between the trust and the library, but the archivers had secure and safe housing here, in this building, as part of the— in the same conditions the Turnbull Library's collections have. And it's also had the opportunity to provide services for all the hours that the library is open.

This was the definition. This is kind of referring back to some of the things already raised by Elizabeth in the LAGANZ— the last revision of the constitution in 2009. Kinda looks simple, straightforward. But not really, because we all know how many different communities we're part of, how many conflicts there are, how the intersections of race, class, ability, sex, gender cut across these.

So anyway, the aim is really that LAGANZ serves a network of communities and alliances who want to be part of having material looked after in LAGANZ and want to take part in that. But we don't deny the complexity and, in fact, we welcome it. Because it's not simple and there's so many issues in all of our lives, as well as, you know, all the things that have gone well, all the fun, all the friendship, lovers, ex-lovers, all of those parts of our culture that we represent, we do also want to represent all the difficulties.

And this is some of the objectives that have been there for a long time. So it's a repository for both the people, individuals, and organizations, and also to make the material widely available for research, for activism, for creative work. Now, I've kind of lost track of the time. Who is the time keeper?

Unkown: So I'm the time keeper and thank you.

[Laughter]

Linda Evans: Have I finished? Have I?

Unkown: [Inaudible]

Linda Evans: Yeah. Okay well, the further glimpses of the collections, we'll have to just wait for another event, I'm sorry. But we'll just give a little outline of what we're embarking on now, because that's kind of— it's quite an exciting time. And we're hoping to commission a digital archive platform within about three or five years, which is a really large undertaking, but it does mean we'll be able to deal with material that's created in digital form, which is contemporary kind of collecting, and digitise some of the analogue material from the past. We definitely need the support of experts and volunteers. And we also, of course, will need quite a lot of money. So we need the support of funders and of donors who might like to even give us some money, because the operating costs will be more than our current operating costs.

Our short-term priorities are to develop our metadata and information describing the collections, and this is really well advanced, with the catalogue cards having been transferred into digital form, and a really fantastic international exercise of a transcribathon, where hours and hours and hours of voluntary work went into checking and correcting those digitised cards. It's just a fantastic start.

The next step is to develop processes to collect and store digital materials, so this is digitally created material. And then the last one is to update the website and offer an online catalogue. So we want to acknowledge all the volunteers that have helped so far, and the Rainbow Wellbeing Legacy Fund, which has contributed towards the beginning of this project. We really welcome all contributions so please get in touch.

And equally, please get in touch if there's material you want to offer the library— the archive, sorry, or you want to, you know, take part in any of its work, or you want to research using its collections. Thank you.

[Applause]

The Alexander Turnbull Library and LAGANZ

Chris Szekely: In 1985, my auntie answered a knock on the door. It was a Salvation Army person seeking signatures for a petition opposing the decriminalisation of homosexuality. Of course, she signed. And when she realised I had overheard the whole exchange, she explained a little sheepishly that she didn't really mind "it". She just didn't want "it" to spread any further. "It" meaning the spread of homosexuality.

This was a time when a new disease called AIDS was entering public consciousness. Indeed, in some social circles, the joke of the day was, "What does gay stand for? G-A-Y: got AIDS yet.

As a young man, not long past teenage, and of undeclared sexuality, the Salvation Army exchange with my aunt was hard to listen to. And the inference that homosexuality was essentially a disease was just plain horrible. Many gay men of certain generations will have their own recollections of that time.

That is why it is truly a marvelous thing that LAGANZ exists and emerged literally from the ashes, following the 1986 arson attack, just a year after that petition. I think it important that we remember that that attack took place in a social millieu of disgust and fear.

My auntie was one of eight hundred thousand New Zealanders that allegedly signed that petition. I say allegedly as there is considerable doubt over the veracity of that figure.

My name is Chris CK. And I stand before you this evening as a Chief Librarian of the Alexander Turnbull Library. I'm here to acknowledge the role that the library played in offering the archive safe harbor in 1988, some two years after that arson attack. I need to give a shout out to my predecessors, Jim Traue and Margaret Calder, the Chief Librarians before me that recognised the social value of what was to become LAGANZ, and oversaw the establishment of an enduring relationship.

I'm pleased to continue that commitment and have no reason to doubt that the library's commitment will continue into the future. It is a wonderful thing that future generations have the opportunity to read and understand the first-hand realities of being gay in New Zealand at certain times in our history.

