Fri 18 Mar 2011 In: Out Games News View at Wayback View at NDHA
The Manu Dolls perform 1.00PM: Maori and Island cultures were to the fore last night as over 200 local and overseas sporting and human rights participants, in town for the 2nd Asia Pacific crowded Wellington's new Whare Waka to be officially embraced by local ethnic groups. MC Rangimoana Taylor blended celebration with sober reflection on the place of glbt people and ethnic groups in New Zealand society, but mostly the performances, which started with a series of powerful wiata and broadened out to include the Manu Dolls, Pacific entertainers and lots and lots of drag, were loud and proud. A high-powered drag diva contingent from Auckland, including Buckwheat, Tess Tickle, and Venus Mantrap added star power to the show, but the undoubted highlight of the night was Cindy of Samoa whose couple of Tina songs to end the show turned into a full scale Tina Turner concert that lasted hours up to and past midnight. Throughout the night people left their tables to socialise and dance and the mixture of nationalities, sexualities, ages and life experiences revelling in each other's company left a strong impression on the delegates. "It was a most special night and one that I don't think could have happened in any other context. It was magical,” says Out Games co-chair David Hindley, who was one of the stayers who partied right through to 2am. As a foot note, a more sober note was struck moments ago throughout the sports and human rights conference when two minutes of silence was observed, in specific acknowledgement of the glbt victims of the Christchurch earthquake. GayNZ.com Daily News staff - 18th March 2011
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 18th March 2011 - 1:10pm