1 00:00:00,250 --> 00:00:06,780 All right, we're recording. So my my name's Tracey Katsuo, and I am the project's rates have been the binary. 2 00:00:06,780 --> 00:00:13,770 I'm here with Mark Goldstein, who is a researcher on the project and has been undertaking some really fascinating work, 3 00:00:13,770 --> 00:00:19,650 uncovering stories to objects in the collections that many of us have never had been I had any idea about. 4 00:00:19,650 --> 00:00:27,600 So we talk about so many things today. Can we start off by Mary Lopa about who you are and why you became involved and be on the bindery? 5 00:00:27,600 --> 00:00:38,670 Yes. Yes, sir. I am a divil APHC student at Oxford and with a keen interest in museums and have kind of worked in museums in the past as well. 6 00:00:38,670 --> 00:00:45,870 So I was obviously very excited by the Beyond Binary project and wanted to definitely get involved. 7 00:00:45,870 --> 00:00:56,200 So I came on board to look into what there might be in the existing collections, how we can draw LGBTQ stories out of those, and also to see, 8 00:00:56,200 --> 00:01:05,380 you know, look into some potential objects that may be purchased or commissioned for the exhibition of interventions in the cases. 9 00:01:05,380 --> 00:01:10,960 And yet now they can't get rid of me. And we never want to. 10 00:01:10,960 --> 00:01:15,900 I must just explain for those listening that Morawetz most amazing clothes. 11 00:01:15,900 --> 00:01:23,100 Can you maybe explain your amazing outfits day? I am wearing some dungarees which pink and black. 12 00:01:23,100 --> 00:01:29,260 They have mouths all over them with teeth and I described it very well. 13 00:01:29,260 --> 00:01:33,940 Poppy, you get an idea. Very sorry, but you describe your what? 14 00:01:33,940 --> 00:01:37,560 I should have worn my eye, Gyanendra next time. 15 00:01:37,560 --> 00:01:43,480 That would be for podcast. Series to watch how everyone. Okay, so you said a little bit about what you've been doing. 16 00:01:43,480 --> 00:01:50,250 He's been researching, creating a long list for objects in the collection that might be relevant to the beyond the binary themes. 17 00:01:50,250 --> 00:01:56,490 And also looking at Numata to collect. Did you want to talk about some objects in particular that you'd been researching? 18 00:01:56,490 --> 00:02:01,840 Because you've been looking at a really broad range of locations and makes time periods. 19 00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:03,900 So what would you like to talk about? Sure. 20 00:02:03,900 --> 00:02:13,860 So I think maybe I will talk about, I guess, how I began my research of the objects I sort of started focussing on and the reason reasons why. 21 00:02:13,860 --> 00:02:22,200 So two of the routes I sort of went down and actually they are interrelated was one was to kind of look into how, 22 00:02:22,200 --> 00:02:29,010 you know, mythology's at will into specific mythologies that maybe have been taken on by contemporary activists, 23 00:02:29,010 --> 00:02:39,060 LGBTQ communities, or even those in the past, and kind of relating objects in the collections to contemporary activism via mythology. 24 00:02:39,060 --> 00:02:45,790 Because I didn't really want to impose kind of queerness on objects that weren't aren't necessarily considered queer. 25 00:02:45,790 --> 00:02:56,960 I didn't have a queer owner and LGBTQ urna, so I began looking through into kind of world mythologies and LGBT LGBTQ connexions to those mythologies. 26 00:02:56,960 --> 00:03:02,850 And the other thing that was really important to me was being from New Zealand. 27 00:03:02,850 --> 00:03:08,820 I'm sort of keenly aware of the effects of colonialism on indigenous communities. 28 00:03:08,820 --> 00:03:18,210 So I wanted to look into, you know, precolonial communities, particularly in the Pacific Islands and New Zealand areas. 29 00:03:18,210 --> 00:03:21,510 I'm sort of more familiar with and familiar with the history of. 30 00:03:21,510 --> 00:03:29,940 And to see how they might've had different ideas about gender and sexuality prior to the British or Europeans 31 00:03:29,940 --> 00:03:37,170 coming over and making horrible laws and basically being horribly racist and kind of restricting their culture, 32 00:03:37,170 --> 00:03:45,130 oppressing them and not allowing them to express these kind of sexual and gender identities. 