We are growing our community skills to help gather, protect and share our communities’ stories.
- Renaming the Boat Shed Lawn
- Puke Ariki LGBTQIA+ Archive
- Oral & Video History Project
- Internship with Te Herenga Wake Victoria University
On the 27 May 2024 Pride Taranaki submitted to the NPDC Long Term Plan requesting to rename the Boatshed Lawn in Pukekura Park.
The Boatshed Lawn is a significant space for the Rainbow Community in Taranaki, there is a Memorial Plaque and a Kowhai Tree which records the first death in New Zealand from HIV Aids.
Since May 2024 Pride Taranaki have consulted with the community to settle on a new name. This is ongoing and we hope to be able to announce and celebrate this with a special event in 2026.
The official resolution reads:
C/2024/048 Council Resolution (clause d)) Mayor Holdom ) Cr Carlson Matthews )
That Council approve: d) The renaming of the Boat Shed Lawn in Pukekura Park with the name to be determined by Pride Taranaki in conjunction with Council and Ngāti Te Whiti, supported with appropriate signage from existing budgets. Carried.
In 2025 Pride Taranaki continued discussions with Puke Ariki with the intention of building a Rainbow Archive, we are pleased to announce that we have formalised this relationship and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with New Plymouth District Council
Pride Taranaki & Puke Ariki will work together to establish, develop and promote a Taranaki based LGBTQIA+ archive. The joint project will focus on collecting, preserving and providing access to materials that reflect the rich and until now untold stories, lives, histories and contributions of the LGBTQIA+ communities in Taranaki. Pride Taranaki begins this process by collecting audio and video spoken histories and stories. A number of remarkable individuals have strong links to Taranaki and have made important contributions to the changing social fabric of life nationally and locally. Stories will initially focus on individuals such as Lew Pryme, Georgina Beyer, Vivian Hutchinson and Fiona Clark. Other focuses will include the History of New Plymouth Prison and generally life and times throughout the 20th Century including early activism and support groups that date from the 1970’s.
The revelations of these stories will support and validate the LGBTQIA+ community currently in Taranaki and honour those from our past who made groundbreaking contributions into shaping the understanding and support our community enjoys in 2025.
Pride Taranaki is keen to find your stories….. In November 2025 five representatives of the Rainbow Community were able to participate in an Oral History Workshop conducted by Lynette from the National Library. This was a joint initiative with Puke Ariki and included staff and other members of the New Plymouth Community. The New Plymouth Community Development fund is also supporting the collection of three Video Histories each year for the next three years; these will be available on out website as well as the Puke Ariki LGBTQIA+ Archive.
Pride Taranaki is interested to learn our history, those that went before us and helped us create the changing society and attitudes we enjoy today. We believe that knowing our stories that “we have always been here” is an important validation of our Rainbow Community. Through some fundraising and kind donations we are able to fund a Research Intern from Te Herenga Waka Victoria University for 13 weeks over the summer of 2025/26. Onjie Bond has agreed to undertake this work and to research the institutions, museums and national collections in Wellington. We expect this will uncover many new stories, the colonial NZ Government is so good and recording information and events. In 2026 Onjie will report back and make a presentation for the public at Puke Ariki, perhaps during Pride Week 10-19 April 2026.