LGBTQI+ histories of Aotearoa New ZealandKōrero takatāpui ki Aotearoa

Te Papa’s Gareth Watkins describes how an LGBTQI+ rainbow artwork by the famous flag maker Gilbert Baker has found a home in the national collection.

Land and resources are not the only things that can be colonised: the body and gender also suffer from its pernicious effects, as Pounamu Jade Aikman reflects on in this personal essay.

Poet essa may ranapiri responds to three pou kātua (stockade post figure) in our collection.

Jeremiah Boniface explores the work of Grant Lingard, whose practice in the early 1990s focused on addressing issues of sexuality and concepts of masculinity.

Rex Letoa is a Sāmoan/French fa‘atama poet. A keen observer of the world around him, as well as the world inside of him. His poetry and storytelling act as a wayfinding tool back to his cultural and gender identity.

Tai Paitai reflects on people, places and a particular time in his life, post the Homosexual Law Reform Bill.

Art historian David Maskill explores the surrealist vision of painter Felix Kelly.

‘I, a Sāmoan gay, queer man came to know myself as not quite Pacific enough or not qwhite queer enough to be considered a central concern.’ Seuta‘afili Dr Patrick Thomsen reflects on his coming-of-age in Queen City.

‘We all wear masks.’ Poet Chris Tse looks into the hidden (and not-so-hidden) subtexts of comic books, and shares the role superheroes – particularly Catwoman in Batman Returns – played in his own journey.

This digital portrait of Chris Parker shows the popular New Zealand comedian wearing the results of his creative response to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.

This comic was created by queer trans illustrator, comic creator, and designer Sam Orchard after seeing the exhibition Poutokomanawa: The Carmen Rupe Generation at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery, Wellington, in 2019.

The world is full of queer objects. But what exactly makes an object queer? Can a telephone be queer? Chris Brickell, co-editor of the book Queer Objects (OUP, 2019), which features everything from a teapot to a sex toy, talks us through what makes an object queer with taonga from Te Papa’s collection.

Artist Owen Connors and art curator Simon Gennard discuss the influential role that the New Zealand AIDS Memorial Quilt has played in their work as a marking point in a trajectory of queer history.

Historian Will Hansen explores the origins of pride in Aotearoa New Zealand, and documents tensions between celebration and protest, and at times, the necessity for both.

“I don’t know why I’m drawn to this object so much, but a silver ring fished out of your womb feels romantic.”

Vanessa Mei Crofskey offers personal reflections inspired by a Chinese intrauterine device (IUD) in Te Papa’s History Collection.

Trans people from their teens to their 70s were asked to identify objects of personal importance and to share the objects’ stories. What emerged was a quirky collection that is a testament to the diversity of trans experiences, and which disrupts established (and cis-written) narratives about trans lives.

In 1987/88 Fiona Clark created two albums of intimate photographs of four New Zealanders who had been diagnosed with HIV. While Fiona visually documented their days, the subjects in turn contributed their own words and thoughts to the album. Michael Stevens has a copy of the albums on his book shelf. In this essay, he reflects on living with HIV then and now.

Fiona Clark is one of New Zealand’s most celebrated art photographers. In this essay, she recalls her time as an art student in Auckland in the early 1970s, when she began to take photographs of the people and the night life around her.

Art historian Joanne Drayton explores the unconventional life of painter Frances Hodgkins, arguing that absence of evidence is not always evidence of absence.

This poster challenges the idea that there are only two genders and affirms diverse genders across indigenous cultures.

Lauren Lysaght’s mixed media work Hidden Agender is inspired by the life of Eugenia Falleni (about 1875–1938), a woman who presented herself as man in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and whose life was placed under the microscope in 1920 when she was charged with murder and ‘sex fraud’.

In 1998 Neil Anderson and Michael Eyes gifted a collection of over 20 queer-themed T-shirts to Te Papa from the 1980s and 1990s. Neil Anderson recalls his time as a queer activist before the Human Rights Act of 1993, which made it illegal to discriminate against people on the basis of their sexual orientation.

In this excerpt from Mates & Lovers, Chris Brickell explores the vibrant world of drag culture in New Zealand, when drag ‘jumped off the stage and into the streets’.

Carmen Rupe (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Hauā, Ngāti Heke-a-Wai, 1936-2011) was a flamboyant transgender woman, performer, business owner, and anti-discrimination activist who became a cultural icon in New Zealand and Australia.

Te Papa is kaitiaki of the New Zealand AIDS Memorial Quilt. This panel was made by Welby Ings for Ian Williams. In the late 1990s, Welby wrote this reflection on their relationship and the creation of the panel.

Drag performer Johnny Croskery’s album from the 1960s includes photographs taken at the Dorian Society’s annual fancy dress balls in the 1960s. In this excerpt from ‘Mates & Lovers’, Chris Brickell explores the origins of the Dorian Society.

This portrait of Rodney Kennedy was painted by Toss Woollaston in 1936. The two men met at art school in Dunedin, and became lovers in 1932. After Toss’ marriage in 1936, they remained life-long friends. Chris Brickell tells their story.

Two female lovers are intimately entwined in a series of delicate interlocking planes. The work is remarkable not only for its stylistic innovations but also for the fact it depicts a lesbian couple — a daring choice for prim and proper 1950s New Zealand.

Lindah Lepou talks about being a fa’faafine designer, her spirituality, and the evolution of Pacific and Māori couture.

Xena: Warrior Princess was an all-action TV series with extreme costumes. In this episode of Tales From Te Papa, host Riria discovers what caught the imagination of Xenites.

These miniature works of knitted art hail from Invercargill, and might just be the ultimate Kiwiana tribute to two of New Zealand’s most popular characters – Camp Mother and Camp Leader, the creations of Lynda and Jools Topp – the Topp Twins.

Watch a documentary on voguing and FAFSWAG, listen to interviews with queer Kiwis, and dive into some excellent recent publications.