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We've just had the closing ceremony. Quite sad, but also rather beautiful. Tell me what you think. I was just saying outside talking to a few friends I already have. And some new ones. I've just made that the theme for this week was Play Excite Inspire. And the fourth word for me is feel, uh, and the last three days have been filled with feeling, um some of that [00:00:30] has been the physical environment, and some of it has been the intellectual stimulation. And much of it has been the song and the sharing of, uh, of people from many, many places. Lovely. And for me, it's the, um that this will stick in people's mind and they'll come back and connect to it as they go through the next 5, 10, 2040 years of activism and building our community. [00:01:00] And today is gonna be an important part of that, um, that road that they'll reflect on and grow through the experience. Have you been to a human rights conference before? I haven't. Right. So what brought you here in the first place? I work at the GLBT radio station in Melbourne. Join 94.9 and I've come from the west coast of Australia, which seems a gazillion [00:01:30] miles away right now, and I've really enjoyed being, um I've enjoyed the opportunity to work and live in Melbourne. And when I realised that I was closer to New Zealand than I was to Perth for the first time in my life, um, and that the out games, competition and conference would be in Wellington. I, um I spoke with Greg immediately about how we [00:02:00] could share our experiences of the Idaho campaign, the International Day against Homophobia with a broader audience and make the most of an opportunity to meet people from Asia and Pacific. It isn't on the beaten track, is it human rights? Well, it isn't on the obvious beaten track. Um, I'm 49 50 in a couple of weeks, and, um, I think my first human rights conference when I was about 16, I went as a straight [00:02:30] person or into a straight environment not being out. And it's probably Oh, it's probably interesting to be part of the human rights movement all the way through 34 years and seeing different parts of how we collect and and, uh, it relates to the work you do when you work in gay community, just as Donna does with radio. I've, you know, um, 20 years ago, I worked in AIDS councils. Um, HIV was the predominant human right that gay men were pushing for [00:03:00] and working with. And, uh, we now coalesce with women with trans with intersex, um, with groupings from within ourselves that we didn't know existed. Um, human rights perhaps, has always been there as a journey for us. But, Tony, now we see that we actually have a role. Uh, not just in having the rights as individuals, but in progressing the rights of other people we collect with including, perhaps, heterosexuals. There's a spinoff here that brought, you know, where the broader community benefits by the work we do [00:03:30] as activists for human rights for our community. Can you think of an achievement that one particular achievement that the conference has accomplished here at this conference? So it's the removing of the blindfold that many gay, lesbian, trans intersex gen people have about other people. They have blindfolds. We have blindfolds, layers upon layers of blindfolds, even masks. And we've got to remove those [00:04:00] to start to truly see ourselves through other people's eyes. And that's the benefit I see through conferences like this. We talked about it being off the beaten track. Uh, and apart from the road imagery, uh, I think of this as, um, bridge building and the great thing about bridges, uh, that they join places and you can come to and from those places. And I feel [00:04:30] I feel connected with people that I haven't had an opportunity to meet and work with before. They can be a short cut as well. Can't they take a lot of travelling? All of a sudden? It's a very picturesque bridge we've built here. And it's a validating experience, too, because for all of us, whatever we do in our communities, from our perspective, it actually checks in and says, This is real and this is a good thing to do. So it's actually an empowering and validating experience that grows us [00:05:00] further and pushes us further in new ways. Hopefully, do you see another conference taking place? Yes, I'd like Samoa. I'm putting the vote up for Samoa. I think that would be lovely. Yes, yes, I see. Um, this work continuing, it'd be lovely to, um, connect people outside Asia Pacific with these conferences in, uh, where you can go to an Internet cafe in Africa and tune in to the happenings at all the session of this conference [00:05:30] and likewise, we could look at a similar conference in the African continent and connect with their culture through our experiences. So maybe there there are multiple conferences run at the same time in different parts of the globe. That can connect virtually which would be a great way to take future, uh, connections of G BT IQ community. I think we're early adopters of of technologies. And I think there's I see the next conference as as really expanding on that, um, [00:06:00] that that we can record that we