Out On These Streets: Pride In Place Podcast Series Launched

To celebrate this year’s Queer History Month Aotearoa Pūmahara Ia Te Wā in July, PrideNZ has teamed up with Walk Tours NZ to record a podcast series on how to create and run community LGBTQIA+ Rainbow walk tours.

From the spark of an idea to the final steps on the street, the podcast series titled Out On These Streets dives into each stage of the walk tour process – shaping meaningful narratives, navigating promotion and participation, and reflecting on the powerful moments that unfold during the tours.

Roger Smith, co-founder of Walk Tours NZ, said, “For the last eight years, we’ve run over 100 free community walk tours highlighting Wellington’s rich Rainbow heritage. The new podcast series is a great way to capture what we’ve learnt and to encourage others to give it a go and create their own tours.” Smith continues, “We weren’t professional historians or seasoned guides when we began – but we had passion and energy, and we’d been inspired by earlier walk tours run by Hugh Young and Dr Alison Laurie.”

Founder of PrideNZ and co-founder of Walk Tours NZ, Gareth Watkins, adds, “We’re thrilled to be producing the series during Queer History Month Aotearoa Pūmahara Ia Te Wā – a celebration of queer history each July, led by Kawe Mahara Queer Archives Aotearoa.”

A new episode of Out On These Streets will drop each Tuesday during Queer History Month and will culminate in the production of a free written resource to help others tell their own histories through community walk tours.

Gareth Watkins reflects, “I’m reminded of a placard held high during this year’s Wellington Pride Parade: ‘Hate is not our Destiny.’ I think everyone has a responsibility to create and nurture the type of society we want to live in. For Walk Tours NZ, that’s about creating spaces where we can celebrate, honour, and uphold the mana of our Rainbow whakapapa.”

Listen to the podcast series here:

https://www.pridenz.com/out_on_these_streets.html

And join the next free community walk tour exploring Carmen Rupe’s fabulous Wellington. Register here for the walk on Sunday 6 July: https://walktoursnz.wordpress.com/book/

“People don’t leave with a head full of dates; they leave with the passion in our voices and the emotion woven through every story. It’s about feeling history, not just learning it,” says Roger Smith.

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