Let's also acknowledge that we're not just talking about tales of yesteryear. Let's remember that it was only this year that conversion therapy, a practice to stop the spread of homosexuality, was made illegal.

LGBTTFIQ are a bunch of letters that speak to the diversity within the LAGANZ archive. I think there is another letter that speaks to LAGANZ. The letter R. R for resilience. To the LAGANZ trustees, both past and present, your resilience is unquestionable. R is also for respect. You undoubtedly deserve respect for what you have achieved. And we, as New Zealanders, owe you a tremendous vote of thanks. Thank you and congratulations on your anniversary. Kia ora.

[Applause]

Being a part of LAGANZ

Will Hansen: Kia ora, everyone. Thank you, Chris. That was really awesome to hear. Thank you so much for having me here, and Reuben for organising all of this. My name is Will. I've been a trustee of LAGANZ since 2017. And it's been an absolute privilege to be a part of this organisation.

Before I jump into what I was going to say, I just want to give a shout out to the Counting Ourselves Survey. As a young trans person, I feel it's my duty to remind all of my fellow transgender diverse people to please fill out the survey. Having community data means that we can better advocate for ourselves and make systems work for us. So please head to countingourselves.nz after this talk.

Cool. So because I was assigned nerd at birth, one of the first things I remember doing when I realised that I was a lesbian, at the time, was Google lesbian history New Zealand and one of the first things that came up was LAGANZ. I learned that Wellington was where our history was held, and it was then that I knew that I really wanted to come and visit. It still took me a few years after that, after moving down, that I finally managed to come down to the National Library and it was Roger Swanson who welcomed me with open arms into this wonderful archival world and I'll never forget him for it.

Since then, I've had so many amazing opportunities to connect with our past and with those who've lived it. Being able to interview older generations about their histories has been the most incredible and rewarding experience of my life. So many people have given so generously to me. I hardly know what to think of it. So many of them in this room. Sandy, Manny, Diane, Chanel, Renee, Gavin, Roger, Donal, there's too many of you to name. Yeah. I turn into a bumbling mess when I think about it and that's why I always say too many thank yous and sorrys and get told off for it.

[Laughter]

Because I just don't know the adequate way to express everything that it means to me. Offering me, you know, your time, your foods, your knowledge, your transport, your stories, retelling stories that are often painful and vulnerable.

I'm aware that my experiences in getting to be a part of LAGANZ and getting to talk to a lot of older queer people in the way that I have is something that not many people my age get to experience. I don't know many other people in my cohort who are able to connect with queer people older than themselves in the way that I've been so lucky to have the opportunity to do. Being able to learn from generations past is vital to our community's well-being. And yet unlike so many other communities, we're of course not born into queer families most of the time, and we have to find that knowledge ourselves. Because back when I first joined LAGANZ, I didn't yet have a receding hairline. One of my roles as a trustee has been to reach out to the youth.

I believe that LAGANZ has an important role to play in connecting us all together. I know that there's a real desire amongst people my age and younger to learn about their community's past and to learn from and build relationships with those who've lived it. I know that it can be daunting for both sides. Sometimes it feels like we speak in different languages. But I know from experience, and I'm sure many of you in this room do too, that there's little that's more life-affirming than finally meeting someone who is like yourself but older. You think "Well they've done. They've managed to survive and to thrive. And if they can do it then I can do it too."

Learning histories that our oppressors have desperately tried to destroy, the legacies of queer struggle and joy and defiance, meeting those who have worked so hard to make life better for those coming after them gives us a sense of belonging, a sense of pride, and a sense of power. It is important to create opportunities for youth to learn about our histories and thereby to honor our histories and to honor those who paved the way.

It was through having conversations about all of this with my friends Caitlin Lynch and Liam Goulter from Wellington Zinefest that 'the archive is alive' project was born. We named it this because history is speaking to us all the time. It is always evolving and everyone, no matter their age, is a part of its tumbling spiral. The archive is alive is also a reflection of the fact that despite attempts to erase queer history and LAGANZ, quite literally, we have emerged out of the ashes and this archive has continued to thrive.

