A small, mistimed dawn ceremony has this morning marked the start of the two-week long Auckland Pride Festival. Just under thirty people, including representatives of Pride and the NZ AIDS Foundation, gathered on the Okahu Bay foreshore to see the sun rise on the festival with a formal welcome by representatives of the tangata whenua, starting half an hour earlier than planned. "Our sun decided to come up earlier this morning... so we went with the flow," quipped Festival curator Ta'i Paitai to those who arrived after the ceremony had got under way. Researcher and author Miriam Saphira arrived early enough to experience the formalities. She says it consisted of a welcome by the tangata whenua and a reply, plus a speech by Pride co-chair Vinnie Sykes, with a theme of taking up the legacy of what people before had done and taking it forward. In a departure from previous Pride dawn ceremonies there were no cultural or glbti performances. The fifteen-minute ceremony was followed by a blessing and light refreshments.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 5th February 2016 - 7:21am