The title of this recording is "Max Tweedie - Director of Auckland Pride". It is described as: Max Tweedie talks about becoming the new Director of Auckland Pride. It was recorded in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand on the 28th May 2019. Max Tweedie is being interviewed by Gareth Watkins.  Their names are spelt correctly but may appear incorrectly spelt later in the document. The duration of the recording is 11 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 Max Tweedie talks about becoming the new Director of Auckland Pride. This interview was recorded a month prior to Max starting in the role on 24 June 2019. The content in the recording covers the 2010s decade. A brief summary of the recording is: In this podcast episode, Max Tweedie discusses their recent appointment as the new Director of Auckland Pride and shares excitement about leading the operational aspects of the Auckland Pride Festival. Having been intensely involved in community work within rainbow communities, they bring passion and experience to the role. The position encompases responsibilities like funding, media relations, planning, and securing sponsorships - all critical components that contribute to the success of the festival. Tweedie reflects on the 2019 Auckland Pride Festival's grassroots approach which resonated personal visions of pride, celebrating diversity within the rainbow community. They express a commitment to uphold this vision, empowering and showcasing the community's artists and activists. For Tweedie, pride is rooted in political activism and challenges heteronormative structures, celebrating the unique qualities of queer identity and the community’s contributions to society. It represents both an acknowledgment of progress and a rallying cry for future advancement. Addressing a recent division within the community over the Pride parade, they advocate for engaging in values-based discussions to explore shared queer experiences and foster unity. Tweedie aims to navigate beyond the details that have previously obscured larger community goals, planning to facilitate in-depth conversations to capture a collective vision for future festivals. Responding to inquiries about past controversies, they stress the importance of looking forward and ensuring the festival represents the community. Tweedie discusses the additional challenges, including engaging with Rainbow Pride Auckland, which has announced plans to host a Pride parade, and ensuring that their actions align with the wider community's best interests. When it comes to corporate sponsorship and participation, Tweedie suggests corporations engage with the community in meaningful ways, citing Spark's support for OUTLine NZ and ASB Bank’s sponsorship of Rainbow Youth as ideal examples. They endorse corporations investing in community growth over purely transactional relationships. Regarding the police's presence at the parade in uniform, Tweedie notes personal support for the board's decision for police to march in plain attire and anticipates constructive future discussions with the New Zealand Police on this topic. Reflecting on the previous year's grassroots march as a replacement for the usual parade, Tweedie recalls the event as a powerful expression of the queer community's roots, combining acknowledgment of progress with advocacy for continued advancement, particularly for trans, non-binary, and intersex communities. Looking ahead to the 2020 festival, Tweedie envisions a successful event as one that celebrates achievements, diversity, and activism. They plan to create a space that honors pioneers, supports artistic expression in the queer community, and provides a platform for addressing ongoing rights issues, such as banning conversion therapy and advancing legal protections for trans and intersex individuals. The full transcription of the recording follows.  It includes timestamps every thirty seconds in the format [HH:MM:SS].  The transcription begins:  My name is Max Tweedy, and I have just been appointed the new director of Pride. Um, for the Auckland Pride Festival Incorporated. Um, and I've, uh, grew up in Wellington and moved to Auckland about a year and a half ago. Um, have been highly involved in kind of community work in rainbow communities and so really excited to take this role on what does the role involve? So the role is essentially, it takes, um, all of the responsibility of the operation aspects of the Auckland Pride Festival, Um, from the board, uh, and [00:00:30] kind of puts it all into one role. So, um, that's, you know, around funding around media around, um, planning the festival, and and, um, stakeholders and sponsorships and all of the kind of, um, all of that stuff that makes that festival so good. Um uh comes into my role. So it's all that operational aspect. So, what drew you to this role? Um, I loved the Auckland Pride Festival this year. The 2019 Pride Festival. I, um the the more kind of grassroots, [00:01:00] uh, nature that it took, um, the form that that took really, um, resonated with me and my, um, the way that I see pride. Um, and so to me, it was a fantastic opportunity to be able to kind of, uh, continue to support Auckland pride in the in the amazing work that they do, uh, and kind of bring my own skills and and and values and and way that I see pride to ensure that we create an amazing Auckland Pride festival in 2020 beyond. That, [00:01:30] um, really recognises and reflects the diversity of our rainbow communities and and looks to kind of, um, empower them, um, and and also and celebrate where we've come from and and showcase some artists and all that sort of stuff. So, yeah. So then what does mean to you? I mean, I guess pride for me, um, has its fundamental roots. Um, going all