So in August 2020, we put out a call for a small group of participants to engage in a free, intensive two-day workshop. Day one saw us come down to the National Library to discuss queer histories and spend some time hands-on with the archives, which everyone said there was not nearly enough time to do because they loved it so much, which was awesome. And on day two we all sat down together with photographs of the archival items and got creating to make the zines. The progress was incredibly rewarding.

Participants got really engaged and created some beautiful and reflective pieces of art and writing about what queer histories meant to them and their time and LAGANZ, and I'm very grateful to every participant from all three of the archive is alive zines.

So yeah. We repeated the process again in March 2021. But for the second round, we decided to focus specifically on trans histories, as these are generally underrepresented in tellings of our queer past. And then for our third zine, we wanted to acknowledge that most of our participants had been in their 20s in the first two rounds, so we decided to focus on bringing in high school aged youth, to explore and create around the theme of queer youth histories.

Rangatahi need to feel affirmed and supported by their older counterparts, and it's our duty to uplift queer youth in knowing that they are queer history in the making, that their life is important and their archive is important.

So with this kaupapa in mind, we teamed up with Compass Ramsay and the team at Inside Out, the fabulous team there which, if you don't know, is a national charity focused on uplifting our rainbow rangatahi, doing absolutely amazing work.

Unfortunately, we kept getting delayed by COVID, and so finally we decided we didn't feel comfortable holding a big in-person event. We hastily adapted to a scaled down mini online version, lasting only an hour, held on Zoom during Inside Out's annual Shift hui. And despite being so short, it was still just a wonderful opportunity to connect with online participants and we received some beautiful submissions. Thank you so much to everyone who participated in Archive is Alive Volume 3. I was too busy running around that I forgot to bring one to hold. But you can buy them out the front for two dollars. I encourage you to do that.

The Archive is Alive Volume 3

So I'm very proud now to welcome some of our participants from the Archive is Alive Volume 3 on stage to speak about their zine pages. Nico, would you like to come up first? Thank you.

Nico Reason: Hello, I'm Nico and I did the page which is just after the staples.

[Laughter]

And you may be able to recognize it.

[Inaudible]

You can tell I have a thing for capes. And I wanted to focus on the future of the queer youth, and how if everyone works together, we can make sure that queer youth in the future have something to look forward to and a safe place that they can stay. And yeah. If we can work towards just making everyone feel safe and happy.

[Applause]

Will Hansen: Thank you so much, Nico. Sage, are you about? Awesome, thank you. I'll get your page up before—

Sage Garrett: My mum said that [Inaudible] depressed looking Victorian couples would work.

[Laughter]

In my page of the zine, I talk very briefly about capitalism and colonialism and how those linked to compulsory monogamy. Although, of course, you could dedicate libraries to each of these topics individually. In submitting these pages, I had an underlying worry that they wouldn't be included or that I would receive negative comments, because polyamory is still a touchy subject, even within queer spaces. Almost as soon as I sent them in, it was super clear that this was definitely not an issue. But it really got me thinking about the progression of the acceptance of the various identities that we now refer to as queer.

When I talked to my friends and whanau that have experienced queer community for a lot longer than I have, they talk about how when gay acceptance was becoming more present and being bisexual was seen as going too far. Then after that, being trans was seen as going too far. There are still remnants of this internalized prejudice in our communities, but I think that as time goes on, polyamory has begun taking this place.

We could see the sentiment of going too far when we were reaching the— oh, sorry I'm real shaky.

When we were reaching the legalisation of gay marriage, and people were arguing that if we let that happen, we would soon be arguing for people to be able to marry more than one person. At that time, a lot of queer response was that that was definitely false. But why shouldn't that be what we move on to? Polyamory is not ridiculous. It should not be a channel for queerphobic hyperbole. It should not be a channel for slut shaming or sex negativity.

Just as anything else that we now think of as queer, non-monogamy has been around for a very, very long time. In many countries, including Aotearoa, non-monogamy only became stigmatised with colonisation and the entrance of capitalism, making the acceptance of this identity and relationship style just another crucial step in our decolonial anti-capitalist mahi.

I appreciate having the space to openly express my admittedly underdeveloped young, queer, polyamorous, socialist ideas, because the polyamorous part of this really doesn't get the opportunity to shine much yet. I have so much hope that one day it will. Tena koutou katoa.

