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Welcome, my name's Gareth. And together we're and Roger, welcome to this Rainbow Walk tour. And today there is the Violet Walk tour starting from Parliament here in Wellington, New Zealand. And we'll be covering kind of parliament uh the [00:00:30] terrace Lampton Qua and then on to the waterfront. So we're going to be talking about um specific sites along this uh one hour tour. But we'll also be giving you um some broader context to Rainbow History in a New Zealand. Great. So, here we are um at Parliament and we've got an image that would be interesting to see is some flags flying. Oh, we should just um first we're gonna do this, we've [00:01:00] just got some new technology. And so um we are just uh just adding um some kind of animations as well. So um before we animate, before we animate, we should say thank you to Dr Alison Laurie and Hugh Young for their contribution, a lot of their research um has been used in this war tour and others, right? Ok. So we're just gonna fly in now to parliament and we're gonna be starting on the forecourt of parliament and [00:01:30] uh just flying in there another beautiful sunny day here in Wellington. Uh and that's a lovely shot. And on the four quarter of parliament last year, we would have seen this, right. So this is a very special photo uh for a number of reasons. One, because it is flying four flags which are of a particular rainbow importance. There's from left to right. There's the bisexual flag, [00:02:00] then the intersex flag and then the rainbow flag and the transgender flag. But interestingly, they are all flying at half mast. And that is because this image was taken uh in March 2019 just days after the Christchurch Mosque massacre. Uh And so, uh all the flags were flying at half mast then and they were all out, for instance, uh on this occasion for the World Conference in Wellington, which is also happening at this time, but this was only the second time that these flags have been flown uh at parliament. [00:02:30] Um And we'll talk a little bit more about flags flying at parliament a bit later on on the tour. Um But first of all, let's start this tour. Um not on the steps of parliament but uh half a world away and 50 years ago in the UK with the Wolfenden report which uh well, in fact, no, the, the Parliamentary sexual offenses Act of July 1967 which decriminalized homosexual acts between men uh aged over 21 in England and [00:03:00] Wales. And that was a direct result of the Wolfenden report from the 19 fifties, which had recommended that homosexual behavior should no longer be considered a criminal offense. Uh, change was happening in New Zealand too. And so from the first meeting of the New Zealand homosexual law reform society occurred in Wellington also in 1967 we, [00:03:30] we, we just have a little teleprompter, a little teleprompter in front of us that wasn't working very well. So, um it wasn't until 1974. Um that the first major parliamentary attempt at law reform happened in New Zealand and that was with the National MP Vin Young uh and the crimes amendment bill uh which proposed an age of consent of 21. Now keep in mind that for heterosexual sex, uh the age of consent is 16. The Labor Prime Minister of the time Norman Kirk opposed the bill. He said that he wouldn't support any [00:04:00] legislation uh that treated homosexuality as a normal behavior. At the same time, gay and lesbian liberation groups were forming around New Zealand and they were becoming even more vocal. Uh in July. In 1975 the Labour Mp Gerald Wall moved an amendment that proposed imprisonment for anyone who communicated with a person under the age of 20 about homosexuality. Now, that means that support groups that we know today like Rainbow Youth or uh inside out along with any high school [00:04:30] peer support groups would have been illegal. Now, there's a lot of opposition to uh Gerald Wall's proposed amendment. Um And as you can see from this image here, um which was taken at the steps of parliament. Gerald Wall is there lecturing the crowd. Um He's there on the left and the crowd are not very keen on what he has to say. Um Van Young's Bill was ultimately defeated by five votes. That's 34 to 29 but [00:05:00] with 23 abstentions in parliament and that just shows how much politicians at the time really didn't want to engage with the issue. But whether they wanted to engage with the issue or not, um the issue and the activists weren't going away. So in the mid seventies, we had uh Robin Duff uh stand as an openly gay candidate for parliament. He didn't get in but he, but he stood as an openly gay man. [00:05:30] Roger. When do you think the first openly gay politician occurred in New Zealand? When? Hm, well, I'm gonna say the 19 seventies with Marilyn Waring, which is true. Although uh Marilyn Waring was actually uh outed by the New Zealand Truth newspaper. So she was out uh to her, her close family in circles. Um but in terms of [00:06:00] uh the mass of New Zealand, um she was outed by the, the New Zealand Truth. It wasn't actually until 19 7, 1993. Uh when Chris Carter uh uh came into parliament, uh the first M MP election 1993 and he was um an openly gay uh member of parliament. What about the um first openly lesbian member of parliament? Ok. Looking at the script, I'm gonna say Marion Street. [00:06:30] Oh, Marion Street. Yes, Marion Street. But Marion Street, that was 2005. And so that's not actually not that long ago. And what about the first openly transgender member of parliament in the world? Uh Georgina Baer, Georgina Baer, correct. And this is a photo of Georgina as mayor of Carterton District. So the Carterton District is just north of Wellington. And uh Georgina became mayor in the 19 nineties [00:07:00] and then moved into uh national