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Human rights conferences are not the nor normally on people's agendas, are you? How How did you get to know about this and what made you come here? Well, actually, back in 2008, I'm from Melbourne, Australia. I was involved in the first Asia Pacific Out games. My organisation, the foundation, was one of the partners and I hosted a youth event specifically for young people across the Asia Pacific region. And then after that, I got the bug [00:00:30] and I was thankful to go over to Copenhagen in 2009 to attend the world out games there. And so I thought I'd follow and come to New Zealand. You're quite a person to find. What are the what are the similarities and the differences? I think well, between between the two Asia Pacific, the lot of similarities since a lot of discussions come up about the Asia Pacific, how do we work together as a region [00:01:00] when we are so diverse in culture, in our histories, in our languages and also in our in our hopes for activism and human rights on the world stage? When I went to Copenhagen I I guess I I was a bit more aware that, um there are far more countries in the world who are struggling just for basic human rights just to stay alive. Whereas, for instance, in Australia, one of our, um, [00:01:30] activities is to fight for same sex marriage, which is, I think, was very small, um, compared to just wanting to stay alive and keeping people alive and not being killed for being GL BT I Did you go to this morning's session about, um and there was a very strong Pacific Speaker talking about Look, if you want our country to sign [00:02:00] up for the thing in Geneva, then you should really include diverse name. I agree. And thankfully, a lot of the Pacific Islanders were able to come to this conference due to grants and funding, sometimes from their own countries from independent funders, and also the out games help them get along. But if we're going to say we're Asia Pacific, we need a representation [00:02:30] because I don't think Australia or New Zealand or Asia can talk for the whole of the Pacific. That will be difficult. We're still we're still learning so long as we're learning and we're taking on people's suggestions and we're moving forward. So we need other conferences. Um, other meetings, perhaps, I think, from from the whole conference and what I I guess I learn every time is that we have to work within [00:03:00] our first region. First, we have to start with our region. I have to make the connections in Australia before trying to build networks across the whole of the Asia Pacific. If we're not working with our neighbours, our close neighbours, then we can't start working on a national level. International level. Are aboriginal people part of the missing picture in Australia? I believe so. Um, I'm not born in Australia. I live there [00:03:30] now. But for instance, at this conference, I've only seen or heard from one visible Australian indigenous individual. They're clearly missing from this conference, and there weren't many numbers. There were few numbers at the first Asia Pacific, but they were represented in a small group as that got worse then, in the sense that even fewer I think it's purely location [00:04:00] and distance and money again trying to get people over to New Zealand. I know it's not very far from Australia, but a lot of the indigenous, uh, communities are still struggling. As we heard yesterday, they're still struggling to keep a work to retain their culture and to be taken seriously. So we must take that on board. If we want indigenous people from Australia and learn their names. [00:04:30] Yes, from everywhere indigenous from all over, from New Zealand, from the Pacific, from Asia which have been both represented and then Australia as well. And then you would start with the world you've got, you know, America and South America. It's a lot to consider. You've already said I think what you're taking away with you. Yes, anything else for myself. I work with young people in the trans community [00:05:00] and certainly on Tuesday I was very thankful to attend a regional transgender and intersex queue which was organised by Jack Burn. And from that I've built incredible networks and made great connections with individuals that I believe we can start working together between Australia and New Zealand.
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