[Applause]

Will Hansen: That was brilliant. Thank you so much, Sage and Nico. It's now my pleasure to introduce award-winning draglesque artist of unforgettable queer stage presence, the Bombay Bombshell.

Kevin Haunui: Kia ora, wow. We've got a few more speakers and some really exciting stuff coming up. So just to get straight on to things, I know we're running a little bit over our time at the moment, but we'll persevere. We'll survive this.

The formation of the Dorian Society

The next speaker is Gavin Young. And Gavin's going to speak about the formation of the Dorian Society. He's been a gay activist in the 70s and 80s, and was involved in Gay Liberation, the campaign for homosexual equality in Wellington, is international secretary and then coordinator of the National Gay Rights Coalition. And in the 1980s he was involved with the Pink Triangle, [Inaudible] publishing collector. So he's played a part in organising and participating in many of the campaigns and actions to change our society in the place of our rainbow communities during that period.

His career has been in trade development, where he served as a New Zealand trade commissioner in a number of countries, and he's now researching the history of the lesbian and gay rights movement from 1960 to 1986, and plans to write a book to tell many long lost or never before told stories of the fight for what would become LGBTQIA plus rainbow community rights. Kia ora. Nau mai Gavin.

Gavin Young: Thank you, Kevin. That was certainly a hard act to follow, so I won't even try.

[Laughter]

Okay. So there's two things I'm going to cover because it's a year of anniversaries this year. And there's two pivotal ones for the LQBTQIA plus community. And that's the formation of the Dorian Society, which is 60 years ago this year, in 1962, and the formation of Gay Liberation, which is 50 years ago in 1972.

So. Just to set the scene, you'll appreciate that in the early 1960s, things were very different. Male homosexual acts were subject to punishment by terms of imprisonment — five years for so-called indecent acts between men and up to seven years for sodomy, which is the term they use for fucking. In those days, we were regarded as perverts by the police, sick by psychologists and doctors, sinful by the churches, and immoral by society generally. So not a great situation but there were a number— oh and there were a number of our community who were also married in heterosexual marriages. But there was a number of people who— or were a number of people— who identified as "camp", which was the term at the time, and also trans people. And they generally had quite a good social life. So this is a more positive story that I want to tell, rather than just the gloom and doom that we could tell.

Does anybody recognise this? Recognise the intersection? Yep. Okay, so this is the Royal Oak Hotel. And the Royal Oak was one of the venues which was really key to the community. There were bars where trans people went. There were bars where lesbians and camp men congregated. And there were other bars where people also went.

So this is the Royal Oak. It's no longer there. Looking down Dixon Street, Cuba Street, it's the cross street which is now Cuba Mall. And where the car is turning, of course, is where the Rainbow Crossing is now, if you can recognise that.

Now not far away from there, in a little street called Herbert Street, which was just up this way, down Dixon Street, was a coffee house called the Tete-a-Tete. And that was on the corner of Edward Street, which is still there, and Herbert Street, which is no longer. There were other cafes and pubs, and I don't know whether Sandy might mention those in her presentation shortly.

The thing about that time is the bars all closed at six o'clock. So, what to do after six o'clock, when you got chucked out? And so lots of people went for a coffee at the Tete-a-Tete and they also served toasted sandwiches and hamburgers. So that was one of the places to go. So I don't know whether you recognise, this is Manners Street. And just here is a little one-way street, and that's Herbert Street. It's no longer there. And just over about there is where McDonald's on Manners Street now is. And the rest of those buildings were all demolished and there's a street through the middle of it now.

This is what Herbert Street looked like in the 1920s, but it gives you an idea of it was just a narrow lane with footpath on one side. And where the Tete-a-Tete was was up about here. But obviously not there in the 1920s. It didn't arrive until the 1960s.

So during the weekends, there were quite a few parties in people's, you know, private houses. And so people go to the Royal Oak and they find out where the parties were. And two of the regular places that had parties — and there were lots of other places as well. But two of the regular places were 29 North Terrace in Kelburn and 185 The Terrace.

So this is North Terrace. It was a property of several flats. And there were a number of gay and lesbian people lived there. Alison Laurie, the lesbian activist, lived here at that time.

