Historian Gareth Watkins uncovers May dates in New Zealand’s past that have impacted today’s queer community in Aotearoa.
May 1983
2023 marks the 40th anniversary of the first International AIDS Candlelight Memorials which took place in San Francisco and New York City. In New Zealand, the memorial was first observed as part of a Homocaust commemoration in Wellington in 1986. That year, the Pink Triangle magazine noted that an event would “be held in May to remember the extermination of gay people by the Nazis. It will be combined with a worldwide vigil for people with AIDS, the second HOMOCAUST.” By 1993, AIDS Candlelight Memorials were being held around the country – from Kaitaia to Invercargill. In Wellington, the Beacons of Hope event was held. It featured the NZ Symphony Orchestra, members of the NZ Youth Choir, and a solemn procession of people carrying flaming torches – each one representing a person that had died.
This year also marks the 40th anniversary of the first people in NZ to be identified as living with AIDS. At the time, the life expectancy of a person with AIDS was generally short due to very limited treatment options. To mark the anniversary, Te Papa recently displayed quilt panels from the NZ AIDS Memorial Quilt which is now in its care. One of the quilt panels was created by Welby Ings in the early 1990s for his partner Ian Williams. Welby wrote, “I hunted out your old shed pants and a couple of work shirts – and cut them up for patches. And Dad gave me some bailing twine to sew around your portrait. I sit here by the smoke and embers and I touch the texture of your face. It is hard to be left with just a picture on the floor. I run my fingers lightly through the softness of your shirt and back across the hills and the sky, Ian, and here, alone without you I can feel that I am crying.”
11-18 May 1995
The first Out Takes film festival took place at the Paramount Theatre in Wellington with the aim “to bring a selection of the best international and NZ queer cinema to NZ audiences.” While rainbow-themed films had been produced locally for a couple of decades, this was the first time a festival had been set up to specifically showcase queer cinema. City Voice newspaper described the week-long, 30-movie festival as “sure to amuse, provoke, endear, endanger, sadden and gladden our queer hearts.” In a time before streaming media services on the internet, Out Takes provided an opportunity to not only see queer people and queer stories on screen, but also to be surrounded in a theatre full of rainbow energy. The festival quickly grew in length and screening locations – with films also showing in Auckland, Christchurch, and Dunedin. The much-loved festival ran for almost twenty years, ending in 2014.
10 May 2022
The nationwide support group Indian Origin Pride NZ (IOPNZ) was launched at Parliament. Speaking at the event, Diversity, Inclusion, and Ethnic Communities Minister Priyanka Radhakrishnan said she was “incredibly proud” of the group and hoped that it could open the door for more ethnic communities to talk about sexuality. Writing on IOPNZ’s website, co-founder Shay Singh said that they wanted to “empower Aotearoa’s LGBTQIA+ community of Indian origin, so together we are authentically visible in every part of our lives, every day… Even today, with NZ’s progressive laws, the visibility of rainbow people of colour remains low. We face cultural barriers that others don’t and a constant fear of us and our families being ostracized from our ethnic communities… Having access to services which have a cultural lens is critical.” Co-founder, Arrun Soma wrote, “I went through an identity crisis and brain battle in my teens and twenties as I navigated accepting being gay and also being proud of my Gujarati heritage. Today, I am proud to be gay and Indian – and my family is wonderfully supportive.”