33 00:03:45,130 --> 00:03:54,540 So and particularly when you look at cases in the rivers, such as the Cooke case, which is, you know, so it's a very lovely case. 34 00:03:54,540 --> 00:04:01,320 It's lovely to have Jackson there. But to me, the part that was missing was the fact that, you know, 35 00:04:01,320 --> 00:04:09,810 a lot of the culture was taken away and oppressed and eradicated after this first contact with Europeans. 36 00:04:09,810 --> 00:04:16,360 So that was something that was important to me. So I began looking into. Objects first from New Zealand. 37 00:04:16,360 --> 00:04:23,710 So I began looking at kind of, you know, 38 00:04:23,710 --> 00:04:33,180 sort of the there's a particular origin story in some kind of modern mythology relating to homosexuality or the modern world. 39 00:04:33,180 --> 00:04:37,540 Tuck Tapley, which is more of a number, used more as an umbrella term. 40 00:04:37,540 --> 00:04:48,670 Now for LGBTQ, I'm a queer. The original definition, which was published in an eighteen forties English sorry Maori to English dictionary, 41 00:04:48,670 --> 00:04:51,790 was an intimate companion of the same sex. 42 00:04:51,790 --> 00:04:57,440 And so I was looking at the story relating to that and seeing maybe, you know, do we have some objects that could relate to the story. 43 00:04:57,440 --> 00:05:06,500 So. This story is relating to kind of two male lovers who basically, you know, 44 00:05:06,500 --> 00:05:13,640 one was married and they, you know, they kind of had this this longing for each other. 45 00:05:13,640 --> 00:05:20,930 And so they would sit, you know, kind of either side of the water and they would play the flute to each other. 46 00:05:20,930 --> 00:05:32,690 And there were two kinds of flutes that they used. One was a koala flute and the other one was Pittodrie flute. 47 00:05:32,690 --> 00:05:37,730 So koala flute. And I put it in a flute. And they would play the flute to each other. 48 00:05:37,730 --> 00:05:43,220 And they kind of, you know, sort of while they'd already sort of, I guess, fallen in love, 49 00:05:43,220 --> 00:05:49,880 but they expressed their feelings to each other by the sound of this flute over the water. 50 00:05:49,880 --> 00:05:54,560 And so I found, you know, examples of this fits within the collections. 51 00:05:54,560 --> 00:06:03,440 And I wanted to kind of use those as sort of a symbol for this story and use them as a visual way to tell the story, 52 00:06:03,440 --> 00:06:08,330 because we obviously don't have any objects from the story itself. 53 00:06:08,330 --> 00:06:14,420 And so I started kind of looking also into the sounds that these sorts of flutes might 54 00:06:14,420 --> 00:06:18,180 make and and sort of playing recordings of them and workshops and that sort of thing. 55 00:06:18,180 --> 00:06:23,600 So people kind of really got an idea of the sound they were making it and also how it's 56 00:06:23,600 --> 00:06:30,080 related to the importance of music to the contemporary tucked up very quick community. 57 00:06:30,080 --> 00:06:38,240 There are a number of music groups and copper HULKA groups, which is kind of Maori singing groups that are queer LGBTQ. 58 00:06:38,240 --> 00:06:43,580 And that's a really important part of the kind of activism and expression. 59 00:06:43,580 --> 00:06:47,960 So that was kind of one avenue I went down. 60 00:06:47,960 --> 00:06:54,880 And then, of course, I was looking into the, you know, the other Pacific islands because again, so, you know, 61 00:06:54,880 --> 00:07:02,450 the when I should have mentioned before when I was after the Europeans came into New Zealand, they made homosexuality illegal. 62 00:07:02,450 --> 00:07:10,580 So whilst it wasn't necessarily a gay utopia prior to the Europeans, it was something that kind of, 63 00:07:10,580 --> 00:07:15,260 you know, wasn't necessarily thought of as a bad thing that, you know, it's written about in Maori texts. 64 00:07:15,260 --> 00:07:23,130 And those texts have been studied by scholars actually quite recently, well, within the past kind of 10, 20 years. 65 00:07:23,130 --> 00:07:27,270 And a scholar who I was kind of in touch with called Elizabeth Kenny Kenny. 66 00:07:27,270 --> 00:07:33,710 And she she was one that was kind of sort of leading the scholarship into the story. 