And this photo is of Cees Kooge, who also lived there at that time. One of the things that Cees talks about is that his flat was a bit like a railway station. And so, you know, even when there weren't parties, there were always people coming and going. And he sort of— he had the idea that, you know, maybe it was time we had a club. And he wasn't the only one that had that idea. There were other people thinking along the same lines. But he discussed it with John Mackay and also Jim Good. And Jim Good was a waiter at the Tete-a-Tete, and he'll come up in a minute.

This is the other place, 185 Terrace. This house is still there, by the way. And so this is the back of it. So it was in three floors. It was one of the grand old houses on The Terrace at the time, in the day. At the time, there was the top, which was in two flats, and the middle, which was one flat. And it was that middle flat which Jim Good occupied with Don McMillan, that's his flatmate. And the three flats were sort of basically open plan, so they ran it pretty much as a house.

These are some of the residents in the front room of that house. So Robbie Prince, Morrie Kershaw, this one is Jim Good, and Beynon Anderson, and this guy is a visitor, we're not sure who he is. So the idea was, it was talked about for several weeks and there were a number of people involved, including Brett Rawnsley and Don McMillan, and there were also a number of people of Dutch origin. And they were aware of the COC in the Netherlands which ran cafes and clubs and stuff for the camp community. So they thought it was a good idea as well.

Anyway, long story short, most of the group was pretty young people, and they thought they needed somebody a little bit more senior. So Brett Rawnsley happened to know a guy who was in the National Orchestra, played the cello, a guy called Claude Tanner. So he brought Claude along to a meeting at Jim Good's flat at 185 the Terrace. And it was on Sunday the 27th of May, 1962. 16 men attended. There were two in this picture, Robbie and Jim Good were at that meeting, along with 14 others, and they decided to form what was New Zealand's first homosexual organisation, full stop. And it was social club for camp or homosexual men in Wellington when it started.

Right. This is from LAGANZ, actually. It's one of the very historic documents in LAGANZ and thank God it didn't get burnt in the fire. It's the minutes of that first meeting. At that meeting, Claude Tanner, the older guy that Brett brought along, was elected president and Jim Good vice president, and Brett himself, 19 year old Brett, was elected secretary treasurer and he, in fact, wrote These minutes. And Brett is here tonight somewhere. Where are you Brett?

Oh. Over here. [Laughter]

Anyway, so if you want to talk to Brett— I think he's the only person that was at that meeting who's here tonight, although there are a numbers still alive and I've been talking to them as part of my research.

Okay. So one of the things that the group did when they got set up was to get themselves fairly well organised in terms of a constitution, they registered as an incorporated society and they also got themselves premises. This is all within about two months. And those premises were in Cornhill Street, which is kind of still there. So excuse the map, but just to put it— this is where the Royal Oak was, go along Dixon Street and there's the Tete-a-Tete. And then just along on Manners Street, so basically pretty much opposite where the McDonald's is today, was Cornhill Street, which was just basically a service lane, and there was a building on the corner. And they accessed it from Cornhill Street. So it was a three-story building and they had a room on the top floor.

So this is the old Regent Theater on Manners Street. Just along this way is where the building was that housed the Dorian. And we're not sure whether either this building or the next one was where it was, and it was in that top room, where the Dorian was.

So basically everybody in the club contributed what they could. So they contributed floor coverings and furniture and coffee maker. And some members made interest-free loans which got paid back over time. And one committee member had access to a whole lot of timber from car cases. Does anybody know what car cases were? You know they were the— when we had a motor vehicle assembly industry, they were the cases where the completely knocked down cars came in, and they were big, big wooden cases. So there was a lot of wood left over once the car's parts were taken out. And Jim Good, who was a pretty handy man, he offered to make a table for the club out of that wood.

You probably recognise this person, Johnny Croskery, frequently dressed and dragged and very, very well-dressed at that. Johnny, by profession, was a window dresser and he was one of the best in town. So there was a lot of pretty grand shops and department stores. And he was in demand to do their window displays. And his contribution— and thanks for the story to Brett Rawnsley. His contribution, or one of his contributions, was to make a sort of a half-vase with a dried flower arrangement, which sat in the front window, overlooking Manners Street. So he made a statement for the club.

These are some of the early committee members of the club. This is Claude Tanner; Cees Kooge again; John McKay, who was quite important during that period, including into homosexual law reform society; Michael Mahanga; and Innes Law.

