The title of this recording is "Kawe Mahara Queer Archives Aotearoa - Rainbow Studies Now". It is described as: Audio from the presentation on Kawe Mahara Queer Archives Aotearoa, formerly the Lesbian and Gay Archives of New Zealand (LAGANZ). It was recorded in Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington, Kelburn Parade, Kelburn, Wellington on the 23rd November 2023. This is a recording of a presentation and features the voices of Clare O'Leary, Elizabeth Kerekere, Kevin Haunui and Will Hansen. Their names are spelt correctly, but may appear incorrectly spelt later in the document. The duration of the recording is 17 minutes, but this may not reflect the actual length of the proceedings. 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: Audio from the presentation on Kawe Mahara Queer Archives Aotearoa, formerly the Lesbian and Gay Archives of New Zealand (LAGANZ). Will Hansen introduces Clare O'Leary, Kevin Haunui and Elizabeth Kerekere. The content in the recording covers the decades 1970s through to the 2020s. A brief summary of the recording is: The presentation covers the transformative journey of the Lesbian and Gay Archives of New Zealand (LAGANZ) into Kawe Mahara Queer Archives Aotearoa. This transformation signifies a broader commitment to preserving queer histories and making them accessible to all. Held in trust at the Alexander Turnbull Library within the National Library of New Zealand, the archives represent a unique community-trust relationship. The presentation highlighted the importance of archiving personal histories and stories as integral parts of community archives. This approach values each individual's unique voice and contributions, acknowledging that personal experiences form the collective memory of the community. The archives not only preserve historical material but also function as a tool for activism, reflecting the struggles and resistance within the queer community. The collection is extensive, covering various aspects of the community, including the intersex community and the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective, highlighting the diversity and inclusivity of the archives. A significant part of the discussion was the role of the archives in legislation and human rights advocacy, emphasizing that living a queer life is a fundamental human right. The presentation also mentioned the Rainbow Room in the Parliament, symbolizing legislative progress and the ongoing need for vigilance against regressive political shifts. The archives' future direction includes a focus on digital archiving, reflecting the changing nature of how history is recorded and preserved, especially among younger generations. The organization is actively seeking participation from the community in shaping its new identity and direction, including the development of a new logo. The full transcription of the recording begins:  Kia ora everybody! It's so awesome to have you here, very first, uh, panel of the day. Uh, it's my privilege to, um, chair the Queer Heritage Rebuilding Our Past panel. We've got a wonderful line up of speakers today. Uh, we've got Kawe Mahara, Queer Archives Aotearoa. This is our new name. Um, speaking first. Uh, we've got Clara O'Leary, Kevin Honui, and Elizabeth Kirikiri here. Uh, speak on behalf of them, so we'll, they'll be up first. And then we'll have, and Marnie, and Ruben, and Love, and Donald, uh, also in the room, which is awesome. And Will is also on the board for those of you guys. And I'm biased, and I'm on the board too, so we're up first. And then, uh, and then we'll be hearing from wonderful Alison Day, uh, about her research into queer archives. And then Scott Pilkington, I believe you're on Zoom, um, will be coming up after Alison, uh, asking about, uh, can universities be considered queer? And then finally, we get to hear from Charlie Prout and Grace Carroll, uh, on their findings from, uh, developing the Unite to Transform strategic framework for change to advance trans and non binary rights in Aotearoa. So it's gonna be an awesome hour. Um, we'll do questions at the end. Um, and if panelists could try to keep to about 15 minutes, that'd be great. So I'll start off with With, yeah, if you want to come in front of the microphone, and you might actually have to do the slides yourselves. Kevin's going to do it. Okay. Kia ora tātou. So, hi, Kevin Honu tōku ingoa. Um, really, um, we're in the previous name of Kawemahara Queer Archives Aotearoa. Um, and to exit out the old name, which was the Lesbian and Gay Archives of New Zealand, Te Pūranga Takatāpui o Aotearoa. So if, if you don't know about, um, who we are and what we do, uh, it is about preserving our queer histories. It's about, um, ensuring that people have access to, to that information, and