For Auckland Pride 2025, we've worked with Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland Museum and designer Marc Conaco to create Party & Protest, an exhibition of photographs from the museum's archives that look back on two pivotal decades of queer activism in the city.
Our exhibition for Auckland Pride 2025 delves into the photographic archives at Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland Museum to provide close-up views of two pivotal decades of LGBTQI+ activism.
Late last year, we worked with Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland Museum's Tumu Whakarae Chief Executive David Reeves and Curator Pictorial Shaun Higgins on the idea of creating an exhibition that reminded people of the decades of collective advocacy, protest and, yes, partying that forged a path towards greater queer liberation. Graphic designer Marc Conaco helped select these images and translate them into a striking presentation for our Pavilion Panels on Te Ara Tahuhu and Galway Street.
The title of the exhibition, Party & Protest, came from David as we reviewed the archives, prompted by the realisation that, while protests were an obvious tool to agitate for queer rights, parties were also powerful statements of pride and visibility that helped to instigate change and greater acceptance.
The photographs that make up the exhibition came from two tranches of photographs in the museum's archives: Gil Hanly's tireless documentation of protest actions in the 1980s, particularly those related to the battle for Homosexual Law Reform, as well as the parades of the 1990s and early 2000s; and Becky Nunes's photographs of early Hero parties, the groundbreaking statements of gay and lesbian pride held amid the wreckage of the AIDs crisis in the early 1990s.
The photographs on the panels created by Marc are carefully cropped to fit their tall, slender frames, and colour-graded to create a subtle rainbow gradient across the exhibition. Here, we present the photographs uncropped and with their original colour tones.
Our thanks to Marc, David, Shaun and the team at Auckland Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira, and our gratitude to photographers Gil and Becky for their generosity and thoughtfulness in creating these images and ensuring they are now kept in the museum's very safe hands.
Pride is a time for reflecting on the struggle for queer rights – which in 1980s New Zealand was part of an intersecting range of activist causes. These causes included opposition to the 1981 Springbok rugby tour, French nuclear testing in the Pacific, and protesting government plans to privately develop Ngāti Whātua land at Takaparawhau/Bastion Point. In the image above, demonstrators at a 1982 Pacific Peace hui in Aotea Square gather before continuing their protest at the French Consulate in Princes Street. Photograph by Gil Hanly, Auckland Museum PH-2015-2-GH267-21A.
The struggle for queer rights became more vocal and visible in the 1980s in Auckland, with more groups formed, meetings held, publications launched and changes demanded. The Topp Twins (above), who were gaining an international reputation for their music, were significant figures in the struggle for women’s rights and queer liberation. Their songs also addressed other political issues, including Māori land rights at Bastion Point and the effort to make New Zealand nuclear free. Here, they are performing at a 1982 women’s concert at Outreach in Auckland. Photograph above by Gil Hanly. Auckland Museum PH-2015-2-GH160-17.
In mid-1980s New Zealand, queer activism was intensely focused on the Homosexual Law Reform Bill. Sex between men had been legally regarded as an unnatural offence since 1893. The 1980s law reform was proposed during the earlier stages of the AIDS crisis; opponents of the bill claimed decriminalisation of homosexual acts would result in a faster spread of HIV, while advocates argued the bill would allow more openness and a better public health response. In the photograph above, activists protest at a faith healing centre on the North Shore in 1985; the Homosexual Law Reform Bill successfully passed into legislation in July 1986. Photograph above by Gil Hanly. Auckland Museum PH-2015-2-GH1059-6A.
A protest sign saying ‘God’s Gay too!’ sums up one of the flashpoints in the movement for Homosexual Law Reform in New Zealand in the mid-1980s. Opponents of homosexual law reform often used moral and religious arguments against homosexuality, saying it was condemned in the Bible. They received support from well-known international campaigners against homosexuality, and eventually presented a petition to Parliament that they claimed had over 800,000 signatures in opposition to the bill (the petition was later rejected for various irregularities, including several signatures being written in the same hand). The photograph above shows an activist at a protest at a faith healing centre on Auckland’s North Shore in 1985. Photograph by Gil Hanly. Auckland Museum PH-2015-2-GH1036-7A.
The battle for Homosexual Law Reform in the 1980s was intense and acrimonious. Opponents were passionate and well-organised, but gay activists and their supporters were too. While sex between women was never illegal, this didn’t mean lesbian women were free from harassment or discrimination. This and other factors led a broad coalition of groups to support Homosexual Law Reform, including the Gay Task Force, New Zealand Homosexual Law Reform Society, Heterosexuals Unafraid of Gays (HUG), the Campaign for Homosexual Equality and the Lesbian Coalition. These groups protested in different ways: they circulated information, organised marches and rallies, and disrupted anti-law-reform meetings. The photograph above was taken at a Gay and Lesbian Night March in support of the bill in Auckland in 1985. Photograph by Gil Hanly. Auckland Museum PH-2015-2-GH1092-11A.
In 1980s New Zealand, many gay and lesbian groups assumed the Homosexual Law Reform Bill would be a short campaign confined to Parliament, but it erupted into a national debate and took 16 acrimonious months to wind its way through Parliament. The reforms eventually passed into law in 1986 by a narrow margin of 49 votes to 44, but not as they were initially envisaged: a second part of the bill that would have removed discrimination based on sexuality was rejected, leaving these matters unresolved until the Human Rights Act of 1993. The photograph above was taken at a Gay and Lesbian Night March in 1985. Photograph by Gil Hanly. Auckland Museum PH-2015-2-GH1092-27A.