the way back to stonewall. Um, you know, in in 1969 and and looking at the kind of the liberation movement, um, and [00:02:00] the kind of the fight that it was against the status quo. Um, pride to me is political. Um, it it kind of it it represents, and it challenges that heter noms nom, um, status quo that has, um, structurally disadvantaged us throughout our history. Um, so pride is about celebrating our community. It's about celebrating our uniqueness of what makes us queer. Um, and why that's so important. Um, and actually, what we have to offer [00:02:30] to to the world to society, um, and our different perspectives. So for me, pride is it's a celebration, um, of who we are. Um, Now, it's also a celebration of how far we've come. But I believe it should also be a platform of of where we get to go. And I think that's still especially relevant. Um, in a so 2019, uh, the Auckland community seem to have, uh, fractured around the kind of Pride festival and Pride parade in particular. How are you going to, uh, bring those communities [00:03:00] back together? Yeah, and that's a that's a difficult one. And and, um, a question that I think not only myself, but the the Pride board and our kind of community as a whole have is kind of reckoning with at the moment. But for me, I think we have to return to our really core values and our shared, um, experiences of what it is to be queer, um, and understanding, um, and really going back to those fundamental roots of Of why is why what makes us queer. Why is that so important? Um, and and what do those [00:03:30] values of what we all believe pride should be actually look like and kind of have those discussions from a values based perspective. I think we got caught up, um, in a lot of the details, um, where potentially people needed to take a step back and look at it and look at actually a bigger picture. Um, on both sides of the argument. Um, so I I'm really looking forward to having some really, um, really in depth discussions with the community and and hearing their ideas. About what? That [00:04:00] you know what that festival looks like from that values perspective. So So this is more than the parade itself. This is the festival wide. You? Yeah, absolutely. Um the I mean, the Auckland Pride Festival has always been more than just the parade. Um, the the parade has been a fantastic showcase historically. Um, but also, we've had some amazing queer artists activists, um, all sorts of people who have been able to put events on, um, during the festival and kind of share the the wonderfulness of their queerness. So, um, [00:04:30] certainly the discussions about about the essence of what it is to be queer and in the community, and And what does the festival represents that I think takes place across the whole, um, festival and not just the, um, not just the parade. So So what are your initial thoughts in terms of bringing communities back together or or building those bridges again? Yeah, I think it's the community who that have been had. Um, you know, and the pride board have already started having those conversations again. The Pride board held [00:05:00] a couple of, um who, um, earlier in the year, um, to to to go. What does that actually 2020 look like? So I think it's, um I think it's very easy for those discussions to be held, um, online and not such a healthy and constructive way. Um, so I'm really interested in in in bringing people together in spaces and having a well facilitated, um, area where we can really flesh these ideas out and and understand from that values perspective. What does pride mean to people? And therefore, what does that actually look like? So I think it's about [00:05:30] I think it's about conversations. I think it's about looking at it from a values based perspective, Um, and making sure that everyone feels heard and valued. Um, in that discussion, do you think the Auckland Pride board should have done anything differently this year? Uh, from how they how they acted reacted. I think looking back on it is not essentially helpful. Um, and I don't think, um, like, what? What's done is done. And what we have to do is we have to ensure, um, that the festival represents our our community. [00:06:00] Um, and I would I would say that it did this year. Um, and I'm and I'm definitely looking forward to delivering one that does it this year. So So? So what do you think the biggest challenges are for the 2020 festival? I think I mean, I think we've probably touched on them already. I think the the challenges about that, um, as a more, um, full community buy in getting that back. Um, that's a challenge. And I think also obviously with the um, set up of a of an organisation that says that they're going to deliver a pride [00:06:30] parade as well. Um, rainbow pride, Auckland, um, that, you know, ensuring that, uh, working with them and and a relationship with them is constructive and serves actually in the best interests of our community. So I think those are the kind of two key challenges that certainly look for and that spread that goes, you know, that's a role also, not just for myself as director, but also for, um, that elected, you know, board that sits above me as well. It's a kind of mixed governments, governance and and operational type, uh, to deal. But we certainly work together to ensure the best outcomes for our community. So [00:07:00] some of the issues that, uh, cropped up this year were things like, um, corporate sponsorship, corporate participation and also things like police and corrections wearing uniforms. Do you have any thoughts on those? I think obviously I think there's a role for, um, corporations. Um, because they you know, and I but I think there's a it doesn't necessarily play out the way that necessarily we've