67 00:07:33,710 --> 00:07:42,290 And sort of made, you know, I guess kind of discovered that actually this this myth or the story was actually kind of canon back then. 68 00:07:42,290 --> 00:07:52,370 And it wasn't that there was a different version of this kind of story where it was just a straight man and woman kind of marriage. 69 00:07:52,370 --> 00:08:05,390 So and an add on the extra bits, like, for example, the male lover and the fact that in the end they'll be one of the the men and the couple got that, 70 00:08:05,390 --> 00:08:07,130 you know, his partner to actually marry his sister. 71 00:08:07,130 --> 00:08:15,830 So they actually all lived together in a lovely sort of for a nice, you know, kind of I don't know, maybe maybe almost a polyamorous group. 72 00:08:15,830 --> 00:08:22,280 So, yes. Now, now, because of the scholarship that's been done around these very early multitracked, in fact, 73 00:08:22,280 --> 00:08:29,840 some of the some of the first written MODIS texts, because, you know, there was there was no written text prior to the Europeans. 74 00:08:29,840 --> 00:08:36,860 So, yes. So that's now kind of canon. So, again, I say, okay, so let's look into other Pacific islands. 75 00:08:36,860 --> 00:08:45,980 And there were, you know, various communities I had previously been aware of in the Pacific Islands, for example, in summer, 76 00:08:45,980 --> 00:08:55,190 the FAA and in Tonga, the faculty, which is there a different kind of descriptions of these communities in English. 77 00:08:55,190 --> 00:09:03,500 And I guess the I guess it's most often kind of seen as as a third gender kind of, you know, 78 00:09:03,500 --> 00:09:12,720 equated with maybe kind of the two spirit, obviously not the same, but kind of equate to spirit communities in North America. 79 00:09:12,720 --> 00:09:21,340 That's a tradition within, you know, some on tongue in another kind of Pacific island societies where this sort of third agenda, 80 00:09:21,340 --> 00:09:24,750 you know, actually have kind of quite high status in sight. 81 00:09:24,750 --> 00:09:27,140 Well, they especially had high status before the Europeans. 82 00:09:27,140 --> 00:09:37,220 Again, once the Europeans arrived and made horrible oppressive rules and laws and they were, you know, they weren't as highly celebrated. 83 00:09:37,220 --> 00:09:42,200 And today that they're kind of regaining their place in society, it would seem. 84 00:09:42,200 --> 00:09:50,720 I mean, there's still a lot of issues. So you're sorry to talk. So they lost the celebration element was lost, but there was still a continuity. 85 00:09:50,720 --> 00:09:58,940 In some sense. There was still a country. Yeah. I mean, they still existed, but they weren't here because prior to the Europeans. 86 00:09:58,940 --> 00:10:05,780 A lot of the people in this, ministers of Farfan, a faculty, they're actually from very high status families. 87 00:10:05,780 --> 00:10:10,860 And in fact, you know, sort of. 88 00:10:10,860 --> 00:10:21,120 Children that were were male born or a MAB, if you like, that were part of high status, families were often that weren't the firstborn. 89 00:10:21,120 --> 00:10:23,610 So they weren't going to inherit the title or the money. 90 00:10:23,610 --> 00:10:32,550 They were actually encouraged often to to sort of, I guess, transition or become one of these sort of third gender type people, 91 00:10:32,550 --> 00:10:35,990 because it was, you know, you know, good and stable life for them. 92 00:10:35,990 --> 00:10:39,870 Does that correlation between status and and I don't see that gender identity. 93 00:10:39,870 --> 00:10:53,800 Yes, exactly. So. So they were often, you know, sort of employed in very kind of, you know, high status or even kind of royal households. 94 00:10:53,800 --> 00:11:01,420 In Tonga, for example, Fucka late were often the kind of companions to, you know, 95 00:11:01,420 --> 00:11:05,740 very high, though they were often kind of quite high status women in Tonga. 96 00:11:05,740 --> 00:11:16,030 Again, that was sort of pushed down by the Europeans that often these kind of FELKEL 8a would be companions to these high status women. 97 00:11:16,030 --> 00:11:24,220 And they were very much associated with the production in Summer and Tonga with the production of bulk cloth. 98 00:11:24,220 --> 00:11:31,030 So they were known to be kind of they were they were encouraged to study the methods of creating backcloth, 99 00:11:31,030 --> 00:11:38,860 and they were considered to be very good at Creighton's good about cloth. And, you know, often their pieces were sort of prised. 