can share digitally. Uh, for those of us who can't be in a physical location. I work in a radio station. There's, uh, I. I could imagine us being based in the conference as as well as a hub. Um, I think there are lots of ways to connect, but in lots of ways we can't take away from that physical reality of, uh, it. It's been a very visceral experience. [00:06:30] Um, going back to that feeling technology for you or I'm with I. I can see a conference radio station effectively that, um, broadcast and interviews and creates a community for the life of the conference. And then the quality audio goes out like sparks like lightning bolts to various communities, gay and straight communities and provides audio content, instant feedback, instant connection to the the lot of us that are, perhaps [00:07:00] aren't connected to community that are gays, lesbians, trans living in the broader community, not connected back to our rainbow communities. We felt these interviews could be a start, but for the archive, if you like to be alive and continuing a living archive, a living, a dynamic living organism that that just lives on, I think that's fabulous. That's a good way of having it. And I think the participants in this conference are the living [00:07:30] archive of of our communities. I loved that there were young people, old people and everything in between. Hm. It'd be lovely to capture the young people's voices and in 10 years, 20 years time, sit down and reinter interview them and talk about the the shift that's happened between today and 10 20 years from now. I met a woman who'd been to the Melbourne conference [00:08:00] and she saw great continuity. Really. I was wondering if she saw contrast. But I think I think she saw it as much to do with continuity as anything I was in Melbourne and I. I actually I've seen a maturity about this conference that wasn't there. In Melbourne, there's a, um it's now an adolescent. It wasn't an adolescent before it's grown and it's evolved further and it's a beautiful thing. So who knows where we'll go? [00:08:30] Do we have to wait three more years? I don't know. As well as suggesting Samoa, you could also write Well, how about a year's time? I think it. Congratulations to all the organisers and including those recording people's commentary, because that was something I really enjoyed today. Was that not instant, but feedback about the experience within the experience rather than a paper in three [00:09:00] months time? Or, you know, I've recorded some things that I want to to play with as a personal creative project. Um, I have no obligation to put that to air, but, uh, it was great to hear participants and organisers reflect back today. I think that was a great thing. I wonder if that's part of the maturity you were talking about. I think it's part of the maturity. That's the um Ah, it is the connection to culture as well. There's a little bit, uh, depth of culture in such a recent [00:09:30] country as New Zealand has, where we're a more ancient co country that is disconnected from its 40,000 year old culture. So that's the beauty about this. It's connecting to indigenous people in a way that we just can't achieve because of the journey Australia's been through. And, uh, I. I think that's the credit of this and the depth that's come and in a way that hopefully for me, Um, the stuff I do back in the country I come from renews my connectiveness back to culture and back to indigenous culture, and the way we can [00:10:00] do that. There was an aboriginal one aboriginal woman. Um, I I believe that there was a small group. There were more at the Melbourne conference. Do you think this is a step back for? Do you think it's something we should have done more to make sure that there were more aboriginal people. I don't think it's a step back. I think it's a it. It's We're taking a roundabout route [00:10:30] because you you need to connect to more parts of an indigenous community, not just the people that have the funding or have the access or have the services that support them. It's about connecting to the people that are disconnected currently and won't connect. So this is a bit of a wake-up call on how to be more innovative and smart on how to connect to indigenous community back in Australia. So I think it's quite timely and personal things. You're going to take back [00:11:00] a new hat, which is awesome. Um, I've got a picture of the tradesmen out the front of the conference, which I'm thankful. I'm thankful to New Zealand for putting on the tradesmen to start and the finish of the Con Conference fabulous for me. I I've had a, uh, a chance to have some time to to listen and share conversations with people and think and, uh, be inspired. So I take a renewed energy [00:11:30] back with me, and I thought my last thought is, um, it's about Barry Taylor because UM, probably 18 years. So it's allowed me to continue a friendship and see yet another part of that man's life, and he's been a great person his whole life. But it's fascinating to see how new dimensions have popped out of this individual. I thought I knew, but, uh, he's an amazing individual.
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