seen it play out. I really like the examples of organisations such as Spark really backing outlined, Um, and obviously seeing a synergy [00:07:30] in their work, uh, and, you know, outline, um, being able to, you know, spark providing outline with a whole bunch of resources and actually really supporting them in the work they do, Um, and, you know, with with a SB the way that they sponsor Rainbow Youth and and are behind rainbow youth on a whole bunch of their activities. That, to me, is a much better synergy for Corporates to actually invest in our community. Um, so I guess that that would be where my thinking is, I. I would I would kind of, um, hope for a more meaningful engagement, [00:08:00] Um from from businesses in that space. Um, but I mean, you know, and on the on the police coming into this, it's no secret I've been, um I was a supporter of the board's decision to, um to ask police to to just march in T shirts. Um, but you know that that conversation going forward is is one that we're having going to have constructively with, um, the New Zealand Police. And ultimately it's a decision for the um, the Pride Board about their involvement going forward. And this year So [00:08:30] the the the the kind of, um, Auckland parade, as we kind of knew it over the previous years didn't happen. But a march did happen, and you marched in that. How was that? It was fantastic. Um, I loved it. It was it felt really centred in community. It felt centred in like in more of those queer roots that I was talking about, You know, there were There were people that were celebrating how far we come. There were people, especially from our trans non-binary intersex communities that were looking [00:09:00] at how far we get to go and and using this march through Auckland's busiest street as a platform to be able to show people that we have work to do. And that to me, um, is, you know, quite core to what pride is. Um, there were roughly I think the estimate was 3. 5 1000 people, um, that did that march from Albert Park to Myers Park, and and the feeling the vibe was was it was so it was so beautifully queer. It was so full of pride and celebration and happiness. And it was, [00:09:30] um it was truly fantastic. Certainly a different feeling. Um, it's a different feeling. I'm not saying that, you know, like in a pride parade. You know, I was in the Auckland Pride parade. I've been the Wellington one and also over in Sydney at Mardi Gras and being in their parade, the feelings are all different. Um, and and the vibes all different. But I certainly love the community grassroots queer feeling of of the march. So, um, and I think a lot of the community did, too. So looking forward to the Pride Festival in 2020 what will a successful festival look like? [00:10:00] What? What for? You successful festival for me. I don't want to kind of quantify it at the moment. Obviously, I'm not in the role yet, so I haven't looked at how, you know, like, actually those numbers in terms of maybe festival registrations or audience numbers. Um, but what I am keen on is delivering a festival that celebrates how far we've come and celebrates those pioneers that have brought us to where we've come that showcases the diversity and the brilliance of our queer communities. Um and and and whatever form [00:10:30] that takes art performance, drag all those sorts of things from a really community perspective and empowering those that maybe haven't been able to participate in the festival before to be able to do that, um, but also provide a platform where we're able to look at and kind of fight for the rights that we're still yet to gain. Um, you know, and these things are as simple as banning conversion therapy or, um, you know, the birth certificate legislation so that trans people can self identify or protections for intersex [00:11:00] people. Human rights act like there's a bread. There's so many, um, areas in which we've got work to do and and so I think that that pride is a is a fantastic platform for us to to look at where we have to go. Um, and I certainly am keen to to ensure, um, that that that is a platform that we empower those people within the communities that may have felt a bit shut out of pride before, um, to to have their voices heard. 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 ; ASB Bank ; Aotearoa New Zealand ; Auckland ; Auckland Pride Festival ; Auckland Pride festival (2019) ; Auckland Pride festival (2020) ; Events ; Max Tweedie ; New Zealand Police ; OUTLine NZ ; People ; Pride parade ; Pride parade (Auckland) ; Queer liberation ; Rainbow Pride Auckland ; Rainbow Youth ; Space ; Spark ; Stonewall riots (1969) ; Stuff ; Wellington ; Youth ; activities ; audience ; binary ; birthday ; board ; bridges ; building ; cancer ; celebration ; community ; conversation ; corporate sponsorship ; diversity ; drag ; engagement ; feelings ; funding ; governance ; government ; happiness ; heteronormativity ; history ; hope ; human rights ; intersex ; legislation ; liberation ; love ; march ; media ; nature ; non-binary ; opportunity ; parade ; performance ; police ; queer ; rainbow ; spaces ; sponsorship ; straight ; support ; trans ; transgender ; understanding ; uniform ; uniqueness ; values ; work. The original recording can be heard at this website https://www.pridenz.com/auckland_pride_max_tweedie.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.1089859. Max Tweedie also features audibly in the following recordings: "Chechnya Vigil", "Max Tweedie (New Zealand AIDS Foundation) - Out in the Park (2018)", "Rainbow history - Shift hui (2018)" and "Focus on Politics: Conversion therapy". Please note that this document may contain errors or omissions - you should always refer back to the original recording to confirm content.