politics uh and became a member of parliament in the late 19 nineties and became the first openly transgender person in the world to be one a mayor, but also um a member of parliament in 2011. Georgina remarked that one of the proudest moments was welcoming uh Carmen Rupe who's an icon here in Wellington in New Zealand and in Australia back [00:07:30] to parliament uh to meet the leader of the opposition and to meet uh the Prime Minister. The only other time Carmen Rupe uh had been at parliament was in the 19 seventies when she said in a television interview that she knew of uh both bisexual and a gay member of parliament and parliament was so affronted by this because when it was still illegal, but they thought it would, it would bring um parliament into disrepute. Um And so they [00:08:00] uh called Carmen before the Privileges Committee in Parliament um and made her apologize um because it was obviously the worst thing ever. The worst thing ever always makes me laugh that because I think as though parliament needs any help being brought into disrepute these days anyway. But anyway, while we're, while we're talking about parliament on the eighth of March, 1985 Fran Fran Wilde introduced the homosexual law reform bill and here's a great image of [00:08:30] her um in the parliament lobby talking to supporters and this is a David Hiley image. Thanks, great thanks to him. Uh Now Frans bill set up to decriminalize homosexual acts between adult consenting males and make it illegal to discriminate against anyone based on their sexual orientation. So this took uh 16 months of heated debate both in parliament and out in the public. But eventually part one of the bill that, which dealt with decriminalizing homosexual [00:09:00] acts between consenting adults passed on the ninth of July 1986. However, part two of the bill that, which dealt with discrimination was lost. Um And so you could still discriminate against homosexuals uh in a number of areas. Um Now, Gareth, can you tell me what areas those might have been? I can tell you. And I can also say before I, before I mention them that if you are uh looking on youtube, uh we now have the technology where we can actually see comments coming up on our screen, [00:09:30] which is fantastic, fantastic. Or you can send us an email to um walks at dot NZ and we can see that as well. So um please feel free. Um If, if you want to um want want to add your stories as well. Um But the three ways in which you could discriminate one was accommodation. So somebody could say I don't, I'm not gonna rent to you because you're gay. Uh Another way was in services so you can go into a store and they could refuse [00:10:00] to serve you. Uh because uh they thought you were gay. Um And the third way was an employment so they could say no, I'm not going to employ any homosexuals. So, despite homosexual law reform in 1987 you could still quite legally and quite happily discriminate uh in those areas until the Human Rights Amendment Act of um just the Human Rights Act, I should say of 1993. Uh and that act also outlawed discrimination on the grounds of disability and [00:10:30] HIV A I DS. Now, the amendments to the Human Rights Act were championed by the Associate Minister of Health, Catherine o'regan who sadly passed away uh in May 2018, uh in 2012, she apologized for not specifically including transgender people in the anti discrimination measures. Well, speaking of HIV and AIDS and that was happening in the kind of um the there was a lot of mainstream attention [00:11:00] drawn to AIDS in the, uh, mid 19 eighties. Uh, when, uh, AIDS was used by both the pro and anti homosexual law reformers, um, to a, a, as a, as a rallying cry. So, the antireformers including, uh, this chap here, um, this is Norman Jones who was the MP for Invercargill. Uh, he would say things like, um, you know, if somebody had AIDS, it would be better for them to die sooner [00:11:30] rather than later, uh to help prevent homosexual law reform. And so, uh his whole thing was that, uh, in legalizing homosexual activity, you'd be legalizing the spread of AIDS. That was one of his, um, one of his sayings, the pro reformers were saying that actually we need to get people in to see their doctors into health clinics and people aren't gonna go if, if, um, it's an illegal activity. Um And so both [00:12:00] those things were happening, um, around homosexual law reform in 84 85 86. And at our next stop, we're going to be talking about one of New Zealand's earliest uh AIDS activists. And through modern technology, I'm gonna hit this button here without looking, it was the wrong button. Um, and we're gonna go from uh parliament across the road and we're heading across the road to [00:12:30] Turnbull House, which is just this lovely brick building built around about 1915. Um, just opposite the Beehive here in Wellington and it was at Turnbull House that uh one of the first uh AIDS workshops was held in New Zealand. So to give you just a wee bit of context. Um uh in 1981 and June, 1981 the CD CDC in uh America uh produced [00:13:00] some information that was highlighting um a group of young gay men who had developed um PC P pneumonia which we now know is quite um interlinked with, with HIV and AIDS. That was 1981. The first AIDS death in New Zealand was in 1984. So we were a good couple of years after what was happening in the US. Well, one of those, um, early people in the 19 [00:13:30] eighties was, um, let me just see if I can find, certainly not Norman Jones, uh, was this man, uh, this is uh Bruce Burnett and in 1983 he came back from San Francisco. So he was an Auckland had lived overseas, came back from San Francisco in 1983 because he was feeling unwell. And within months he had set up a one man road show around New Zealand, um, trying to