trying to do it in the best way that we can. It is unique in terms of the way that our collections are held in trust for community, and it's held in trust for community at the Alexandra Turnbull Library within the National Library of New Zealand. So that in itself is a very unique, um, relationship, and it does. Sort of highlight, uh, the intentionality around, um, preserving our histories. But it's great to follow on from Wilby as well, because really, he's joining together, as we join together with Wilby around, um, and trying to ensure that our histories, uh, Made available everywhere. So before I, I hand it on to a couple of our other speakers here. You know, I do want to honor Georgina buyer, um, in particular for the Georgina's legacy. And, you know, one of the things that, uh, John Georgina has said. You know, if they try to shut me up, I'll scream even louder and louder, something to that effect, you know, and that's really um, a legacy that is encouraging and inspiring for us as we continue in our, in our work today, but there are also many other um, icons and uh, activists who are also remembered, uh, who are also not forgotten. Um, I think of the, the Oh Now and then I start thinking about people, and I start thinking about people that, uh, were actually in community as well. So, uh, I look at the Wellington community and people like, uh, Arthur Tauhore, who was, you know, a hairdresser, um, but also really quite influential from my perspective as Takatapui within, within this community. But we have all Men of, of, of, of icons standing next to me is one of those, uh, those icons. Um, you know. And because I'm Māori and Takatāpui, I'm a bit biased, you know, Ngāhuia Te Awa Kotuku, uh, is another. Um, Leone Pihama, in Nau, academic, still very much, um, a part of our, a part of our community. Many, many others. Where We'll Be is actually an icon in my mind as well. Carries our memories. And perhaps that's a, that's a particular, but they're not forgotten. And in fact, they're there to inspire us as well. So their litancies, um, continue on. Um, these are all of our members, um, of, of the, of the trust. And, you know, you can go to our website, uh, as it is at the moment, and find out all about us. We're a trust, I've mentioned that. The records that we maintain, um, we are quite unique in terms of identifying our communities, uh, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Takatāpui, Whāwhāwhine, Intersex, Queer, and includes any same sex attracted transgender or intersex members of any indigenous community of the Pacific. Quite um, quite broad. We collect history. Kia ora everybody, I'm Claire O'Leary. I'm a documentary filmmaker, but mostly in this capacity, a member of the board of Legans. Um, and this session today is really to honour, um, the, the kind of, the importance of archiving. And one thing that we talked about at our wānanga was that our personal histories and stories are actually our archive. So, um, Not to diminish an individual and their contribution to becoming part of our community because of our diversity and because of our own lived experiences. And I think that's becoming more and more, um, valued, um, in terms of research, uh, and that everybody's voice, unique voice, is contributing to our collection along the way and for future communities, um, that, Live after we've long gone. Um, one thing I wanted to just say this morning after Welby's, um, session, which I found very emotional, was that as we explore these archives, we also come across people who have passed away, that we knew, and loved, and danced with, and made love with, and, you know, um, had fights with. And so, it becomes a very personal journey too, um, And some of those, um, fights were individual or community, um, activism. And that our, our archives were born from activism. And not to forget that every single person who is an ally helps that process as well. So yeah. So the ephemera that we have. By coming out publicly and going this is who we are it also may lead to some pushback from people who don't like it, but Together, we can resist that, and our voices have to maintain strength and vitality, um, in our diversity. So yeah, so we collect all sorts of things, and we've had lots of amazing collections, like Marnie's recently, um, gifted, uh, the collection of the intersex community, and we have a lot of, um, Very old stuff that was, that was collected in times when it, when it was illegal and people were actually like, well, we said, put in prison, basically tortured and sometimes killed and unfortunately, that is still happening around the world and, and we are aware of that and we work with international communities that are dealing with that. But for them knowing that we, we know and we see and we hear What is