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So we'll start with just asking everyone to just introduce a little bit about themselves. And so today we've got a couple, as you can see of our young people who are attending the to speak and also a couple of our slightly older, um, slight. I'm not gonna say eldest slight, slightly elder. Um, awesome people from our local, um, community. Um, everyone, um, I'm Emmy. Um, I'm not actually a local. I'm from Auckland. [00:00:30] Um, so, um, obviously, my are all from Northland. Um, but I grew up in Auckland for my whole life. Um, but I was very kindly invited to come down to, um to participate in this panel. Um, so I'm really excited to be here. Um, I guess I'm here from here for my group. No pride in prisons or maybe just myself. I'm not sure we'll see what I talk about. If it [00:01:00] ends up being relevant, then that's what it was. And if it doesn't, then I was just here as me. Everyone. I'm Jess. Um, I live here in Wellington. Um, I grew up in Hamilton most of my life. Um, yeah, my name is, um I currently live in Wellington I basically [00:01:30] threw labels at my self until I found the ones that stuck. Like I'm now gender fluid. Pansexual somewhere between grey asexuals and demisexual Maori and a parent. Greetings to you all as well. Um, I've never known what warm Pacific greetings means. [00:02:00] Um, so, um, but I've always thought it was because you couldn't pronounce. Um it was very hard to squeeze in all different European greetings. Just the thought Alex is laughing. Probably one of the on the panel here as well. Thank you. Um, just in terms of, um, beyond the rainbow and being a minority, I identify as many things and one of them 11, the M I very proudly within my, um and you know, as yeah, I'll talk [00:02:30] about this a bit later. I'm very open to questions. Um, as well as So, um, thanks for the opportunity. Um, hi. I'm Alex. Um, I have been living in New Zealand for about 10 years. My family are from Cyprus in Australia. Um, live in Wellington now. Uh, I am intersex and trans and queer, and I am a nursing student. An artist. [00:03:00] Uh, yeah, that is me. So some of you have already talked about this. Um, but you're welcome to say more. Or for those who haven't, um what identities do you have that make you feel like a minority within the rainbow community, And those could be any kinds of parts of your identity. So before I, like, begin this, um, I tend to ramble a bit and sometimes, um, because I'm kind of embedded in academia, And, [00:03:30] um, some of the words that I use, um might be a little bit inaccessible. So, um, I really encourage anyone who wants me to, like, stop and explain a little more clearly. Maybe what I'm talking about, um, that's not rude or anything. That's just because, um, I have a real bit hibi. Um, but I'm I'm trying my most to avoid doing it. But I, I know that I have a tendency to do so. So, um yeah, just stick your hand up or make eyes, or however you feel comfortable. Um, so, first of all, I am [00:04:00] I think that, um the way that we tend to frame, um ourselves in terms of our identities as, um, why we face marginalisation in society can be, um, a little bit of a kind of double bind. Um, it's I feel like it's useful as a shorthand to kind of, um, quickly express ways in which we might experience violence, um, in our lives. But I think in the long term, um, if we continue to talk about why we are subjugated [00:04:30] in society and subjected to violence in terms of something about ourselves and our identities, it takes a focus on, um, we talk about fixing the problem. We talk about ourselves and as a Maori person, the reason that I'm subjected to violence in the society has nothing to do with me or being Maori. It has everything to do with the military occupation of this country by the New Zealand government. Um, it's got nothing to do with being Maori. It's nothing to do with me. [00:05:00] Um, it's the structures of power outside of myself, and I think that's very similar in terms of being a trans woman or being a lesbian. Um, none of that is on me or on my identities and everything on the, um, the society around May, which subjects me to those violences. So, um, what I think is this obviously it is very important to have these panels so we can talk about, um, our marginalisation, which might not be addressed in broader spaces. But I don't think that it is [00:05:30] those identities in themselves, which we need to talk about but the, um, the structures of power which operate which we aren't addressing in our mainstream organisations. Because it's not that we don't have enough Maori around us that no one wants to talk about like white supremacy in this country. And I think that's the, um like those are the issues that we need to address, not Maori inclusion, but white supremacy, exclusion, if that makes sense. Um, so I think I kind of snuck [00:06:00] in kind of my identities in there anyway, so that I could kind of because it is useful as a shorthand. Um, because I am a I am Maori and I am a lesbian and a trans woman, and it is important to talk about those things. But I think it's important to then move on away from ourselves and on to the stuff around us. Which destroys us, in my opinion. Come on. Thanks for all that stuff. That is awesome. I totally agree? Um, [00:06:30] yeah. Um, similarly, I'm a trans woman. Um, I'm queer. Um, I identify as androgynous slash Butch, I can't really figure it out. Um, but I feel like that makes shit confusing being a trans woman when you're not real feminine, and it's it makes stuff hard for people to understand who you are, where you're coming from. [00:07:00] Um, um, I'm on the autism spectrum. Um, yeah. So it's and yeah, I guess I got some physical disability stuff. Um, just bad joints and whatnot. Um, yeah, and so there's a lot of Yeah, I guess I'd like to mention Norma in terms of how [00:07:30] society operates and excludes people who don't fit in with within a quite narrow range of ability, Whether that's psychological or how your body works or anything. Um, yeah, that's awesome. I find that when people find out that I'm a parent, they automatically [00:08:00] make my other identities invisible. They hear parent and assume mother or heterosexual and explaining that to people can be more difficult because they assume that because I had 11 sexual encounter with a male that all of my sexual encounters are going to be [00:08:30] that way and that because I have been pregnant. I identify as a woman. I think the is a very you know, not many. Um, not many people in my environment identify as, um and I want to say I work in a government arts cultural heritage sector. Um, and I really advocate and identify that within that sector because I'm really [00:09:00] aware that, you know, I come from a long line of people in terms