educate, um, communities [00:14:00] at risk on AIDS and, and what, what was about to come in Palmerston North. He actually himself came out as having AIDS and he said this to the group of people, but he also said it to the media and this was really courageous because at the time there was a huge amount of stigma around Aids in New Zealand. Uh, you know, some people were saying that, oh, you can catch AIDS from using the same swimming pool or using the same cutlery [00:14:30] or eating or using cups. Um, that other people have used, of course, all this is completely wrong and it's, it's not true. Um, but this is what, um, Bruce had to, had to deal with and not only was he dealing in his personal life, but he was also going out there on mainstream media um and talking about HIV AIDS awareness. So at the same time as uh doing this, this one man road [00:15:00] show, Bruce helped establish or was instrumental in establishing the aid support network along with a number of other people around the country. And this support network aimed to give both uh practical and emotional support uh to people with HIV and, and AIDS. Now Bruce uh continued with his work right up until his death. He died on the first of June 1985. And within 18 months, the AIDS support [00:15:30] network had morphed into what we now know as uh the New Zealand Aids Foundation. Um but a lot of that energy, a lot of that initial energy came from people like uh Bruce Burnett here and Turnbull House also has a connection with the author, journalist and Tarot card reader Tom mclean. Now, Tom is a Scottish journalist who lives in New Zealand from 1973 until his death. In 1989 he wrote [00:16:00] a book about his experiences living with HIV and A I DS called If I Should die. And he was carried into Turnbull House on a stretcher to launch the book on the 21st of March 1989 just three days before he died. Now, we can see here uh an image of Tom's quilt panel on the a memorial quilt and there's a great little quote along the top there, what the caterpillar calls the end of the world. The butterfly calls the Miracle [00:16:30] of Life. And that relates to the book that Tom wrote. Um And here's another excerpt from it. Remember my story about the garden. It's spring, you hold a tiny kitten in your hand and tell me how each form of life, no matter how small is part of life itself. When we understand space and time, we'll know that in infinity, all we have is here and now and sometimes in the here and now you'll [00:17:00] turn a corner to find a little garden. We'll sit down together under a spring sun and watch the kitten and the caterpillar. And I'll tell you again about the Butterflies. It's a really beautiful book. Um If you get the chance to read it, it's called If I Should Die. Uh It's quite hard to find nowadays but it's, it's, it's well worth reading. Yeah. Yeah. Well, um, just getting back to Turnbull House, which again is on our left, which is quite funny [00:17:30] because when we're looking at, we're looking at our, on our right, but it's on the left of the screen, I think, isn't it? Well, when we look that way we are anyway, doesn't, doesn't really enjoy it. Enjoy it all. I'm trying to say is that Roger and I look in a different direction than it actually is. So we should be ok. Yeah. Moving on. Ok. So Turnbull House was the home of Alexander Turnbull and uh uh Alexander was born in Wellington [00:18:00] in 18 68 and then moved with his family to, to London. But he returned in his early twenties. Now, he was an avid collector of a whole variety of things like manuscripts, books, um photographs, maps, like there was 55,000 plus items in his collection. In 1915, he built this uh um this, this house here for himself and his library. And [00:18:30] unfortunately, in 1918, he had an operation on his sinuses, um which actually led to his death, led to his passing. But before he died, he bequeathed his entire collection to the Nation. And this is what forms uh New Zealand's first library collection. It's the Alexander Turnbull Library, uh which used to be housed in this beautiful building um but is now housed within the National Library upon Molesworth Street. [00:19:00] Now, Alexander in early gay circles was believed to be a screaming queen Um And I, I should have actually shown you, this is a photo of Alexander here. Um Not that he's looking like a screaming queen here. Um, but, um, apparently in early gay circles, he was, uh, he was known as a screaming queen. Um, but, uh a subsequent investigation hasn't found any evidence to, to support that, but I'm not quite sure what kind [00:19:30] of evidence you would need. We'll climb, climb if we pivot uh on the spot that we are here and turn around, we can see the Senate Senator in Wellington. Uh Now for many years, uh two gay teachers uh would lay a wreath here at the center half on ANZAC Day in memory of fallen gay [00:20:00] and lesbian service people. Now, the wreath included a pink triangle and because it did the Rs A deemed it to be too political. And so uh they stopped putting that particular reef wreath there. Um But anyway, it's um it's a lovely thought while we look at the, if we go a wee bit closer to it, we can see um some writing which was written by uh Rupert Brook, the famous [00:20:30] English first world war poet and the inscription reads, uh these laid the world away, poured out the Red Sweet Wine of Youth. Uh And of course, if you remember Tom mcclean's book, which was called If I Should Die, that's a line from one of Rupert Brook's war poems, a solo called The Soldier but the Irish poet WB Yeats described Brooke as the [00:21:00] uh young man in England. And I'll let you be the judge of that in his mid-twenties, he visited Wellington. Uh that was in January 1914 just before the war. He was on his way to Tahiti later that