And another another group— so some of them were the same. But this is a rare photo of Johnny Croskery out of drag. And that is Don McMillan, Murray Eggers, of course Claude Tanner, and this person is Jack Goodwin, and Jack Goodwin was the president in 1963, just for one year, but he also went on to become the secretary of the Homosexual Law Reform Society for many years, and was a really important person in the fight for change in attitudes and the law.

The club went on for 26 years. It wound up in 1988. But it moved to various premises. It moved, in 1966, to Willis Street, and this is a picture from there. Argyle McCain might be familiar to some of you. And then in the 1970s it moved to Lambton Quay, which was kind of its heyday, and finally in the 1980s to the Willis Street Village.

Formation of Gay Liberation

Okay. We'll move on to Gay Liberation in 1972. Now, it was instigated in Auckland by, you probably know, Ngahuia Volkerling, now Awekotuku. It was really over an issue with the United States consulate. And they refused to give her a visa on the grounds that she was a deviant. And it was rule that they had that they could use to prevent lesbian and gay people entering the states, because she had won a scholarship and she said that she wanted to study the gay movement amongst other things. So they stopped her.

She went back to the university and they were having a forum in the cornet at Auckland University, and she got up and explained what had happened and said, "Does anybody want to join me in setting up gay liberation", and that's how it started. So there was a group that got going and they did many, many things in a very short period in Auckland.

And Ngahuia was an amazingly busy activist at that time. She also went to Christchurch and she addressed the students at Canterbury University and she talked to a group that subsequently formed Gay Liberation Front in Christchurch in May, 1972. And then she came to Wellington and she talked to some lesbian and gay people here who wanted to form a group. But we were a little bit slower. And author and historian Brent Coutts says that in June, Nigel Baumber and David Russell from Auckland Gay Liberation Front came down to Wellington and had more discussions with the Wellington people.

So there's Ngahuia — this was at Victoria University — talking to the women's forum. This was a clipping from Christchurch.

But actually in Wellington, despite the fact that we had quite a few prominent gay men in the Dorian Society and Homosexual Law Reform Society, it fell to this guy, who was a 19 year-old first year university student by the name of Kevin McKone, who placed an ad in the student newspaper, Salient, on 12th of July, 1972.

And this is the ad. So it was asking people to call him. And he set up a meeting at his flat in Berhampore on Sunday the 16th of July. And it seems with a little bit of dispute about the date when Gay Liberation in Wellington was actually formed, but I think it was the 16th of July. And they set up— a little bit like the women's movement at the time, they rejected power structures and they set up a troika. And one of those people on the troika was Donald Rachel, who's here tonight, and is also on the board of LAGANZ. They had another meeting on the 19th of July and they had a bigger meeting on the 30th of July at Victoria University.

Their very first action was around Hair, and the opening night of Hair on the 4th of August. It seems really, really banal now, but they handed out leaflets. But if you think about it, you know, nobody was out. And so it was really challenging for the individuals themselves who went along to that, to hand out leaflets and say I'm lesbian or gay as they handed out their leaflets. So the leaflets read, "Come out of your closets. Let the sun shine in. Gay Liberation welcomes Hair to Wellington.", and then included the contact details for Gay Liberation.

So I'll just very quickly flick through— there was a conference in Auckland later that month. So that's really the beginning— that's really the end of the beginning, if you like. So I'll give you your time back, Kevin, so thank you.

[Applause]

Will Hansen: Thank you so much, Gavin. We're so lucky that you're doing this research, Gavin, because it's so important and I think you're an awesome person to be doing it. So thank you so much for sharing some of that with us today.

Sandy Gauntlet's story

It's now my pleasure to introduce our next speaker, Sandy Gauntlet. Sandy's been an activist their entire life. Born an activist, trans takatāpui, indigenous environmental activism, and so much more. I could wax lyrical, but all I really want to say is that Sandy's a hero of mine and they're gonna hate me for saying that, but it's true and you've done amazing work and I'm really, really pleased that Sandy is going to share their story today and we can go a little way towards honoring everything that they've done. So welcome, Sandy.

[Applause]

Sandy Gauntlet: Actually, I've always hated the term 'hero'.

[Laughter]

You know, I've hated it applying to anybody else except a parade. But, you know, the term hero, I've never been a hero ever. I have been a rebel. I have been an activist most of my life. I lived half of my life as a woman. And was going to have a sex change but in my early 40s, I had a heart attack and they told me it was the estrogen, the pure estrogen that I was on that had induced it.

