Kawe Mahara Queer Archives Aotearoa

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Kawe Mahara Events

From time to time the Board organises events that showcase the collections or introduce the community to topics of New Zealand queer community and historical interest. We are pleased to collaborate with other queer and takatāpui community groups and supporters.

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Upcoming events

  • Untold Stories: A Panel Discussion about the Homosexual Law Reform Campaign
    Wed 8 Jul 2026, 6pm-7.30pm - Thistle Hall, 293 Cuba St, Wellington

    Join Kawe Mahara Queer Archives Aotearoa for a special Pūmahara Ia Te Wā Queer History Month Event as we host a panel conversation about the "untold stories" of the journey to the passing of the Homosexual Law Reform Bill, a landmark triumph in queer history and rights.

    Who carried this movement in ways history hasn’t fully named? What can community memory tell us that official records cannot? What responsibilities come with remembering–and retelling–these stories today?

    We will also be celebrating the launch of Kawe Mahara’s new Queer History resource, KAMP: Knowledge And Memory Pack, and learn how to get involved with Kawe Mahara’s various queer history mahi.

    Featuring the wonderful Linda Evans, Gavin Young, De'Anne Jackson, and Vernon Tile Vamaua!

    Please join us for the conversation and some kai. The event is free but seats are limited, so to RVSP please fill out this form: Untold Stories Registration.

    Thistle Hall is wheelchair accessible.

  • Online and In Person Working Bees: Transcribing Homosexual Law Reform Submissions and Their Finding Aids
    Various dates June through August 2026 planned so far

    Kawe Mahara is embarking on a new project to digitise the 989 submissions made to Parliament duding the Homosexual Law Reform campaign of 1985 and 1986. We are also digitising the finding aids prepared by Phil Parkinson that index submissions and hundreds of other letters of support and opposition. This work helps us identify and make available for students and researchers submissions sent from particular localities in New Zealand.

    The submissions and finding aids, once digitised as high resolution images and PDFs, will have an optical chracter recognition (OCR) process run over them to generate text, but that text is not 100% accurate and will need correction of the typos by volunteers. You compare the picture of a page on the left of the browser window with the extracted text at the right, and make any corrections in the text box at the right.

    Some submissions were handwritten and will need direct transcription.

    We use a fun, easy to use and free tool called From the Page for that and it is a great way for volunteers to connect with artifacts from this important period in history in Aotearoa New Zealand.

    Several online Zoom demo sessions are planned. We also plan to run some in person working bees in Wellington, and also for the first time in Ōtepoti Dunedin at the Hocken Library on Fri 24 and Sat 25 July.

    The transcription work in From the Page will take three to six months, depending on how many volunteers get involved.

    Kawe Mahara is using its support from GiveOUT Day 2025 run by the Rainbow New Zealand Charitable Trust to arrange events outside Wellington. So we are keen to hear from other community groups and archives or libraries outside Wellington who would like to collaborate on a HLR submissions transcription working bee from mid-July through to October 2026.

    Contact Gavin Hamilton at gavin.laganz@gmail.com or 021 0200 7913 to register your interest.

    Note: See schedule of volunteer activities for the specific Online (Zoom) and In Person transcription working bees that are planned.
  • Thursday Drop-in Sessions for Volunteers
    Every Thu, 7pm-7.30pm via Zoom
  • And the schedule of volunteer activities.

Previous events

  • Rainbow Rewind Queer History Month Quiz
    Wed 9 Jul 2025, 7pm doors, 7.30pm quiz - Thistle Hall, 293 Cuba St, Wellington

    We celebrated Aotearoa Queer History Month – Pūmahara Ia Te Wā with our very first queer history quiz: Rainbow Rewind!
    Prizes for quiz champs and best dressed! All queer fam and allies welcome.

  • Queer History Month Weekday Index Cards Working Bee at National Library
    Tues 15 Jul 2025, 9.30pm-12.30pm (changed from 1pm-4.30pm, Level 1, National Library, 70 Molesworth St, Wellington