100 00:11:38,860 --> 00:11:45,580 So I was yeah, I wanted to look into because there's, you know, quite an extensive collection of backcloth in the rivers. 101 00:11:45,580 --> 00:11:51,730 And again, we don't know who they belong to, whether they were made by people in these communities. 102 00:11:51,730 --> 00:11:59,690 But I wanted to kind of look at, you know, the methods of how these these pieces were made to to understand what their lives would have been like out, 103 00:11:59,690 --> 00:12:03,940 what they would have been doing with their days in creating these cloths. 104 00:12:03,940 --> 00:12:12,970 And also looking at specific about Questa, this, you know, a moaners outfit or monice dress that I'd been looking into. 105 00:12:12,970 --> 00:12:21,040 And not only is this kind of associated with these communities, do you know the skill and production of them? 106 00:12:21,040 --> 00:12:24,790 But there's also an interesting element there. 107 00:12:24,790 --> 00:12:35,010 With these kind of backcloth outfits and also various outfits relating to these sort of high status women that I was speaking about earlier, 108 00:12:35,010 --> 00:12:43,630 where you, you know, you could you had, you know, very specific types of outfits and attachments to these outfits, 109 00:12:43,630 --> 00:12:48,800 such as feathers and that sort of thing that would show that you're a certain type of person. 110 00:12:48,800 --> 00:12:58,120 So particularly as a saying, high status women. They were often kind of they were they were there were certain once these women, 111 00:12:58,120 --> 00:13:03,070 particularly in Tanger, again, who were kind of saying, oh, this is a masculine women. 112 00:13:03,070 --> 00:13:09,010 And they showed that very much through dress and through these kind of backcloth ceremonial outfits. 113 00:13:09,010 --> 00:13:15,610 And, you know, the numbers of feathers and beads and things that they had on them would sort of indicate that status. 114 00:13:15,610 --> 00:13:24,520 And there has been a fair amount of research done into actually into the the backcloth in the pit rivers' from a previous PEACHY 115 00:13:24,520 --> 00:13:34,750 researcher who has published actually some quite interesting work on these outfits and the status of these kind of women. 116 00:13:34,750 --> 00:13:37,480 Well, masculine women, as as they might say. 117 00:13:37,480 --> 00:13:43,540 And it was particularly these women that are considered to be masculine women that would not only wear these outfits, 118 00:13:43,540 --> 00:13:49,090 but also might have a faculty day as a companion. 119 00:13:49,090 --> 00:13:55,430 Yeah, I think that's really interesting because you say that some of this work has been done in the past. 120 00:13:55,430 --> 00:13:59,620 There's been some research into the Pirouz collection specifically. 121 00:13:59,620 --> 00:14:05,050 But for me, what's really important about this project is that we're trying to bring the stories into the galleries. 122 00:14:05,050 --> 00:14:11,560 So while the research might have already been done, in some senses, it hasn't found its way into the public domain. 123 00:14:11,560 --> 00:14:19,870 So I think I'm pretty excited about the work that you're doing, is that we'd be putting your research and the stories that you're uncovering alongside 124 00:14:19,870 --> 00:14:25,810 the material in the museum for beyond the beyond the duration of just the exhibition. 125 00:14:25,810 --> 00:14:31,260 I don't know. Maybe you would say about that, how you might see the legacy of your research playing out, 126 00:14:31,260 --> 00:14:37,150 which you want to say it permanently, kind of told in the gallery spaces. Obviously, we're working on a temporary exhibition. 127 00:14:37,150 --> 00:14:42,970 But what do you what would you like to see the outcome? Yeah, I hope it helps materially in the museum. 128 00:14:42,970 --> 00:14:49,330 Exactly. Because, you know, it's all very well, you know, having this kind of academic research into objects, 129 00:14:49,330 --> 00:14:55,240 into, you know, I guess the fashions and all that sort of thing. 130 00:14:55,240 --> 00:14:59,170 But the end of the day, a lot of this research is not accessible to the public. 