year, he was commissioned into the Royal Naval Reserve and took part in uh the Antwerp expedition in October 1940. He sailed again early in 1915, uh but developed sepsis from an infected mosquito bite and sadly died [00:21:30] on the hospital ship on his way to Gallipoli in April 1915. Well, we're just hitting a wee bit up the hill now. So we're going to start, uh from, if I just start this button here, uh we're going from uh the Senate and you can see the Senate and the, the back end of Alexander Turnbull's house and we're going around and we're going to go to the right and to the right is actually where [00:22:00] uh Broadcasting House used to be. And here's a photo of Broadcasting House uh from the 19 seventies, I think this photo was done. And the reason Broadcasting House is significant to rainbow communities is that uh not only was it the home of public broadcasting and commercial radio in the sixties and seventies. Uh But in the late seventies, uh BC NZ, the public broadcaster um [00:22:30] started playing with the idea of offering a radio frequency for communities to make programs about their own communities. Um So it wouldn't involve an external editor. It would be by a community for a community about a community the buy for and about model. And so the first broadcast of access radio in New Zealand was on the fifth of April 1981. And that very first broadcast [00:23:00] had a program called Leave Your Dishes In The Sink. Uh And it was a feminist program. Um And although it wasn't explicitly uh lesbian run, it was run by some lesbians in the collective. Um So we, we could say that was the, the, you know, the first um by for and about lesbian broadcast in New Zealand. And then in June 1981 we had the first ever gay broadcast in New Zealand [00:23:30] uh for Pride Week. So Pride Week, June 1981 and that audio is still available online if you go to uh pride NZ dot com and search for that audio. Gay pride 1981 you'll be able to hear some of the um just the, the, the ideas and language that they were using at that time. It's a, it's a fascinating time capsule and that was um uh that, that audio was supplied by the lesbian and gay archives of New Zealand who um [00:24:00] archive our, our cultural heritage. 1984 we had uh the first uh lesbian community radio program broadcast and it was explicitly uh lesbian community and it was run by a collective and uh it started in 1984 and has gone ever since every week, uh run by a collective. Now, a few years ago, it was um it, it had a name change [00:24:30] and the collective came together and uh turned the name into an acronym and the acronym was quilted quilt. Sorry. The acronym was quilted bananas. And that stands for Queer Intersectional Intersex, lesbian taku, trans NB, non-binary, uh diverse, bisexual asexuals and Nanas. Um as some of them um uh saw themselves as Nanas [00:25:00] and the new title, uh they described as celebrating all the slippery overlaps these communities can have and how finding your identity within them can be messy, but as well as fun. And I think it's just a great example of how times have moved on from the eighties where we may have only had a, a few words to describe our communities to now where there's the, there's a whole range of words and a whole range of identities [00:25:30] and how those into interrelate and overlap um is really, really fascinating. There's just another image here. Um This is uh gay BC or the Gay Broadcasting Collective and that started in the mid eighties and it was around about um it's primary aim at the start was um to inform around homosexual law reform activities. Remember this is a time when [00:26:00] uh there weren't cell phones that was on the internet. Um So radio was a primary way of getting messages out there in terms of, you know, when demonstrations were on or um or whatever. Um This photo is from the 19 nineties and G BC ran right up until the mid two thousands uh before it ceased operation. Well, let's move on now to our next stop, which is just a little way up the terrace, [00:26:30] two Saint Andrews on the terrace. There we go. So you can see on the left there down the middle, on the terrace, the church lovely Saint Andrews. And on the 18th of June, 2016, Saint Andrews um was the location for the world premiere of Gareth Fars during these days. And there's a lovely photo here if I can just bring it up. This is um inside Saint Andrews and the glamour phones [00:27:00] are practicing during these days, which was a commemoration of the 30th anniversary of homosexual law reform. Now, ST Andrews uh on the terrace is the oldest Presbyterian congregation in New Zealand. And their history goes back to the arrival of the first ships of European settlers in Wellington. In 18 40 the first service was held on beach with a congregation of around 100 and 47 settlers. Over the years. The church has been located um around Wellington [00:27:30] and various places. Uh Thornton waterfront was one place then on Lampton Qua Coast close to with Plymouth steps are um and here on the terrace and this Brianca nation uh of Saint Andrews. Uh Church was built in 1922. In 1975 the very reverend John Murray became the minister and he oversaw the church as a center of social justice. Uh The congregation protests against the 1981 springbok tour and apartheid. [00:28:00] They stand in support of homosexual law reform in the 19 eighties. And more recently, they've supported the a living wage movement, refugee and migrant support services uh and marriage equality on the eighth of December, 1991 after homophobic resolutions were passed in the Presbyterian Church's General Assembly, Saint Andrews declared itself to be an inclusive church. And so there were numerous same sex commitment ceremonies held in the church here [00:28:30] during the mid 19 nineties. Um They've also had regular LGBT Rainbow church services here since 1992. 