Needless to say, I got pretty depressed. And I went from 78 kilos to 149 in the matter of a year. I'm not proud of that. The photo in the book of me is when I was about 29, something like that, that we'll manage to hunt out. And, as you can see, I was a lot skinnier then than I am now. But I am now actually down to around 80 kilos. So that's— it varies between 79 and 83, but I've managed to stabilise it in that variation.

I don't think anything I have done has ever been heroic. It's just what was natural to me. I believe in the principle of equality for us all, for everyone. And if I had one message to leave this meeting with, it would be leave no one behind, ever.

It's, you know, I was raised in a Catholic School. You can imagine that wasn't fun. My first time out in drag, I was 12. And nobody had cars then. It was, you were weird. Nobody in Avondale had cars then. And I caught the bus into town because I knew of two queens who worked the streets down by a Chinese restaurant on Grace Avenue. And so I caught the bus into town and I was so paranoid about people realising I was in drag. I had— oh God, I fitted into a size 12 cheongsam, I can't believe that.

[Laughter]

You know? The Suzie Wong dresses, for those of you who don't know what a cheongsam is. It was my mother's, by the way. I don't think she still knows— oh, well she's dead now, I don't think she ever found out I borrowed it for the night. And I also put a packet of Tampax in the handbag I'd pinched off her, so that if I thought anyone was looking at me funny, I could shake it out and they'd see the Tampax. And that would convince them that I was a woman.

Not long after that, I started wearing drag full time. I met the two queens at the bottom of Grace Avenue. And in those days, and I know some of you will find this hard to believe, no one, absolutely no one would employ a transsexual. You know. Ever. And I can remember getting done up in boys clothes and combing my hair back and the whole bit and trying to get a job at Woolworths. And they told me they didn't employ lesbians. So you can't win either way.

And Polly and Cleo, and they're both dead now, were like my camp mothers, if you know what I mean by that. And they showed me how to make money. And I am actually not ashamed of having been a prostitute for several years of my life. We all have to eat. We all have to pay rent. And no one would give us a job. So you make money how you can. And I am so glad those days have gone for the younger generation. You are our future. In exactly eight days time — well seven and a half days now — it is my birthday, and I will be 73. And my bypass, of course by the heart attack that ended my life living as a woman, is now 32 years old. And it's starting to fail.

I've never been scared of dying, ever. You know? But I am scared of the pain of dying. There's a difference. So I've put it in my medical notes that if ever I'm admitted to hospital and there is no hope, they're to put me into a coma. Because I want to die unconscious. You know?

But as I said, I'm 73 and the bypass is failing. So I am not going to be around that much longer. So if you want to know anything about the history of Auckland— and by the way, Gay Liberation in Auckland didn't start with Ngahuia. I mean, she was a big thing over, you know, the not getting the visa, and she'd won the scholarship in America. There was a gay student movement on campus for about three years before that happened. And I know, because I used to go up and do drag shows to help them raise funds.

They all thought I was beautiful. I've never actually thought that. The photo in the programme shows me as being attractive. And I still can't see that. You know, I can't. I look at myself now and... It is so hard not to cry again. I wanted to be a woman with every fiber of my being. And some arsehole God decided he was going to interfere. And I'll leave it at that. If I have a wish for the future, I want all the young people and some of the older people here, who are going to live on, to leave no one behind, ever. Not once. You know? We all deserve equality. And we all deserve to have to fight for it and to struggle first and to be a rebel and to be an activist. I'm so proud of being that my whole life. Thank you.

[Applause]

Will Hansen: Thank you so much, Sandy, for sharing everything with us tonight. I really appreciate having you here.

It's now my pleasure to introduce Mr Burlesque Aotearoa 2018. He'll steal your girl, your man, and possibly your heart. It's Robin Yablind.

The Rainbow Youth Tauranga arson attack

Kevin Haunui: Well, thank you very much, Robin.

Now, it's my great pleasure to introduce our final speaker for the evening, Ben Black, Ngāi Tūhoe, Whakatōhea, Te Whānau-a-Apanui. Just happens to have similar whakapapa connections to me, but I didn't realise he was coming along tonight until earlier in the week. So he has a background in working for non-governmental organisations, supporting and advocating for people living with HIV and AIDS, and for our rainbow and takatāpui whanau. Currently, Ben is the Rainbow Youth Manager of Bay of Plenty. Rainbow Youth. And he's going to talk about the Rainbow Youth Tauranga drop-in center arson. No reira nau mai haere mai, Ben.