    A hands-on working bee with the Kawe Mahara card catalogue where volunteers helped check the physical typewritten catalogue index cards against their digitised equivalents. Our scanned and digitised index card data sometimes has typos or missing or unclear details as a result of the optical character recognition (OCR) process.
  • Book Launch: That's What I Am: Oral Histories of Older Lesbians by Lois Cox
    Unity Books, 57 Willis St, Wellington - Weds 6 May
    Lois's book draws on oral history interviews conducted in the late 1990s with sixteen New Zealand lesbians over the age of 50. It tells the women's stories through the decades, capturing memories of childhood, adolescence and early adulthood, falling in love and establishing relationships. The storytellers talk of navigating identity and social stigma and forging connections in Wellington's evolving lesbian community. Together, their lives paint a vivid portrait of resilience and solidarity. This book, based on the Older Lesbians Oral History Project, is now published for the first time.
    A vital document for the history of lesbian communities in twentieth century New Zealand, it is a must-read for anyone interested in lesbian lives over time, feminist studies or queer history.
  • Queer History Month Aotearoa — Pūmahara Ia Te Wā 2024 hui taumata (in conjunction with National Library)
    Tues 9 Jul 2024, 9am - 4:10pm

    To celebrate Aotearoa's first Queer History Month Pūmahara Ia Te Wā come to our hui taumata. Hear from queer researchers, historians and activists about the importance of preserving and sharing Aotearoa's iconic, fragile and undershared queer histories. Join us at the Library or online.

  • Metadata 7 - LAGANZ Digital Archive Project - Online Workshop
    Wed 21 Sep 2022, 7pm-8pm, via Zoom
  • Out of the ashes: Celebrating queer histories
    Thu 15 Sep 2022, 5.30pm-8pm.
    Taiwhanga Kauhau — Auditorium, (lower ground), National Library, Wellington. Entrance on Aitken Street.
    Light refreshments will be served from 5:30pm.
    Event is also being live streamed online (register on the National Library website to receive the link).

    The Lesbian and Gay Archives of New Zealand Te Pūranga Takatāpui o Aotearoa was born as a Trust in 1992. Join us as we mark four major queer anniversaries in Aotearoa, celebrate all that we have achieved over the last 30 years, and consider all that we have yet to achieve.

    Mark major queer anniversaries with us!

    The National Gay Rights Coalition Resource Centre was born 45 years ago, in 1977, and the Lesbian and Gay Archives of New Zealand Te Pūranga Takatāpui o Aotearoa (LAGANZ) was formed 30 years ago, in 1992.

    Haere mai! and celebrate all that we have achieved throughout these queer milestones, and consider all that we have yet to achieve.

    We would also love to celebrate with you 60 years since the formation of The Dorian Society in Pōneke, and 50 years since the formation of the Gay Liberation Front across Aotearoa. Come along and hear from queer folk involved in these radical organisations.

    Launching the third volume of The Archive is Alive

    And there's more! We’re also launching the third volume of The Archive is Alive — a zine created by and for queer rangatahi and their histories and tīpuna.