131 00:14:59,170 --> 00:15:06,130 You know, you're not really going to go into the Pit Rivers Museum. They go, I'm going to look up what a previous piece HD researcher did on these. 132 00:15:06,130 --> 00:15:11,170 But cloths, you know, because there's nothing in the labelling to really indicate that there is this 133 00:15:11,170 --> 00:15:17,480 work based around specifically around gender and around kind of different. 134 00:15:17,480 --> 00:15:26,320 Well, can I guess, nonconforming genders. So for me, it is really, really important to have kind of permanent interventions in these galleries. 135 00:15:26,320 --> 00:15:33,040 And in particularly the case, you know, as I said before, the court case is very lovely, shiny case. 136 00:15:33,040 --> 00:15:45,640 A lot of money was put into the into that case. But I think, you know, to not have this kind of these men, the mention that, you know, 137 00:15:45,640 --> 00:15:53,440 the the oppression basically to to kind of kind of, in a way, gloss over the impressions that resulted from, 138 00:15:53,440 --> 00:15:55,690 you know, these Kuck voyages because of, you know, 139 00:15:55,690 --> 00:16:02,470 that was very much the beginning of the oppression and of the eradication of these gender and sexual identities. 140 00:16:02,470 --> 00:16:08,670 So I you know, if if I were in charge of everything, I might. 141 00:16:08,670 --> 00:16:13,030 Exactly. Probably new labels everywhere. 142 00:16:13,030 --> 00:16:21,250 And so I think for me, what's really important about this project, you know, we're looking at beyond the binary. 143 00:16:21,250 --> 00:16:24,340 Obviously, there's a focus on kind of gender and sexuality here. 144 00:16:24,340 --> 00:16:33,670 But I think, you know, the connexion between kind of querying the museum and decolonising the museum is very strong and, 145 00:16:33,670 --> 00:16:40,690 you know, without trying to kind of speak for communities that were not necessarily a part of. 146 00:16:40,690 --> 00:16:44,200 Yes, obviously we consult with these communities. 147 00:16:44,200 --> 00:16:50,800 But I think, you know, the process of acquiring the museum and questioning the museum has to be tied in with decolonising museum. 148 00:16:50,800 --> 00:16:53,980 I think you can't have one without the other. 149 00:16:53,980 --> 00:17:03,110 I like how you said how he said I can't equate a kind of querying projects or process without it being interlinked to decolonisation. 150 00:17:03,110 --> 00:17:08,300 It's all part of the same same process. And as your research is really clearly highlighted. 151 00:17:08,300 --> 00:17:16,390 Yeah, we can't be looking at ethnographic items in the collection without addressing the legacy of climate feminism to reality now. 152 00:17:16,390 --> 00:17:19,780 Yeah, exactly. Yeah. 153 00:17:19,780 --> 00:17:23,830 I mean, because, you know, when you are you you basically. 154 00:17:23,830 --> 00:17:31,870 You have. decolonise Sutton. Well, they certain aspects of the museum, when you are looking into these great histories, because the choir, 155 00:17:31,870 --> 00:17:36,880 the choir histories of the LGBTQ histories are there, but they have been cloaked and oppressed by colonialism. 156 00:17:36,880 --> 00:17:43,270 So once you kind of remove that cloak, the possibilities in the museum in terms of queerness, 157 00:17:43,270 --> 00:17:50,470 LGBTQ themed objects, so collections cases, so, so much larger. 158 00:17:50,470 --> 00:17:53,950 Because. Yeah, yeah. You're kind of seeing things from a new perspective. 159 00:17:53,950 --> 00:18:01,630 You're not seeing things from this kind of very white to British or European perspective that 160 00:18:01,630 --> 00:18:05,860 very much was in play when the museum was started and when the first objects were collected. 161 00:18:05,860 --> 00:18:10,170 So of course, they weren't going to acknowledge any of these kind of clear stories, 162 00:18:10,170 --> 00:18:15,640 the LGBTQ kind of, you know, themes of gender and sexuality when the collection started. 163 00:18:15,640 --> 00:18:23,980 So, you know, they could be, you know, so much more in the museum that we just don't know about because, you know, these histories were ignored. 164 00:18:23,980 --> 00:18:32,350 So I think it is very important, even if we're not finding objects that we know, you know, space was specifically owned by an LGBTQ queer person. 