Ben Black: Kia ora koutou katoa. Thank you for having me. It's awesome to be here at this event celebrating queer histories.

Can you hear me okay?

So yeah. So I'm Ben, the Rainbow Youth Manager for the Bay of Plenty. And I'm going to tell you a few of my thoughts and some observations and feelings about the arson attack. And I was thinking about it all day today and it was a little bit raw. So there's a few themes that I want to explore, like grief, responding and reacting, and yeah. I'll just get straight into it.

So I found out about the arson attack in transit in Sydney. I was coming back from an amazing research trip in Nepal. So I had 10 minutes to log on to the Wi-Fi and I was getting all these strange messages. Messages from reporters or just random people asking me about my thoughts on this fire. Can I comment and things like that. So I was very confused and I didn't know until I really got back into the country and I was just devastated because— well as you can imagine, it's just shocking news, and I was already devastated by some other news that I found out in Nepal. So it was like layers of grief. And so I wasn't only devastated, our whole Rainbow Community was devastated. Rainbow Youth was devastated. Tauranga was devastated.

So it got me thinking about grief. And as rainbow people, we often struggle with grief and we're part of communities that are part of grief. So it just made me think, how do we manage that? Where do we go for support? And also the societal impacts of grief. So there's withdrawl, isolation, other challenges like that. So it can be quite, yeah, it's quite challenging. The other thing I noticed is a lot of people reacting rather than responding. You know, as you know, it's quite shocking. So you don't quite know how to deal with something like that. I actually Googled what to do after a fire, because I didn't know.

But yeah. So we fought really hard. We were considerate. We wanted to respond appropriately. So we just wanted to focus on our job and support our Rainbow Youth and create inclusive spaces. So that's what we did. So we didn't respond to any silly questions from the media like "How does it feel?". You know? [Laughter] And sometimes you have to do things for your own sanity too.

So yeah. So it was devastating and I learned a lot of things along the journey, but also some amazing things. How a community can bond together to strengthen a community and to rebuild and regain. Like that was overwhelming. I'd never seen anything like that even though I know the community and I work in the community. So it gave me lots of hope and encouragement.

And I just want to give a big shout out to all those people that gave us support too. And to our sister organisation, Gender Dynamics, who responded at the time and gave their support when it was needed.

And I just want to end on a whakataukī. It goes ‘Ka mate kāinga tahi, ka ora kāinga rua’. When one house perishes, another shall rise. And there's nothing about us without us. Sandy reminded me of that in her talk, just before. And I just want to leave you with that. And I'm just really excited about rebuilding and what other projects are going to come. So kia ora. Mauri ora ki a koutou.

[Applause]

Closing

Kevin Haunui: Kia ora mai. Kia ora mai, Ben. The research project that Ben was talking about, I was in the same research project in Nepal and we're both working on it at the moment, looking at indigenous women and Māori women living with HIV, and other indigenous women around the world. And so it was at that forum that, yeah, those issues came up, not only for Ben, but of course as whanau, and we have to work out how to help.

And it's great, Ben, the way that you've encapsulated out of the ashes, highlighting the resilience of community, the resilience of people, but also how do we take care of ourselves, and part of our history as a way of taking care of that. Knowing that it has happened before, knowing that it could happen again. And so to be strong in that sense.

So, in concluding, I'd really like to thank our speakers, once again. And I've always wanted to do this because I've been watching that MasterChef stuff.

[Laughter]

And, you know, I really wanted to be like Jock at the end and say, "Give it up for all our speakers." So please, can you give it up for all our speakers.

[Applause]

I was never that good at too much emotion and things, so. [Laughter] But never mind.

Thank you once again for coming along to this evening, a really significant occasion celebrating our history, Out of the Ashes. And my final conclusion, I'd just like to recall some of the things that LAGANZ would like you to also, you know, know about our monetary donations, what we're doing, donating queer material, letting people know that there is a place here for our material. And I invite you all to come and have a chat and mingle after this.

Nō reira tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā rawa atu tātou katoa. Greetings everyone.

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