The gay liberation movement had fired up in New Zealand over a decade before the Homosexual Law Reform Bill was considered by Parliament in 1985. In 1972, the lesbian activist Ngāhuia Te Awekōtuku had been denied a visa to study in the United States on the grounds of “sexual deviance”. She responded by founding the country’s first gay liberation group and leading a protest at Albert Park which attracted television cameras and jeering onlookers. Other liberation groups followed, forming the National Gay Rights Coalition in 1977 and finding common cause in supporting the Homosexual Law Reform Bill. The photograph above was taken at a Lesbian and Gay Night March in 1985. Photograph by Gil Hanly. Auckland Museum PH-2015-2-GH1092-8A.
One of the startling things about the 1980s campaign for Homosexual Law Reform in New Zealand is that gay men advocating for the reforms were essentially outing themselves as criminals. But they were supported by a wide range of other groups who believed the existing laws were an outdated Victorian-era hangover. Some of this support came from lesbian groups, whose relationships were not technically illegal, but who argued that all same-sex relationships had criminal associations unless the law was changed. Many of these groups continued to lobby for the prohibition of discrimination based on sexual orientation, which was finally enshrined in the Human Rights Act of 1993. The photograph above is of a Gay and Lesbian Night March in 1985. Photograph by Gil Hanly. Auckland Museum PH-2015-2-GH1093-21.
In recent history, parties and protests have been of equal importance in the struggle for queer rights. In Auckland in the early 1990s, the Hero parties and parades were a response to a question in the midst of the AIDS crisis: would creating events that fostered a strong sense of community and pride also help keep people safe? Hero’s events were grounded in sadness at the loss of so many lives to AIDS, but they were also celebratory, unapologetic and fun – a positive claim to queer identity. The photograph above is from one of the first Hero parties on Princes Wharf in 1992, an event that attracted thousands of revellers. Auckland Museum PH-2020-2-7-2-27-6A.
In the history of queer activism in Auckland, the 1992 Hero party on Auckland’s Princes Wharf is a shining light. Billed as ‘the ultimate gay dance party’, the event was put together by more than 250 volunteers. It opened with a karanga and morphed into a theatrical production coordinated by Warwick Broadhead that included spotlit drag performers, huge glitter balls and dancer and choreographer Michael Parmenter soaring over the crowd on a trapeze. “I remember it as a pretty incredible celebration of freak-flag flying in the face of bigotry, and a great party,” Becky Nunes, the photographer who took the image above, told Public Address. The photograph above is by Becky Nunes. Auckland Museum PH-2020-2-7-2-30-31A.
Queer celebrations didn’t get much bigger than Auckland’s 2001 Hero Parade, which attracted as many as 200,000 spectators to Ponsonby Road on a drizzly night to cheer extravagant floats and scantily clad marching boys (above). Prime Minister Helen Clark cut the ribbon to start the parade, and Georgina Beyer scattered glitter mixed with the ashes of the drag queen Courtney, who’d died of cancer some time before. There were bewigged Dusty Springfield impersonators, rugby players and Tepid Baths swimmers. Despite all the fabulousness, the parade organisers made a financial loss, and the parade wasn’t to return for several years. The photograph above is by Gil Hanly. Auckland Museum PH-2015-2-GH-B402-27
Queer activists have often been larger than life, none more so than Carmen Rupe (1936-2011, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Hauā, Ngāti Heke-a-Wai), pictured in silver sequins in the photograph above at the 2001 Hero Parade. Carmen was a transgender woman who was also a performer, sex worker, business owner – of the famed Carmen’s International Coffee Lounge in Wellington, among others – and anti-discrimination activist. She was born in Taumarunui in 1936 and moved to Sydney in the late 1950s, where she became Australia’s first Māori drag performer. She relocated to Wellington in the late 1960s, where she joined Whina Cooper on the steps of Parliament at the end of the 1975 Land March and ran for the mayoralty in 1977. Her high profile helped reshape public attitudes towards gay and transgender people. The photograph above is by Gil Hanly. Auckland Museum PH-2015-2-GH-B403-15.
The history of queer activist celebrations in Auckland isn’t without its rough patches. In the 2001 Hero Parade, there was glitter and glamour on the surface, with financial problems lurking underneath. These financial problems soon led to Hero’s organising trust being wound up; Ponsonby wouldn’t see another parade like it for over a decade. Parade participants in 2001 didn’t know this was coming, of course, so the parade was as buoyant as ever, with extravagant floats, fire-breathers, straight allies such as Mikey Havoc and Newsboy, Green Party co-leader Rod Donald and Prime Minister Helen Clark, as well as rainbow families and a lesbian pirate ship. The photograph above is by Gil Hanly. Auckland Museum PH-2015-2-GH-B403-21.
Pride & Protest is on display in Britomart's Te Ara Tahuhu and Galway Street (between Commerce and Gore Streets) from February 1 until the second week of March. Visit Auckland Pride for more information on other events in the festival.