happening, and we respond to it, is still really, really important to them as well. Yeah, so, you can read all this, and you can have these slides, and you can, um, go online, like Kevin said, and explore all the different elements of the collections that we do have. And the other thing that we do is we also look at where the gaps are. And that is part of our journey for our name change too, is to become more, um, Um, diverse and fill our archive with the, with the, um, the beautiful uniqueness and diversity of our, of our community. And the other collection we have is the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective. Which, um, really, um, the Prostitutes Collective was also a big part of the, um, homosexual law reform activism. And then, you know, our communities work alongside, are part of, not always, um, exactly the same, or get on. But, um, we definitely have different lenses along the way. But, um, We know the important thing of being represented in, in legislation as well. And, and that's where Kevin's work with human rights and, and Elizabeth too. And recognizing that, um, being queer is, is, and being able to live a queer life is also a human right. So part of a much bigger global community on that scale. I don't know if any of you know, but we have a Rainbow Room in Parliament. Of which, Elizabeth has done a fabulous interview about her identity as an MP and her journey to become an MP. And that's online and you can watch it. But this was at an event where, Kevin had just come back from the World Pride Conference. And this is Margaret Sparrow, Dr. Margaret Sparrow in the red. And she's been a great supporter of our community and Marnie. And that, if you get an MP to book the room, you can have an event there for your community. And in that room is all of the legislation related to homosexual law reform, the Civil Union Act, Marriage Amendment Act, the Births, Deaths and Marriages, Relationship Registration Act, and any new legislation that will happen. Be coming forward. Hopefully we should keep that room alive and not let this right wing government Take it away as well. So that's you know We have to remain vigilant and if that starts to happen and we have to stand up and say no So I'm gonna seek way in here. Yeah Because as the current chair of the Legans, Lesbian and Gay Archives of New Zealand. Put it in Pūranga Takatāpui o Aotearoa. I sort of want to just announce that I'm also the outgoing chair of that organisation, and that we have our new chair. of Te Kaua Mahara, Elizabeth, Dr. Elizabeth Kerekere, um, who is, uh, taking us through, uh, this particular next day of the organisation. And so, Elizabeth is going to take us on our next journey. Kia ora Elizabeth. Do we have more slides? So this is examples. Just keep scrolling. This is the fabulous stuff we do. Uh, a lot of the stuff we have is Uh, hard copy, uh, and, and that's really important, critical, any hard copy stuff you've got lying around from any groups, organizations you've been part of. Feel free to come and send it to us to, uh, look after. Um, but the digital is the key thing. So much of what is happening now, especially with our young people, it's all online. And we don't have good, safe ways and comprehensive ways. This guy here has been, in his own time, collecting thousands of pieces of information. We need to coordinate that. We need to bring more people in, uh, to be part of that. Cause this is the history that's being made right now. We need to capture it. Yes, this is me. I'm, I've been on the board for many years now. I think 2007, so a little while and I took a step back when I was doing that thing in Parliament and now I'm really excited to come back in. And with the name change, we're making big signals to our communities. A lot of people, even though Leggings was a brand that's been around for a long time, people were familiar with, for many others it's not an inclusive name. And so this was key. And we did a process, a wānanga, with our board to say what is the way forward, what is the way that we want to portray who we actually are. And then, so the name is the first part. Kawe Mahara means to carry the memories. We carry the memories of all of All of the whakapapa, all of the histories and fragments of our communities, but also we hope that we will become a place that will be trusted by everybody so they carry their memories for us to hold and that we will safely look after them. It's, it's a huge honour to be helping to lead this work forward because what it means now is now we've got to put that in action. It's not good enough to just change a name, make a pretty logo. It's about completely changing now our trust deed, our collection policy, uh, and then developing a new strategy moving forward. And we're very