The title of this recording is "Senthorun Raj (2)". It was recorded in Wellington Town Hall, 101 Wakefield Street, Wellington on the 17th March 2011. Senthorun Raj is being interviewed by Jim Whitman.  Their names are spelt correctly but may appear incorrectly spelt later in the document. The duration of the recording is 5 minutes. A list of correctly spelt content keywords and tags can be found at the end of this document. A brief description of the recording is: In this podcast Senthorun Raj from Australia talks about attending the human rights conference. The content in the recording covers the 2010s decade. A brief summary of the recording is: In a recent interview at the Wellington Town Hall on March 17, 2011, Senthorun Raj from Australia shared insights into a human rights conference attended in New Zealand. The interview, which is part of a podcast, was conducted by Jim Whitman and spanned a duration of five minutes. During the conversation, Raj highlighted the profound impact of indigenous participation and voices at the conference, noting the active integration of indigenous customs and values in the conference methodologies - something Raj feels Australia is yet to achieve effectively. In Australia, while traditional acknowledgments like 'welcome to country' are noted, the depth of diverse, particularly indigenous voices, is limited in comparison to New Zealand's approach. Raj remarked on the genuine commitment of the conference to diversity, where the constituent body and the content discussed are reflective of each other, moving beyond mere rhetoric. The conversation shifted focus to indigenous contributions regarding identity before western influence, with Raj applauding the recognition of complex, pre-colonial sexual practices, desires, and intimacies present among diverse ethnic communities. Discussion of such topics provided a platform to understand sexuality in its rich historical contexts, challenging the singular, westernized perception of sexual identity that has often overshadowed nuanced cultural narratives. Moreover, the interview touched upon the intersections of various elements - culture, race, faith, spirituality, and geography - in shaping identity and belonging. Importantly, economics was highlighted as a factor integral to understanding identity, with financial mobility shaping one's capacity to participate in sexual communities. The conversation also delved into the criminalization of certain practices like sex work and how it has led to adverse health outcomes and infringed upon individuals' rights to autonomy over their own bodies. Raj stressed the need for decriminalizing such activities to improve sex workers' access to healthcare and create regulated conditions for their work, advocating for their agency akin to professionals in any economic sector. The full transcription of the recording follows.  It includes timestamps every thirty seconds in the format [HH:MM:SS].  The transcription begins:  So you've had a whole day now, How did it go? I think this is a fabulous conference. I've been to many conferences, human rights conferences back home in Australia and what I have noticed a discernible difference is the engagement with the indigenous culture. Here in New Zealand, there's a lot more active participation of indigenous voices and and a strong presence of indigenous values and cultural processes reflected [00:00:30] in the in the kind of approach and the methods that the conference utilises, which unfortunately, Australia is still lacking somewhat. Um, we have a traditional, uh, welcome to country or acknowledgement to country back home. But the participation of diverse voices, um, specifically indigenous voices is quite limited. So, um, I felt particularly struck and particularly moved by the, um the level of indigenous participation in the conference so far, and, um, [00:01:00] the level of diversity within this conference as well. And the fact that you know, this is a conference dedicated to diversity, and it's not simply rhetoric or lip service, um, and that you know, the the constituency is not diverse themselves, but this is actually a conference where the content and the participants are largely reflective. of one another. Um, so, yeah, that's probably been my most striking, um, observation since the first day. One of the things that struck me was that the the the quality of indigenous contribution [00:01:30] is not necessarily about LGBTI. It's about who people were before the West, for instance, came Absolutely. Um, I think that's another fascinating observation Is that you know, when people talk about LGBTI Q people, it's often through a very stereotyped lens of, you know, um, you know this Western idea of what constitutes sexuality. And here we have presentations from people from diverse cultural and ethnic communities. Uh, talking about [00:02:00] how their sexual practises, their desires, their intimacies, um, had all these complex ways of defining themselves prior to the imposition of colonial attitudes and laws and politics, which sought to define their relationships as necessarily gay or lesbian. And so it was really great to hear the kind of disparate nature of, um all these different experiences and the rich histories associated with, um you know, um, same sex sexual practises. Before colonialism came and entrenched this very [00:02:30] normative idea of sexuality and sought to police it in a particular way. And of course, it and, uh, following from that as well. It's important to see how it's not simply an issue of just sex. It's an issue about culture, about race, about faith, about spirituality, about geography and the fact that, um, a lot of our identities and ways of belonging are negotiated through many different kinds of attachments, not simply our sexual or gender attachments as well. Does economics come into it? [00:03:00] Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think the point that's been raised throughout this conference is that there is no aspect to our identity that can be taken out as a discrete portion. And economics is absolutely critical to that as well. You know, um, socio demographic status, the the access to capital and the mobility of financial mobility of certain groups enable some people to be more active participants of certain kinds of sexual communities, whereas others are limited in their choice of engagement [00:03:30] simply because of their financial means. So I think you know, economics, politics, geography, religion, race. They all operate together to highlight the fact that sexuality needs to be considered in very specific historical and cultural circumstances. I spoke to a woman who was a sex worker and clearly criminalised in the past or wherever she might go. Whatever country Asia Pacific reason that stops her from working, doesn't it? Um, [00:04:00] forgetting about how she expresses herself sexually or gender wise. Yeah, I think, um, what we've seen is the the criminalising provisions associated with, you know, consensual same sex activity or the criminalization of sex work has been really problematic, produced really poor health outcomes and has sought to police people's rights to determine over themselves, Uh, how they choose to use their bodies and what capacities they choose to use their bodies. Um, and you know, a lot of the rhetoric around, [00:04:30] um, sex work and criminalising sex work is to prevent, uh, forced trafficking and, um, specifically human trafficking of sex workers. But at the same time, that actually obscures the fact that a lot of sex workers choose to engage in these practises as part of an economy and that they should be free and entitled to have agency over their bodies and over their over their lives the same way any other professional has, um, to dictate how they choose to participate in any aspect of economic life. Um, and [00:05:00] if we are to create safe regulated, um, mechanisms for sex work and sex workers. It's absolutely essential that the criminal provisions be removed and that, you know, there is greater access to health care and services and, um, proper, um, you know, complaints, um, and scrutinising bodies and that, you know, sex workers aren't stigmatised or criminalised and, um, you know, treated on the margins of society, so to speak. The full transcription of the recording ends. A list of keywords/tags describing the recording follow. These tags contain the correct spellings of names and places which may have been incorrectly spelt earlier in the document. The tags are seperated by a semi-colon: 2010s ; Asia Pacific Outgames (2011) ; Australia ; LGBT ; Pacific ; People ; Senthorun Raj ; Wellington ; Wellington Town Hall ; access ; access to health care ; belonging ; capital ; choice ; colonialism ; conference ; culture ; difference ; diversity ; economics ; economy ; engagement ; faith ; gay ; gender ; health ; health care ; history ; human rights ; identity ; lesbian ; march ; mobility ; nature ; other ; police ; politics ; race ; relationships ; religion ; rhetoric ; sex ; sex work ; sexuality ; spirituality ; time ; values ; work. The original recording can be heard at this website https://www.pridenz.com/apog_senthorun_raj_2.html. The master recording is also archived at the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington, New Zealand.  For more details visit their website https://tiaki.natlib.govt.nz/#details=ecatalogue.1089487. Senthorun Raj also features audibly in the following recordings: "Session 7, Gender, Sexuality and Rights" and "Senthorun Raj (1)". Please note that this document may contain errors or omissions - you should always refer back to the original recording to confirm content.