Dunedin Pride Festival 2018

We did it! Q Squared Trust and the Pride Committee bring you the Dunedin Pride Festival 2018, the largest Pride celebration for Dunedin yet! From a dance party at New New New, to poetry, art and film-screenings, there is something for all ages to enjoy.

We are also excited to host The Pride Hub on 23 Princes Street, which is supported by Letting Space’s Urban Dream Brokerage with funding from Dunedin City Council. A welcoming space to visit, the Pride Hub will be decked-out with a pop-up queer library, spare Pride programmes, and other queer-focused resources. The Hub’s main attraction, however, is the week-long Pride Art Exhibition and interactive community artwork, all housed in the centre of the city.

Both the Q Squared Trust and the Pride Committee are comprised entirely of voluntary members, brought together in their efforts to recognize and celebrate diverse identities, and to create safer spaces and support networks for Dunedin LGBTQIA+ locals. Three of these wonderful volunteers, Sarah, Ann and Ella, share what pride means to them.

Sarah Baird is a queer feminist artist with a MFA from the Dunedin School of Art and has been busy curating our week-long art exhibition. Our art exhibition is open to a diverse range of artists from as young as 13 years of age and includes experienced professional artists such as Ari Edgecombe, the Curator of Visual Arts at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery.

In addition to the art exhibition, Sarah has built a drawing machine that will draw the pride logo on small posters in the Pride Hub space for people to colour in and add to our pride wall. The drawing machine is an Arduino powered open-source DIY creation. A marker pen attached to two motors draws a predetermined image via code sent to the Arduino from a computer. As the drawing machine is an open-source project, printed information sheets will be available on how it's made so interested people can build their own.

Sarah became involved in Dunedin Pride Festival 2018 to help build the visibility our LGBTQIA+ community as Sarah states, this was “something that was not around when I was growing up in Dunedin.”  

Ann Charlotte describes Pride as a time to celebrate the wonderful talents and diversity in our LGBTQIA+ communities. It's an opportunity to show we're out and proud and no longer afraid to take our rightful place in the world. Ann is a retired community member and Q Squared Trust board member who has worked tirelessly for the pride committee. Ann has organised the Wild Women Walk, Coming Out Stories, DIY baby making seminar, Thin Edge of Wedge Film Screening and, last but not least: ‘Queer As...LGBTQIA writers tell it how it is.’

Ann didn't come out until 1985 but talking to lesbian friends over many years, she said that life was often very difficult and scary. In families, schools, workplaces, churches and on the street, lesbians were vilified. Ann believes the freedom to be ourselves and love whom we choose along with more positive portrayal of lesbians in the media and movies since the 1990s have supported ongoing changes in attitudes.

Ella, who organised the poetry competition and pride poetry evening, states that one of the most important resources for her as a young person was the presence of LGBTQIA+ characters and voices in fiction and poetry. In addition, Ella found creative writing an important avenue for exploring and expressing her identity. For Ella, Pride is not just a chance to celebrate sexuality and gender diversity but a time to remember those individuals who fought for acceptance and legal rights. Pride is also a time to acknowledge that LGBTQIA+ identifying people still face discrimination, isolation and violence in New Zealand, and it is important to continue to be open and proud about who we are, to let others know they're not alone.

The Q Squared Trust Pride Committee knows it has room to improve, and we’d like your help to do so! We want the Dunedin Pride Festival to grow, both in size and inclusivity. We want to build connections with various communities already established in the city, and attract more Trust members as we move forward. Come and check out this year’s programme and then give us your feedback, we’re all ears! Let us know what you’d like to see next at the next Pride and what Pride means to you. A feedback form will be available after the festival on www.facebook.com/DunedinPride/, or drop in and find us at the Pride Hub or one of the many awesome events we’ve got in store, see you there!