excited about the young people and all the members of our board who commit to this. And this is a breakdown of the name. We are looking for people to design our logo. Uh, that, has that been sent out yet? It's going out very soon, so if there are any designers, it's so close, it's happening very soon. Designers, um, bring your beautiful ideas and concepts and let's get something that's absolutely created inside our community to really encapsulate what it is, uh, that we're trying to do here. And, oh, yeah, we got things to do. We got, we got stuff to organize and we got things that we need to represent. And a lot of how, um, Laggans has operated, it's been quite quiet. You will see, um, Laggans at, at stalls at, at the Wellington Fair at Big Gay Out in Auckland. Uh, but we want to Get out there a lot more because it's not just about getting, keeping what's old, it's actually using the power, the wisdom of the knowledge we hold to say what it is that we must say today. What it is we must say, and for example, supporting the Queers in Palestine movement and what we're doing, uh, because it's not just hurting people's lives, it's the histories that they represent. Is always at risk of being lost, and so, that's the last thing. I just want to talk to that a little bit because it links back to what Welby said about, um, Uh, the teachers and the role of teachers and also libraries, but um, The, this teacher who started the very first International Lesbian and Gay History Month was told he couldn't tell the history about the Holocaust and the Pink Triangle. Um, that, well, we also talked to, and, um, it caused a great furore and protest which resulted in an international movement around, um, telling a queer history in schools, and the real history. And so, now, we're just, um, getting together to, to build a, a New Zealand kind of Queer History Month, which Lagans will be a part of, along with other rainbow, um, organisations, hopefully, but it's early days. We've just put a, um, a month in the ground to say this is when we celebrate our homosexual law reform. In July, um, from 1986. So, let's start thinking about how we can work with other communities around the whole country. Because as well we said, people in rural areas are very, very, um, cut off and, um, but everyone seems to have a connection with a library or, uh, and a lot of young people go to the library to find those books and stories. Yeah. So I hope you join us along that journey. Thank you. Yes, come visit, get involved. Absolutely. Next time you're doing your piece of research, think, kawe mahara. Have they got something there that it's going to really inform my work? And, very excited to hear that AUT have got IA and that repository of all theses. Um, When your thesis is done, your master's, your PhD, put a copy of it into our collection so that other people, you don't know what you're doing right now that's going to impact on someone in a hundred years, but that will exist. Uh, your descendants will be able to read it, will be able to see it. So, kia ora koutou katoa. Alright, kia ora tatou. We look forward to any questions, um, a bit later on perhaps. 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: 1970s ; 1980s ; 2020s ; Alison Day ; Arthur Tauhore ; Auckland ; Charlie Prout ; Clare O'Leary ; Coming Up ; Elizabeth Kerekere ; Grace Carroll ; Homosexual Law Reform ; Kawe Mahara Queer Archives Aotearoa ; Kevin Haunui ; Lesbian and Gay Archives of New Zealand (LAGANZ) ; Margaret Sparrow ; NZPC: Aotearoa New Zealand Sex Workers' Collective ; National Library of New Zealand ; Pacific ; Palestine ; People ; Rainbow Room ; Rainbow Studies Now: Legacies of Community (2023) ; Stuff ; The Holocaust ; Wellington ; Will Hansen ; access ; activism ; archives ; binary ; bisexual ; board ; books ; breakdown ; change ; collective ; coming out ; community ; conference ; design ; diversity ; documentary ; emotional ; ephemera ; future ; gay ; government ; heritage ; hidden history ; history ; homosexual ; honour ; hope ; human rights ; icons ; identity ; individual ; intersex ; journey ; knowledge ; law ; legacy ; legislation ; lesbian ; library ; love ; marriage ; movement ; name change ; organisation ; other ; policy ; power ; prison ; privilege ; protest ; queer ; rainbow ; records ; research ; rural ; sex ; strategy ; strength ; takatāpui ; teacher ; time ; trans ; transgender ; trust ; uniqueness ; voice ; website ; whakapapa ; wisdom ; work. The original recording can be heard at this website https://www.pridenz.com/rainbow_studies_now_kawe_mahara_queer_archives_aotearoa.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.1107377. Please note that this document may contain errors or omissions - you should always refer back to the original recording to confirm content.