Inspirational Queer Ancestors for PrideNZ

Gareth Watkins, founder of PrideNZ, reflects on the people who have shaped his understanding of queer history, community memory, and the importance of preserving rainbow voices in Aotearoa New Zealand. Interviewed by Roger Smith, Watkins explains that PrideNZ, which he founded in 2009, now contains more than 1,000 audio recordings of interviews and events relating to rainbow communities. He describes the site as a way of making queer stories visible, accessible, and reusable, and says its values were deeply influenced by five “living queer ancestors” whose work in activism, broadcasting, photography, filmmaking, and archiving helped document significant moments in New Zealand LGBTQIA+ history.

The recording is both personal tribute and historical reflection. Watkins focuses on Linda Evans, Kym Strathdee, Peter Nowland, David Hindley, and Peter Duncan, all of whom documented queer life and major community events from the 1970s through to the 1990s and beyond. He argues that these people did more than witness history. They recognised the importance of recording it, preserving it, and then making it available to others. That idea sits at the heart of PrideNZ and its mission to ensure that the experiences of rainbow communities are not forgotten.

Linda Evans is acknowledged for her activist and archival work, and for her role in the Broadcasting Reference Library at what became Radio New Zealand. Watkins describes how Evans and her colleagues compiled daily press clippings, physically filing newspaper stories by topic and person in the pre-digital era. This labour created an invaluable record of media coverage about homosexuality, homosexual law reform, crime, and social attitudes from the 1960s onwards. For Watkins, those clippings became an early gateway into queer history, revealing that rainbow lives and struggles had always been present in public discourse, even if often framed negatively. The recording also includes an excerpt from Evans recalling a humorous but pointed protest against the Salvation Army during the homosexual law reform campaign, when activists demanded their donations back after the church organisation supported anti-homosexual law reform efforts in the mid 1980s.

Kym Strathdee is celebrated as a self-taught photographer whose archive captures decades of queer life in Auckland, Wellington, Sydney, Melbourne, and San Francisco. Watkins highlights Strathdee’s gift for documenting both major public events and everyday community life, from gay liberation and Pride marches to the long life and legacy of Georgina Beyer. He describes Strathdee’s camera as both shield and bridge, allowing him to participate while also observing. Strathdee’s generosity in sharing his photographs, especially for memorials and public remembrance, is presented as a model of community care. Watkins stresses that these queer archives are not meant to be locked away. They are taonga held in trust for future generations to access.

Peter Nowland is acknowledged as an extraordinary broadcaster who recorded the sounds of homosexual law reform protest in the mid-1980s. Armed with a cassette recorder, he gathered speeches, chants, interviews, and the atmosphere of marches and demonstrations for the Gay BC programme on Wellington Access Radio - New Zealand’s first permanent community radio station. Watkins explains how community radio was essential at a time when queer people often faced discrimination. Nowland’s recordings captured what mainstream media often missed: the voices of people directly involved in demanding change. His work preserved not only supportive activism but also hostile rhetoric, providing a fuller historical record of the struggle around homosexual law reform. An excerpt from a Salvation Army protest demonstrates the emotional immediacy, political tension and humour of the period.

David Hindley is honoured for his photography during the law reform era. Watkins praises Hindley’s ability to compose compelling images in fast-moving and often volatile situations, such as rallies and public meetings. Hindley’s photographs are described as iconic visual records of queer protest and political action in Wellington and Lower Hutt. They also reflect the risks of visibility in a time when homosexual activity was still illegal and anti-discrimination protections did not exist. In the recording, Hindley speaks about balancing access, consent, and timing, and warns contemporary photographers about the fragility of digital memory. His call to save and print images underlines the wider message of the recording: documentation only matters if it survives.

The final tribute is to filmmaker Peter Duncan, whose footage from the late 1980s and early 1990s records major rainbow community events in Wellington, including the Lesbian and Gay fair, Devotion Festival, the Love Parade, and an unveiling of the New Zealand AIDS Memorial Quilt at the Michael Fowler Centre. Watkins gives particular attention to Duncan’s filming of Beacons of Hope in 1993, a large AIDS memorial event on Wellington’s waterfront featuring torches, candles, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and public speakers including MP Katherine O’Regan. By preserving and sharing this footage, Duncan safeguarded an emotional and nationally significant record of HIV and AIDS remembrance.

Across the recording, Gareth Watkins makes clear that queer history is built not only through protest and political change, but through the patient work of collecting, cataloguing, preserving, and sharing. It also quietly positions PrideNZ itself within that continuum, as a living archive shaped by those who came before and dedicated to carrying rainbow stories forward for future generations.

This summary is created using Generative AI. Although it is based on the recording's transcription, it may contain errors or omissions. Click here to learn more about how this summary was created.

Alison Laurie David Hindley Gareth Watkins Katherine O'Regan Kym Strathdee Linda Evans Roger Smith Sue Bergin

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