1 of the driving forces if I can get that right, one of the driving forces um at Saint Andrews um for inclusiveness was the reverend, Doctor Margaret Maman and Margaret started in the early 2000 at Saint Andrews and really um was vocal um particularly around [00:29:00] things like marriage equality and when marriage equality was introduced into parliament in 2000 and make sure I get this right in 2012. Um Margaret and her partner joined a rally outside of parliament. Uh Margaret on that day, unfortunately, had lost her voice. Um And so her partner read the speech, but part of that speech goes like this, the biblical call to compassion, to love your neighbor as yourself provides the faith mandate for marriage [00:29:30] equality. Today, we affirm the dignity and worth of all people and recognize sexual di difference and diversity as a blessed part of our created being. Well, unfortunately, not all churches have been as staunchly opposed have been, unfortunately, not all churches have been as supportive as um the terrace and some churches have been staunchly opposed to same sex marriage and homosexual law reform. Uh In the mid 19 eighties, [00:30:00] the Salvation Army rallied against law reform. Uh And they were integral in collecting signatures for the Keith Hay and Peter Tate um anti law reform petition. Um The petition's presentation on the steps of Parliament in September 1985 was quickly dubbed the Nuremberg rally for its resemblance to the infamous torch lit flag carrying 1936 rallies of the Nazi party in Germany. Now, the presentation here in Wellington featured a platoon [00:30:30] of young people, women in blue uniforms, men in white shirts with sashes, reading um the motto for God for, for country, for family. And a procession of people carried the 91 cardboard boxes supposedly full of petition forms up the steps of parliament um to parliament's doors where they were received by MP S NORM, Jones, Graham Lee, John Banks and Jeff Bray Brook. Um The [00:31:00] organizers hoped for a million signatures uh which would be a third of New Zealand's population at that time, um They claimed to have over 800,000 signatures, but a quick calculation by opponents uh revealed that only a small stacks of paper that only small stacks of paper were actually held in each of those 91 boxes. And so they began to chart, the boxes are empty. Uh Later, many of the signatures were found to be duplicate or forged. Um And some people including school students were felt [00:31:30] were um press ganged into signing the petition. Um So if you didn't sign, then you uh you must be a or something like that at schools. Well, one of the other uh protests at uh in parliament grounds, we should just point out was the uh Destiny Church protest against civil unions and uh Destiny Church in 2004, uh rallied a lot of people to march through Wellington kind of fist pumping in the air. [00:32:00] This slogan enough is enough, enough is enough. And this is a photograph from outside uh parliament or just on parliament for court uh where we started our tour today. Uh But speaking of rallies and protests and this protest and rally is in support of marriage equality. And uh again, this is uh in 2012 on the day that a marriage amendment bill is introduced into parliament. And [00:32:30] uh people marched from Civic Square through uh Willis Street Lampton Qua to um the steps of parliament. Now the building, um they're just walking past is actually our next stop on the tour and I'm just going to do a bit of a swizz thing here, hopefully. And we're going to go jumping down to Lampton Qua. And we are going to be looking at this wonderful heritage building. This is the public Trust office on the left hand side, uh lovely [00:33:00] brick building built in 1908. Uh It is believed to be New Zealand's first steel framed office building. Um In the late 19 twenties, the writer Frank Sarge got a job at the public trust and he was working in that building at that time, he was, his name was Norris Davey. Um By day by day he worked uh there, but by night he enjoyed cruising the toilets and the beats of [00:33:30] Wellington. One night in 1929 he met Leonard Holien who was known to police uh and was being monitored. The two got back to uh Leonard's boarding house uh where the police were lying in, wait in the next room boosting in. They found the two in or masturbating each other or in legal terms committing indecent assault. Now, Norris was persuaded by the crown to give evidence against Leonard uh and allow himself to be presented [00:34:00] as the innocent party in return, he got a suspended sentence while Leonard got five years hard labor in New Plymouth prison. After the court case, Norris uh went up north to stay, stay with his much loved uncle on a farm. Um but uh a couple of years later, the depression uh forced him off the farm and he emerged as Frank Sarge and the writer in 2017, during the first reading of a bill to expunge [00:34:30] historic gay convictions. The justice minister of the time, Amy Adams made an apology on behalf of the government to all those who were affected by historic gay convictions. Now, the bill was passed unopposed and became law in 2018 and the first two expungement happened later that year. Well, also in this building today is where the Ministry for Culture and Heritage uh live. And they have a variety of meeting rooms in [00:35:00] the um building named after various um icons in New Zealand. And one of the meeting rooms is called Frieda Stark. Now Frida was born in Northland in 2000 in 19 and 19 07. Just jump 100 years. She was born in 19 07. The family moved to Auckland and at the age of seven, her father suggested that she take up um dancing and so she learned the Hula