of my family and my, um but also, it's about the people that are coming up within that, um, that cultural heritage that that will take on this role. So, um, I advocate as part of my identity as well. Um, and but I've also accepted with age that I'm very fluid with my identity. I mean, like, probably two years ago, I was like, pansexual Or, you know, or five years ago, I was a really proud, gay brown male, [00:09:30] and I think nothing's wrong with that as well. I think, um, yeah, I think times and values and your own kind of cultural beliefs, um are just as flawed as your identity. Um, some things happen to you that impact, what happens to you so I've just come to accept that, you know, as a person generally, like, culturally, um, pretty, pretty flawed with everything. And that's pretty cool. I'm a That's how we roll if you're, [00:10:00] you know, into astrology. OK, thanks. And thanks, everyone. That's some really awesome stuff. Um, yeah. So, um, being intersex is probably the, like, most marginalising of my identities. Um, yeah, uh, but I'm yeah, being a non binary trans person and being a fem non binary trans person who is female, identified at birth, like, um and having I don't [00:10:30] know if having mental health stuff is actually a a minority thing in the rainbow community. I don't know, is it? But yeah. Having mental health problems? Yeah. Um, but yeah, um, having like mixed mood disorder as well, I definitely see that it, um, in combination with my other identities helps to marginalise me from mainstream society. Um, yeah. So I also wanted [00:11:00] to kind of acknowledge that even though I'm kind of speaking from my identity as an intersex person and that potentially, I'm maybe one of the very, very few maybe the only intersex person that anyone here will ever meet or know that they have met, Um, that my experience is like, yeah, my own experience and that intersex is a real diverse group. Um, and a lot of people within the intersex community [00:11:30] don't actually see being intersex as part of their identity. Like, um, there's, uh, intersects youth from America who talked about how, um, for him, um, having like being intersex was like having allergies like it was a part of that person. But it wasn't like, this is who I am. So yeah, even though I'm talking about it from an identity perspective today, I kind of wanted to acknowledge that, um, so [00:12:00] I definitely feel other than that that the fem fem non binary trans person thing is kind of another thing that I find really difficult because, um, people just don't see me. They see me as a woman. Um and, um, like, if I don't bind my boobs or something that I'm not, um, outside of outside of the binary, Um, yeah, and having female pronouns. [00:12:30] Yeah. Um, people just don't see me for who I am, and it's kind of hard to get people to understand, because non binary identities are something that a lot of people can't wrap their heads around and aren't aware of. So yeah, that's what I want to say. Thank you. And I think, yeah, especially Thanks, Alex, for some of those points you made about how sometimes the things that make us marginalised aren't, um you know, they're not necessarily parts of our identity or things that we get to have much [00:13:00] say over the things that society put on to us or that we're born with. And all this, you know, stuff that we don't actually get the same in but still affects how we're treated. Um, that's really important. Um, So what challenges do you experience being part of the rainbow community? Um, as the wonderful people that you are facing these different, um, identities or things that society puts on to you. I'm sorry. I made a bit of a tactical floor by sitting right here. I have to kind of start the conversation every [00:13:30] time we can change it. If you like. Maybe you could like, um, to that end. When the microphone gets back over there, we kind of go back and forth because I have to run across, um so challenges. Um, yeah, I think it's interesting kind of trying to conduct, um ourselves as, um people working towards, um within queer spaces because, um, queer spaces tend to be very white [00:14:00] spaces. Um, probably just more on balance of numbers rather than any kind of active exclusion of Maori. I think maybe I'm not a professional sociologist yet. So ask me in, like, four years, and I'm sure I'll have. I'm sure I'll have something more to say on that for you. Um but, um, there's a tendency to be very single issue with our groups and our organisations where we try to pick a thing that we're going to work towards and then we'll all focus all of our energy on that, but [00:14:30] because minority people are in the minority right, So it's hard for us to advocate as strongly for our groups to all work towards the issues that we need addressed when not everyone needs those issues addressed. So like as a trans woman, it's very hard in spaces where I'm the only trans woman to be like, Hey, can we talk about like, trans misogyny and stuff because no one wants to, or when I'm Maori, it's hard to say like, Hey, can we like, end the occupation? Because, um, you know, I'm not. I'm the only one who's really [00:15:00] going to benefit from that happening. Um, there's a like, it's difficult to talk about the way that in our queer spaces, we're still really, really capable of perpetuating. Um, like, hegemonic power because we're queers, right? So we get treated real badly all the time. Ah, sorry. Thank you, Jay. Um, so, um, I, I said, like, hegemonic power. Um, that's the idea that, um the way that society is structured and [00:15:30] the way that it continues to operate, um continues the marginalisation of groups who are kind of forced under, um So, like, in New Zealand, for instance, the, um, the government here is an extension of the invasion of, um, Maori sovereign territory. Um, so that means that the society is, um, a hegemonic one in which pakeha are the dominant ethnic group, and Maori and people that's people of colour [00:16:00] are the, um, kind of subjugated peoples. Um, and in queer spaces, it's difficult to address that hegemonic power, the the way that society is structured to, um kind of produce people on top and people on bottom. Maybe that was a poor choice of for a queer panel. See, I can still slip in funny jokes. Um, but society can be structured to kind of produce these inequalities. Um, and even when we're queers and queer spaces, [00:16:30] we can still perpetuate these, um, inequalities. And it's hard to talk about them because we're queer and we're used to being treated real badly because of who we are. And it's hard to, um, confront the ways in which we can still be continuing the marginalisation of others. Um, but I think it's like, real important to work towards addressing it.
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