Ngahuia te Awekotuku
For inquiry we have learnt about the past so I decided to make a speech about one person that has changed it to make a more accepting world.
The word’s “Gay” and “Lesbian” are things that are normalised in this world but they were not always that way.
People were made fun of, those words were considered wrong and people used them as mean names. Even now-a-day people still use them to make other people feel bad and I think that nobody should be shamed for who they are. Ngahuia te Awekotuku started the first Gay Liberation in New Zealand. That means she made a group for Gay and Lesbian rights and for them to be treated properly, you’d have to be pretty brave to do that as it was against the law.
Apart of inquiry we have been learning about the past. I was disgusted to find out that people had thought of women at a lower scale. I was researching about women that have shaped Aotearoa and Ngahuia te Awekotuku really stood out to me. I chose Ngahuia because of what she has done for the world. Doing these things were illegal but she still fought hard and still wanted everybody to be treated right no matter who they love.
Ngahuia grew up in a ferociously feminist family in Rotorua, she went to Rotorua Primary School. Her original name was Ngahuia Lofftly that changed to te Awekotuku when she graduated from Auckland University with a MA (Master Arts) of School of Maori and Pacific Development, she must have worked really hard!
Her big forms of activism started in 1960 she wrote the first openly homosexual book from New Zealand, it’s called Tahuri, this book is about two girls growing up together they found out that they were lesbian. In the 1960’s this was considered an outrage. That is amazing for an average person to write such a shaping book.
A group of girls including her thought that their posters were not gaining much attention, so they decided to create a fake funeral to get some people to notice. They talked about how all women want to be treated the same and that we have not moved forward since 1893 when we got the right to vote. They thought right and lots of News stations saw, many people thought twice on New Zealand’s choices.
I believe that Ngahuia te Awekotuku changed New Zealand for the better, she is a very big inspiration to me because she showed resilience like when people shot her down she built back up, when people sent her homophobic letters she built back up and even when people threaten her she built back up. I am truly thankful for her and her mindset. Ngahuia shaped New Zealand.
How to pronounce her name
Nga-hu-i-a te A-we-ko-tu-ku