    Phoenix and flames graphic designed for the Out of the Ashes event.
    Image designed by Huriana Kopeke-Te Aho.
  • LAGANZ presence at the Queer Arts Festival (Queer AF), Te Whanganui-a-Tara|Wellington
    Mon 30 May 2022 - Sun 5 Jun, Wellington
  • Fundraising Ideas into Action - LAGANZ Digital Archive Project - Online Workshop
    Sat 14 May 2022, 10am-Noon, via Zoom
  • Metadata Framework 4 - LAGANZ Digital Archive Project - Online Workshop
    Wed 18 May 2022, 7pm-8pm, via Zoom
  • Community Update - LAGANZ Digital Archive Project - Public Meeting
    Sat 9 Apr 2022, 10am-Noon, National Library, Wellington
  • Community Update - LAGANZ Digital Archive Project - Online Forum via Zoom
    Wed 13 Apr 2022, 7pm-8pm, via Zoom
  • Fundraising Ideas - LAGANZ Digital Archive Project - Online Workshop
    Sat 19 Mar 2022, 10am-Noon, via Zoom
  • Metadata Framework - LAGANZ Digital Archive Project - Online Workshop
    Wed 23 Mar 2022, 7pm-8pm, via Zoom
  • Website Redevelopment - LAGANZ Digital Archive Project - Online Workshop
    Sat 2 Apr 2022, 10am-Noon, via Zoom
  • LAGANZ Digital Archive Project - Online Forum - Wed 27 Oct, 7pm-8pm, via Zoom
    More details: Digital Archive Project
  • LAGANZ Digital Archive Project - Public Meeting - Wed 20 Oct, 5.30pm-7pm
    Tiakiwai Seminar Room, Lower Ground Floor - National Library, entrance off Aitken St, Wellington
    More details: Digital Archive Project
  • Gender matters in writing (National Library website) - Mon 16 Aug , 5.30pm-7pm, Taiwhanga Kauhau - Auditorium, National Library, Aitken St, Wellington - A panel discussion hosted by Sam Orchard celebrating transgender and non-binary writers in New Zealand and focusing on the complexities and beauty of writing about gender. A collaboration with the New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA) and Alexander Turnbull Library.
    More on the National Library website
  • Index Cards Transcribathon (Saturday 10 July to Saturday 24 July) - A fun series of online events (Zoom sessions) during the two week Transcribathon involving volunteers across New Zealand. You can help us transcribe (correct) the text on over 5000 catalogue index cards that have been digitised and need the optical character recognition (OCR) text corrected. All contributions large or small are welcome. Find out more!
  • Rainbow Wellington at the Archives (3 November 2020) - A joint event with Rainbow Wellington - LAGANZ curator Linda Evans and Roger Swanson (a trustee) introduced the Archives, present selected items from its collections and talk about the Archives' digitisation plans and longer-term goal of commissioning an online digital archive platform.
  • Rainbow Wellington at the Archives (7 June 2018) - A joint event with Rainbow Wellington - LAGANZ curator Linda Evans and Roger Swanson (a trustee) introduced the Archives and presented selected items from its collections.
  • 2015 Queer History Month: Queer History in the Making: A Show and Tell Community Event (12 September 2015)
  • Book Launch - Perfectly Natural: The Audacious Story of Iris Florence Peter Williams by Julie Glamuzina (29 October 2014)
  • Talk - 'Portrayals of LGBT issues in New Zealand political cartoons, 2004-2014' by Valerie Love (30 April 2014)
  • 2014 Queer History Month - Speakers Mani Mitchell & Mark Hutchins-Pond (24 September 2014)
  • 2013 Queer History Month - Tours of Archives New Zealand (10, 28 September 2013)
  • Wellington 2011, 2nd Asia Pacific Outgames Human Rights Conference (16 - 18 March 2011)
  • An Afternoon at the Archives (28 November 2012)
  • Wellington Queer History Walks (28 February, 1 March 2009; 23 & 24 January 2010) - Hugh Young and Alison Laurie began their Queer Walks as part of the Devotion, the annual queer festival in Wellington during the 1990s, including a Parade and a Dance Party. Though Devotion faded from the scene (and is today part of our queer history’), the Walks were revived for Pride 09. There is a programme from a Devotion tour available on queerhistory.net.nz Monthly LGBTI walk tours in the Wellington CBD are now offered by Walk Tours NZ
  • 20 Years On - Homosexual Law Reform Conference (1 & 2 December 2006), National Library, Wellington
  • What Are You Afraid Of? Photographic Exhibition - LAGANZ organised, with David Hindley, a photographic exhibition celebrating the 20th anniversary of the homosexual law reform bill. It was shown in Wellington, Aucklend and Christchurch.
  • Out Takes 2006 (2 June 2006) - Drinks and nibbles for Friends of LAGANZ at the Out Takes 2006: A Reel Queer Film Festival screening of Susan Stryker's documentary Screaming Queens: The Riot At Compton's Cafeteria.
  • "Outlines: Lesbian and gay histories of Aotearoa" (15 December 2005) - Launch event in Wellington of the 'Outlines' book which included some papers from the Outlines conference held in 2003.
  • Out Takes 2005 (11 June 2005) - Screening of The Hidden History of Homosexual Australia.
  • Out Takes 2004 Wellington screening of No Secret Anymore!: The Times Of Del Martin & Phyllis Lyon (6 June 2004) -
  • Screening of documentary film Formerly Known As James Mack (21 September 2003) - A benefit screening for LAGANZ of Marian Evans' documentary film about Galvan Macnamara ("Formerly Known As James Mack", later issued as "Sister Galvan") which was part of the Women's Film Festival (18 - 21 September) coinciding with the 110th anniversary of women's suffrage in New Zealand. There is more information here, and links to videoclips on youtube in an article on the wellywoodwoman blog.
  • Outlines Conference: Lesbian and Gay History in New Zealand (15 - 16 February 2003)
  • Outlines: Lesbian and Gay Liberation in the 1970s Exhibition (November 2002 - March 2003)

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Last updated: 24 May 2026

Kawe Mahara Queer Archives Aotearoa formerly Lesbian and Gay Archives of New Zealand Te Pūranga Takatāpui o Aotearoa (LAGANZ)
Alexander Turnbull Library, 70 Molesworth St, Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND

Curator Tel: +64 4 462 3972 | Trust Secretary Mob: +64 27 444 3961

curators@laganz.org.nz | facebook.com/kawemahara | instagram.com/kawemahara