165 00:18:32,350 --> 00:18:38,320 It's really important to use these objects as kind of a visual example to show that 166 00:18:38,320 --> 00:18:43,420 these histories did exist before they were wiped out by the British and European. 167 00:18:43,420 --> 00:18:50,170 And unfortunately, because a lot of the traditions were kind of oral traditions and they weren't written down. 168 00:18:50,170 --> 00:18:57,230 You know, for example, in New Zealand, there wasn't there weren't there wasn't any written language. 169 00:18:57,230 --> 00:19:00,040 So, yeah. So all we can really do is kind of, you know, 170 00:19:00,040 --> 00:19:05,770 follow these oral traditions and kind of speak to people within these communities and sort of bring these 171 00:19:05,770 --> 00:19:13,210 stories out through the use of objects that are in the collections that we can use as kind of a visual aid, 172 00:19:13,210 --> 00:19:22,480 if you like. What do you think? So. It's quite clear why this work might be important to some of the indigenous partners that we're working with. 173 00:19:22,480 --> 00:19:28,230 Do you think the kind of value of telling this story in Oxford, in the UK, in the paper, 174 00:19:28,230 --> 00:19:37,450 this museum is so I'm I'm conscious that the majority of visitors coming through the museum might not identify as as queer? 175 00:19:37,450 --> 00:19:40,830 Well, they might not be polite to the communities that the objects come from, 176 00:19:40,830 --> 00:19:45,970 but I'm hoping that we'll still be able to power in different types of people. 177 00:19:45,970 --> 00:19:52,780 I'm engaging with this work. What do you think the power might be of having this exhibition in the period, this museum in Oxford? 178 00:19:52,780 --> 00:19:59,500 Yeah, I mean, I guess because, you know, Oxford is such a centre for, you know, not just for academia, but for, you know, 179 00:19:59,500 --> 00:20:07,420 we got a lot of tourists in Oxford as well, visiting groups, a lot of school groups and even international school groups. 180 00:20:07,420 --> 00:20:15,490 And, you know, there's also, you know, people often forget there is, you know, a large community outside the university in Oxford. 181 00:20:15,490 --> 00:20:20,200 And, you know, so it's you know, 182 00:20:20,200 --> 00:20:24,130 it's it's great to I guess there's know so many different ways that you can reach 183 00:20:24,130 --> 00:20:30,190 out to people by having an exhibition or a project like this at the Pitt Rivers. 184 00:20:30,190 --> 00:20:40,300 And, you know, by having this kind of be on the vine area, LGBTQ focus, this, you know, all sorts of possibilities to reach out to, I guess, you know, 185 00:20:40,300 --> 00:20:49,810 local communities that are often ignored by the university and by the museums and things aren't really kind of targeted to these people because, 186 00:20:49,810 --> 00:20:53,890 you know, well, stuck it out. Snobby ivory tower, I'm not sure. 187 00:20:53,890 --> 00:21:00,670 Suffice to say, though, that these amazing possibilities to kind of reach out to this communities and, 188 00:21:00,670 --> 00:21:04,450 you know, not just to reach out to them in terms of being visitors bells. 189 00:21:04,450 --> 00:21:11,790 So, you know, in terms of getting involved in the project, I'm sure whoever whoever's listening to this may have, 190 00:21:11,790 --> 00:21:14,410 you know, probably heard about the community curators and that sort of thing. 191 00:21:14,410 --> 00:21:21,070 And also as a kind of community that events such as the late night event, for example, 192 00:21:21,070 --> 00:21:24,880 and the late night events are actually a great way to bring in the community. 193 00:21:24,880 --> 00:21:34,660 But aside from that, you know, with Oxford being, you know, seen as kind of this like centre of of of, 194 00:21:34,660 --> 00:21:40,930 you know, world class leading research, LLC, I think, again, it was number one. 195 00:21:40,930 --> 00:21:46,360 Again, I think it was also it was voted O place as number one again. 