The Heritage of Kawe Mahara Queer Archives Aotearoa

Dr Hansen talks us through the past, present and future of Kawe Mahara Queer Archives Aotearoa, and the important services it provides for the community. The collections are presently housed in the Alexander Turnbull Library in Pōneke, under the ownership and care of a charitable trust of the same name and open to the public and researchers to view on request. Check out the compelling interview below.

When was Kawe Mahara Queer Archives Aotearoa founded and by whom? Can you give me a brief history of the Trust as you understand it and why it was founded?

Kawe Mahara was founded way back in 1977 – originally as the Resource Centre for the National Gay Rights Coalition. The Coalition, formed in January 1977, comprised 30+ queer organisations who united under the Coalition's banner in order to improve coordination and strategy. The Resource Centre provided resources supporting these organisations' activities, acting as a repository of information about queer identity, history and culture at a time when such information was scarce. It quickly became obvious to the Centre's curators that huge amounts of invaluable material would be lost if it was not actively preserved! The Centre stepped up to fulfil this archival role, becoming an autonomous trust known as the Lesbian and Gay Rights Resource Centre in 1984. The Resource Centre was a vital asset in the fight against HIV/AIDS, collecting and disseminating information about the virus and safe sex, and was an important place of research and writing during the homosexual law reform campaign.

On 11 September 1986 – mere weeks after Parliament voted to decriminalise homosexuality – arsonists attacked the Resource Centre at its location on Boulcott Street. Remarkably few materials were destroyed outright, though charred edges, soot and smoke damage was common. In the aftermath of the attack, the Alexander Turnbull Library provided space for a team to clean, dry and reorganise evacuated materials. An agreement was signed in March 1988 that the Resource Centre's collections would be permanently housed in the Alexander Turnbull Library, while remaining in the ownership of a trust board acting on behalf of queer communities. This trust became the Lesbian and Gay Archives of New Zealand | Te Pūranga Takatāpui o Aotearoa.

In 2023 the trust was renamed to more fully reflect the diverse communities and collections in our care, becoming Kawe Mahara Queer Archives Aotearoa. Kawe means "to carry, convey, bear" and mahara means "memory, recollection, knowledge". Kawe Mahara means we will carry the memories of our queer communities from the past, present and into the future.

How many records do you hold? What is their scope?

We collect, preserve and make available for research the records and personal papers of queer and takatāpui people and organisations in Aotearoa New Zealand. Our collections are focused on people who identify with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, gender expressions and innate variations of sex characteristics.

Kawe Mahara holds a huge array of records, with the majority being paper-based: including community newspapers, magazines, letters, books, pamphlets, newspaper clippings, and other manuscripts. We also care for collections of photographs, audio and video tapes, posters, badges, t-shirts, stickers, and a sizable number of condoms!

Kawe Mahara is also embarking on a project to commission a digital archive that will enable us to collect, manage, digitise, preserve and provide online access to the rich materials we hold for Aotearoa’s queer communities. We need to establish funding and capability to not only commission the digital archive, but sustain it over the long-term – so, donations and volunteers are always welcome!

Are there particular collections that resonate with you?

Too many to list! As a queer transgender man myself, being able to commune with these queer archives is always such a meaningful experience – no matter how many times I do it!

The various Gay Liberation Front collections really resonate with me. The Gay Liberation movement kicked off in Aotearoa in 1972, and their demand for universal sexual self-determination and desire for a revolution overturning patriarchal and other oppressive power structures is something we are still struggling towards today. Through Kawe Mahara's gay liberation archives, I learnt that transgender people were a part of gay liberation groups from the very beginning, and that the movement considered binary gender roles to be a part of sexist oppression. Knowing that trans communities were part of one of this country's most important queer social movements has critical implications, in a world where trans communities are actively under attack, and our histories constantly being erased! I also enjoyed learning about the gay liberationists who were also unionists and socialists, and how they understood capitalism and sexism as intertwined systems of oppression.

What can Kawe Mahara Queer Archives Aotearoa give to those with a passion for, or interest in, heritage?

There are many ways to be involved in our mahi! We are always in need of volunteers for all sorts of tasks, including processing donations of new materials. We also have frequent events, so be sure to follow us on social media or join our mailing list to find out when we’ve got something on. We have also recently released KAMP: Knowledge and Memory Pack, a free resource available on our website, to help people create and run their own queer history events.

Whether you’re queer or not, connecting with Kawe Mahara to help us preserve queer histories is a contribution towards enriching the stories of Aotearoa’s past more broadly. I see the repression and erasure of queer histories as part of the oppression of queer people – and thus, the protection and promotion of queer histories as a means of fighting back against those who continue to try and silence us.

On a more personal level, I believe that for queer people, connecting with queer archives and history can be a really empowering experience. Kawe Mahara works towards helping queer people feel this sense of belonging to a collective greater than oneself.

Do you see the relationship between archives and heritage as symbiotic, both working together to preserve and honour the past and keep important stories and histories alive?

Absolutely! I think archives and heritage are best when working hand-in-hand. I think of Gareth Watkins’ and Roger Smith’s Rainbow Walk Tours, which embodies this symbiotic relationship perfectly. If you haven’t been on one of their tours, I would highly recommend checking them out – they run free tours on the first Sunday of every month that explore the queer histories associated with different sites throughout Wellington. As they stop along different sites of queer heritage, they bring out reproductions of archival images and read from archival sources and oral history interviews, giving participants such an incredible insight into the queer past.

I think too of Pouhere Taonga Heritage New Zealand's Rainbow List Project – Kerryn Pollock has done such incredible archival research into the locations on the list, bringing their queer histories to light! Sometimes the Rainbow List places are significant primarily because of their queer story, but other times the queer story is only one part of the parcel – and this too is important, because such stories show that queer histories are not some separate entity, but are part of entwined histories of Aotearoa. These place-based histories are so significant, they really ground queer history in the material world, the living world, and elevate that sense of belonging.

Archives and heritage – a queer love story!

Participants in Kawe Mahara and Wellington Zinefest’s 2021 collaborative workshop, holding the pages they created for The Archive is Alive Vol 2: The Gender Woo Woo zine. 14 March 2021.

Dr Will Hansen showing some posters and ephemera from the collections of Kawe Mahara to Aniwa Whaiapu Koloamatangi, host of the Whakaata Māori television series Queer + Here in 2022.

Kawe Mahara’s 2024 trustees at the inaugural Queer History Month event. 9 July 2024.

A collage made by Dr Will Hansen, using materials from the Kawe Mahara collections – the collage was used as the cover page for the first Archive is Alive zine.