hoop, she learned tap [00:35:30] and she learned high kicks in the 19 thirties. She learned ballet and in the 19 forties during World War two, she was actually at the uh civic in Auckland, the civic theater in Auckland and she was painted entirely in gold and just wore a little G string and became known as the fever of the fleet. And there's a lovely image here if I can of uh Frieda. And I'm not sure who the male dancer is, but Frida is the, the one on top. [00:36:00] Um Now Frida nowadays is one known for her dancing, but also uh for her relationship with a fellow dancer, Thelma Trott. And so Thelma and Frida met while dancing at the Civic Theater and had a couple of year relation relationship. Um at the time, uh Thelma was married to a chap called Eric Mario. And unfortunately, Eric didn't improve, didn't approve of Thelma's [00:36:30] relationship with Fried. Um And so poisoned her with um a whole lot of sleeping tablets. And uh Thelma died and uh Eric was eventually caught and tried and convicted. So he was tried twice for murder and convicted twice for murder. Um and was sentenced to death. Uh And then that sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. [00:37:00] Now, one of the really sad aspects of this story, uh Well, one filmer died um hugely sad, but also, um Frida was dragged through the court process as a witness and her um lesbianism uh was um brought out in the trial. Um There were new photos of her brought out in the trial twice. Um And it was sounding pretty horrific um for, for Frida, [00:37:30] after the trial, Frieda moved to the United Kingdom. Uh but they then came back to New Zealand in 1970 in the 19 seventies, I should say. Um And then she died in the late 19 nineties, but probably one of the um the sweetest parts of this story is that when uh Frida died, her friends were able to bury her at the foot of at the foot of um [00:38:00] Thelma's grave. And with the inscription waiting until we meet again, Fred, which is just such a, such a lovely thing. And um yeah, just really beautiful. Moving on to our very next stop now, which is Midland Park uh and the sculpture, a woman of words by the Auckland sculptor Virginia King. Now, it commemorates the life and work of New Zealand's most, one of New Zealand's most [00:38:30] famous writers, Katherine Mansfield. Um during the day, the sculpture reflects the movement of life around um the area. Um But at night, it's illuminated from within like a lantern. Uh Mansfield, Katherine Mansfield was born in 18 88. Uh at 19, she left New Zealand and settled in the United Kingdom uh where she became friends with the modernist writers, DH Lawrence and Virginia Wolf. In 1917, she was diagnosed with tuberculosis [00:39:00] uh which led to her death at the age of 34. Now, Mansfield has well documented or documented relationships with both men and women. Her first same sex relationship that we know of is with Marta Mau, a wealthy young Maori woman who uh she'd met first at school in the in Wellington. Mansfield writes um I want Marta, I want her as I have had her terribly. [00:39:30] That is unclean. I know but true. And then there's the six second relationship that we know of, which is with Edith Kathleen Bendel and Mansfield writes and posts letters in violet inc nightly to Edith and invites her to stay alone with her in the family batch at Days Bay just across Wellington Harbor. Mansfield writes in her journal last night I spent in her arms and tonight I hate her, which being interpreted means that I adore her, that I cannot lie in [00:40:00] my bed and not feel the magic of her body. I have, I feel more powerfully although so termed sexual impulses with her than I have with any man. That's a great quote. Another favorite quote from Mansfield is risk, risk, anything care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices do the hardest thing on earth for you, act for yourself. Face the truth. Fantastic. Yeah. Well, to tie um [00:40:30] Catherine back to Frank Sarge who we've just been talking about. Um We have another new Zealand icon and that is Nao Marsh and Dame Nao Marsh on the left here is with Frank Sarge. Uh This photograph was taken in 1965. Um Frank had just won the Catherine Mansfield Literary Award and here they are in Wellington in the Catherine Mansfield Memorial Garden. Um and it's a really lovely [00:41:00] tie in all those three together. Well, staying in uh Midland Park. And before Midland Park was a park, it was actually the Midland Hotel and here's a lovely photo of the Midland Hotel and I'll just remove us from the shot. And that's where and is on the right hand side, which is quite interesting. And so Midland Park runs right across that facade [00:41:30] in front of us in the, in the center of the screen and staying at the Midland Hotel in 1917 was the very, very famous writer, um Somerset Mo and his um secretary and companion uh Gerald Haxton. So that's Somerset Moore and that's uh Moore uh sorry, Gerald and uh Somerset as well. So they were traveling through New Zealand en route to Tahiti. And [00:42:00] um it was uh it's a bit like um Rupert Brooks. It was a very uh well traveled path to the Pacific you came via via New Zealand. So at this time in 1917, mam um was, was really famous. He had 10 plays already produced, had written quite a number of novels. Um He had met um Gerald Haxton in France um when World War One broke out, um Mam couldn't enlist and so he um helped out with the British Red Cross [00:42:30] and it's there where they met uh together and um Gerald Haxton was from San Francisco. Well, at the same time, um Somerset Mam was actually married to Siri. Welcome. And um he would later tell a nephew. Uh this is a quote from um from mam um talking about his bisexuality, he said, I tried to persuade myself that I was three quarters normal