Where: Albert Park, Rangipuke, at the band rotunda.
The march starts at 4pm (details here), we will gather first at 3.30 at the band rotunda to pick which placard to carry and get a sweet group photo, before we move up with the placards to the Queen Victoria statue (focus of queer and trans colonial critique) for the opening speeches at 4pm.
Raw Sugar is on from 4pm, with kai downstairs till 5pm, and a film screening upstairs from 5pm till 7pm
Kei reira (location): Aunty Dana’s Op Shop, ground floor at 130 Riddiford Street, Newtown, Wellington, and upstairs level 1 The Gender Centre social space. Homai (bring along): some kai to share for our end of year potluck Waea mai (contact us on): genderminorities@gmail.com, 04) 385 0611
*Tatataapui * Trans * Intersex * Queer * Rainbow * Plus friends and whaanau*
Raw sugar is a FREE event, a SOBER event, and has GENDER NEUTRAL BATHROOMS with hand rails. Aunty Dana’s is not currently wheelchair accessible, it is up two steps, it has a hand rail. The Gender Centre is up a lot of steps. We hate that too. One day we will get a ground floor situation going.
Our trans youth led gala was a huge success, with over 200 attendees, a dozen lively stalls, and a sweet chill zone, complete with fresh coffee courtesy of People’s Coffee. We wrapped up with the Wellington launch of Counting Ourselves, the national 2019 trans health report.
Stalls included:
Tarot readings and witchy zines and stickers
Makeup application, embroidery, and handmade jewellery
Trans folks of all ages and their whanau and supporters had a great time, including stallholders from as far away as Palmerston North, and attendees from Feilding, Auckland, and other parts of the country. We met grandparents and parents, including some from the Parents of Transgender Children group.
Counting Ourselves Wellington Launch
It was all topped off at the end of the day by the Wellington launch of Counting Ourselves, the 2019 national transgender health research report, conducted by and for transgender people. Research Officer Jack Byrne talked about the report’s findings and recommendations, and encouraged everyone to use the data in their activism.
A one minute video excerpt from the Counting Ourselves launch. There is also an audio recording of the launch coming soon at PrideNZ.
Youth team representatives closed the evening with a big thankyou from GMA to all who helped out, held a stall, or came by to have a look, buy some things, and hang out. A special thanks went to Newtown Community and Cultural Center, for co-creating and hosting the event.
We loved the opportunity to hold a trans led event that all our friends and supporters could come to – the sense of community was amazing! Thank you all so much for supporting local transgender people, and helping GMA to support trans folks all over Aotearoa.
This is an event for anyone of any age who identifies as trans or otherwise gender diverse, including intersex, takatāpui, transgender, transsexual, and non-binary people. We encourage you to bring along an object of personal significance to yourself (regardless of whether you think it “counts” as trans history!). If you need inspiration, check out our inspiration at The Museum of Transology (link is external).
Bring along an object that is significant to you as well as the object’s story (50-200 words). We will photograph your objects and on Sun 17 Nov host a show-and-tell where everyone can gather together and share their stories. Finally, the photographs and objects’ stories will be published on our website.
Copyright
We take copyright very seriously! We will have someone onsite during the photography days to talk about any copyright issues that might arise from this project. Because we are photographing your objects and collecting your written stories, we need to ensure we are meeting our copyright obligations.
If you have your object selected prior to the day, we’d love if you could flick through a photo of that object via email to publicprogrammes@tepapa.govt.nz (link sends e-mail) so we can check on the copyright status beforehand.
For more info, or to attend the photographing session at Te Papa, please see their website here.
GMA says:
Your significant object could be hormones, a binder, a bra, a hairpiece, or it could be the blanket you wrapped yourself in that one time, or that Marina and the Diamonds CD that’s always on at The Gender Centre! It might be your dog’s leash, or the earrings that always feel amazing, or your fave spice that reminds you of home. It could be Anything that’s important to you. You can also write a description of it and why it’s important if you want to. 200 words is about three times as long as this paragraph. Come make history together!
Join Gender Minorities Aotearoa’s Youth Team as we celebrate Trans Awareness Week with a gala and host the Wellington launch of Counting Ourselves.
Filled with food, fun, and stalls featuring everything from handmade goods to zines to trans flag bunting, this event at the Newtown Community and Cultural Centre is family friendly and mobility accessible. Entry is FREE but donations are welcome.
Come along to have a good time and celebrate Wellington’s trans community.