What does community mean to you?

Craig | Te Whanganui-a-Tara

Craig describes finding safety, joy, and whānau within Wellington’s queer community, celebrating identity and creating spaces where people can be their authentic selves.

“When I came here for a coffee, I remember sitting in a cafe just down the road and a lady walked past with bright yellow hair and I thought, in Auckland she’d be known as the crazy lady with yellow hair but in Wellington she’s probably called Jane and she’s the EA to some chief executive of some bank or something.

Because people’s identity here doesn’t matter. It doesn’t shape who they are. They just get to be who they want to be and that’s celebrated in Wellington. I do a lot of work in queer, rainbow, takatāpui spaces. One of the projects that I do is the Wellington Pride Parade. And the kind of motto for that is to celebrate our communities, our rainbow communities.

And so we’re not interested in the things that divide us. We’re really interested in the things that unite us. We believe that their identity is incredibly special. It’s a taonga for this country. And so for us, we’re like, actually, how do we celebrate that? How do we flip that? And actually accentuate who you are, accentuate your bits that make you unique and celebrate that.

So that’s what the parade is all about. The parade is all about celebrating your identity. And when you see that, you see people actually having the safe space to go, ‘yeah okay, I’m trans or I’m queer or whatever, here I am.’ And they get to smile, you see joy. You see people giving them awhi (hugs) down the street. It’s beautiful.

When I did eventually come out in my 30s, I actually noticed that [my previous] community group then stopped their support of me, and really withdraw from me. So it was really interesting then finding another community that would actually support me in my actual, authentic identity. Which is what I really loved about the rainbow community – it’s a whānau.

Yeah, it’s complex. And it’s certainly got lots of hurdles to jump, but it is really a great community, and so accepting. Because they’ve united over the commonality of struggle, of having to find a place that’s not naturally given to us.

So I have found now a place, a community that I can say I can be myself in and explore other parts that I haven’t yet explored, really in a safe way with that queer community.”