and that only a quarter of me was queer. Whereas [00:43:00] really it was the other way around. Well, the Midland Hotel uh where Somerset warm was staying was demolished in the 19 eighties. And in its place came Midland Park and it was here in February 2015 that the feminist trans and community icon Shelley Toki Howard conducted a social experiment and education campaign highlighting the differences between tolerance and acceptance. This [00:43:30] great image of Shelley was taken by Kate Spencer. Now Shelley stood blindfolded in the experiment with her arms outstretched and two signs beside her, one summarized data from the youth 2012 survey which showed that despite many hardships faced by transgender youth, they were still the most active in youth communities and helping and assisting others. And the second side sign read, I am transgender. I honor you. Will you honor me, hug me. [00:44:00] In the interview with Jack Lynch. Shelley recalled how she engaged with about 25 people that day and with some people, she could feel the distance between them and even even though they were hugging but with others, she could feel the hearts engaging and she felt the real sincerity there. Shelley reflected on those interactions and said that now you've got this information. What are you going to tell the Children? What are you going to tell your partner, are you going to go to the local school board of trustees and tell them that they have [00:44:30] to do more for queer identifying youth? Well, sadly, Shelley passed away in November 2017. Well, we're going to head to our next stop. Now, we've got a couple more stops before the end of the tour. Um, and, uh, just to, to reiterate if you want to contact us, please feel free. Our email address is below walks at NZ. And you can also comment on youtube. Uh Our technology now allows us to see what we're doing. [00:45:00] So let's see what you're doing too, you're commenting. Um But let's head to the waterfront now and uh what a lovely day in Wellington. Uh There are a couple of things we're going to point out here. First of all, is the uh stitching here. This is the, the, the lovely knitting that we see around Wellington. Um And this is primarily done by a group called Stitch and Butch and it's a rainbow queer group [00:45:30] um that meet regularly and make these wonderful uh things to cover um uh um lamp posts and public seating. So, if you're around in a Wellington, you'll probably see quite a number of these really intricately knitted. Um uh Yeah. Um Yeah, no, that they are, they are amazing. Well, II I think they kind of defy description really, don't they? I mean, yeah. Um But that's uh by [00:46:00] a group called Stitch and Butch. And they've been doing it for about five or so years. Um, and it just kind of really brings Wellington to life. And the next part we're going to be looking at is actually the sea itself. Wellington Harbor. Nice, nice segway because just over 100 years ago, uh, on the 16th of October, 1914, almost 8.5 1000 men and nearly 4000 horses [00:46:30] were collected around here to set sail from the wharves here for the first World War. Now there were 10 troop ships in the harbor and they left on that day on board with two soldiers, Norman Gibson and Roy Ailing. Now they, we think they met at the Trentham military camp or possibly a little bit later in Egypt on their way to Europe, they became lovers. Roy was 28 and Norman was 19. Now the artist Toss Williston [00:47:00] noted in his autobiography, Sage T um that Roy had told me how he had seen the younger while at the war poised for a dive when they were swimming and loved his beautiful body. Well, they were together during the battle of the somme, uh where Norman was wounded and was evacuated. And so Roy wrote his poems to him. Uh This one in particular uh was published in the 1917 book, New Zealand at the front form like [00:47:30] Hercules of old, mighty limbs and shapely mold, manly strength in beauty, rolled old sunshine. Now that we are far apart, longing makes the hot tears start. Who can ease my aching heart, old sunshine. Well, after the war, Roy and Norman bought a farm together. Um but later Roy left Norman in 1931 and they both subsequently married women. Uh in 1997 Norman's [00:48:00] daughter, Miriam Sefira wrote a biography of her father titled A man's man, a daughter's story. Well, also in the harbor is Matu Sos Island. And uh we're going to be talking about, let me see. Um Yeah, so Island. So it's that that middle little Middle Island in the harbor there. And uh let's take our ourselves back to 1917 and we're going to be talking about [00:48:30] doctor Helmer Von and this is the doctor here. So the doctor cuts her hair super short. Uh She wears a tailored skirt and jacket, a shirt tie and sometimes a Manish hat. So prior to World War One, the doctor had helped establish a health clinic in, in, in Wellington. Um And apparently some say she had an unnaturally [00:49:00] strong influence over the female patients she treated well during World War one, the um women's anti German League, which was um very strong in New Zealand, um were very suspicious of the doctor, uh particularly um with that type of clothing and, and also the, the rumors about her and so called for an official investigation. The New Zealand Solicitor General reported, [00:49:30] uh, quote there is grave ground for suspicion that this person is a mischievous and dangerous impostor. There is much reason to suspect that she may be a man masquerading as a woman. Well, uh, the doctor was, um, asked to have a physical examination and uh she had that examination and um, that, that proved that that she was um indeed female. Um, but she was still imprisoned on Matu Sos Island out [00:50:00] here in the um, Wellington Harbor in May 1917. She was there for six weeks. She was the only female on the island. She was there for six weeks before she had a severe nervous breakdown and was taken off the island and into care. And then in 1919, um she actually uh left New Zealand with a female companion, uh traveled to Australia and then on to um San Francis, San Francisco, uh where she died, I think in about 1930. [00:50:30] Um, but a very, very hard life and, um, just, just quite seemingly persecuted for um, what she wore, how she behaved. Um, well, and thrown into the mix, the, you know, World War One, German anti women's league as well. Yeah. Yeah, very sad story. Well, we've just about reached our last stop now. Um, and if we turn around, we can see Frank's [00:51:00] Park on the Wellington waterfront. Here we go and zoom around, there we go. Green space. There is Frank Kitts Park which was the starting point uh for the 2016 Wellington Pride Parade and it was also the venue for the candlelight memorial in June 2016 for the victims of the Orlando nightclub massacre. Now, um Beyond Frank Kitts Park is Frank Kitt's Lagoon, which was the venue for the Beacons of Hope Aids [00:51:30] candlelight memorials in the 19 nineties. Um At the memorial ceremony's peak in 1993 there were services held throughout the country from Qatar, Tauranga, Rotorua, Nelson Christchurch, Tim Auckland, Napier, Palmerston, North Ble Dunedin and Invercargill. Um in Auckland, there was a memorial service held at Saint Matthews in the city, followed by the lighting of flaming torches. And here in Wellington torches were held high and the New Zealand Symphony orchestra [00:52:00] and the National Youth choir performed at Frank Kitt's Lagoon enormous event really when you think about it. Well, just um continuing on from, that is our kind of final stop um which is around on the other side of the harbor. And that's to Papa, which is the building now in our center of the screen. And at Papa, they hold um the massive New Zealand Aids memorial quilt and I'll [00:52:30] just bring up one of the quilts for us to have a look at. So the Aids quilt uh was first um dreamed up in 1985 in San Francisco and then other countries have come on board. So, in New Zealand, um the New Zealand Aids memorial quilt um started in 1988 with this panel here. Um This is made by Daniel Fielding and um friends for Daniel's partner, [00:53:00] Peter Cuthbert, who died in October 1988. And it was presented as the first quilt panel um on the first of December 1988 which is um World Aids Day. So each of these panels measures um, 6 ft by 3 ft, um which is the size of an average grave. And so, not only is, is it a living memorial uh to the person it has, um you know, um they're all completely [00:53:30] unique in terms of, you know, um what kind of clubs, what interests that the person had. Um But together they are also um an amazing educational resource to teach people around about HIV and AIDS. So the almost the entire New Zealand quilt is now held by Te Papa on the waterfront, which is, is really fantastic. Well, finally, on this tour, another influence [00:54:00] coming out of San Francisco, like the um memorial quilt um panels uh was the rainbow flag, uh which has been picked up by many LGBTI rainbow communities around the world as part of Wellington's pride parade in 2017, a 50 m long rainbow flag was paraded for the first time in New Zealand. Uh down Courtney Place onto the waterfront, heading towards Waitangi Park. This particular flag was created in the United Kingdom by a group of [00:54:30] people whose partners had passed away from AIDS age related conditions and the plague. This particular flag has been carried down the streets of London, Paris, um Sydney and Singapore and now Wellington. Uh the rainbow flag was created by the US based activist Gilbert Baker as part of a collective in 1978 and he refused to trademark the flag um because he saw it as a symbol for the LGBTI rainbow communities to own not one particular [00:55:00] individual. Well, just our final stop is we're going to tie the flag back to parliament. And this wonderful image here from Jack Lynch um shows the flag the rainbow flag flying on the full court of parliament in 2016. And this was to mark the 30th anniversary of homosexual law reform. I can't imagine what um Mp Norman Jones would have thought if he'd still been alive, what he would have thought [00:55:30] of this. Um But anyway, so, um it was the first time it had ever been flown on the forecourt of Parliament in New Zealand, uh which was was very special, but rainbow flags don't just stop. Um On the forecourt of parliament, here is an image of the rainbow room which is in um parliament and it is a select committee room that was uh dedicated to Rainbow Communities in 2008. And uh it's an amazing [00:56:00] room. Um It's open to the public. You can go and have a look. Uh It has various um community flags. It has a wonderful artwork by Elizabeth. Uh It has significant legislation like the homosexual law reform bill and it has um a lot of portraits of out and proud um uh uh current and former politicians uh which is really fantastic. And uh as I say, um that can [00:56:30] be visited uh by any member of the public, which is fantastic. And that, that ends the tour, that ends the tour. Thank you so much for joining us on this walk tour today. Of course, is Father's Day. So we wish all the fathers a very happy Father's Day. Um uh Thank you so much for joining us. Um And we will be back um uh most probably next month. Um And uh we'll enjoy, enjoy your company [00:57:00] again. Um One final thanks to, to Alison Laurie and to Hugh Young for their research again, some of which has appeared in this and other tours that we do. So, we'll see you later. Thank you. Have a good afternoon.
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