196 00:21:46,360 --> 00:21:53,430 So to have, you know, a project like this in an institution that is considered to be, 197 00:21:53,430 --> 00:21:59,140 you know, a world leader, you're going to have a lot of the not just museums but, 198 00:21:59,140 --> 00:22:06,850 you know, academic institutions and all sorts of people and organisations looking to the Pitt Rivers and look into this project, 199 00:22:06,850 --> 00:22:18,280 as you know, I guess as a leader and maybe kind of, you know, it might inspire other places that aren't necessarily seen as Unisys, 200 00:22:18,280 --> 00:22:24,080 as prestigious as Oxford to kind of carry out projects like this. 201 00:22:24,080 --> 00:22:29,750 So the fact that it is in this kind of ethnographic anthropological museum, you know, that, of course, 202 00:22:29,750 --> 00:22:35,830 there have been other LGBTQ projects in museums in the U.K., but none in a museum like this. 203 00:22:35,830 --> 00:22:43,340 So it is such an important opportunity to to to use squaring the museum, 204 00:22:43,340 --> 00:22:50,060 as I saying before, to decolonise the museum and to show people that it's actually, 205 00:22:50,060 --> 00:22:58,160 you know, it's not just okay to kind of clear and decolonise a museum like this is actually what you should be doing. 206 00:22:58,160 --> 00:23:06,620 You know? It's basically I think it's I think it's a responsibility when you are, you know, 207 00:23:06,620 --> 00:23:15,950 working in an institution like that or involved or, you know, in whatever way you're involved is, I think is a responsibility, too. 208 00:23:15,950 --> 00:23:29,670 If you're not at least making efforts to decolonise the place to at least be very virtually in some ways critical or at least show people that, 209 00:23:29,670 --> 00:23:35,660 um, you know what? That they were these kind of impressions placed on. 210 00:23:35,660 --> 00:23:41,660 Well, basically every in the past by the British and the European Europeans. 211 00:23:41,660 --> 00:23:46,460 So I think it's really important to make a statement like that, Oxford as well. 212 00:23:46,460 --> 00:23:58,640 And, you know, people who aren't, you know, maybe don't add on at the museum specifically to see this exhibition, you know, don't identify as LGBTQ. 213 00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:07,430 It's amazing, you know, to to kind of maybe come on a visit to this museum, walk in expecting your kind of very traditional Victorian's done museum. 214 00:24:07,430 --> 00:24:09,460 And then you're like, wow, 215 00:24:09,460 --> 00:24:18,440 this is some amazing exhibition as a chance to learn more about the communities that are already displayed in the exhibition, 216 00:24:18,440 --> 00:24:22,650 but also to let you know, learn more about kind of contemporary communities. 217 00:24:22,650 --> 00:24:26,120 And again, once their case interventions in place, 218 00:24:26,120 --> 00:24:36,710 I think that's going to be kind of the key important thing to actually, I guess, maybe make visitors more open minded or, 219 00:24:36,710 --> 00:24:47,370 you know, maybe change their perspectives not only about, you know, LGBTQ people, but about these kind of communities that were oppressed. 220 00:24:47,370 --> 00:24:55,250 They probably might not know these stories because we only have this very kind of British version of history. 221 00:24:55,250 --> 00:24:57,290 Thank you. I'm one of the things I'm really excited about. 222 00:24:57,290 --> 00:25:07,700 This come out of your research is the opportunity for us in the museum to display historic material alongside really unexpected contemporary material. 223 00:25:07,700 --> 00:25:12,800 I've been at the museum for six years and hasn't I haven't seen much of that 224 00:25:12,800 --> 00:25:19,400 juxtaposition or linking between very contemporary material and historic material. 225 00:25:19,400 --> 00:25:23,060 For me, that's very exciting. It shows continuity. It does. 226 00:25:23,060 --> 00:25:27,390 It's quite disruptive. I think it disrupts people into thinking and stopping, imposing. 227 00:25:27,390 --> 00:25:33,830 I wanted to make the key object groupings I'm thinking about in terms of contemporary material is the common traffic light, 228 00:25:33,830 --> 00:25:37,430 which you have identified as an object for us to collect. 229 00:25:37,430 --> 00:25:45,170 Maybe you could talk a little bit about common and the historic material in the collection, but that that object despite alongside. 230 00:25:45,170 --> 00:25:56,780 Yes. So am I. Yeah. I had been doing some research into the tucked up the LGBTQ community and museum. 231 00:25:56,780 --> 00:26:04,190 And I was looking at kind of the histories of contemporary activism and also, you know, 232 00:26:04,190 --> 00:26:11,300 the importance of the tucked up way to kind of model community and, well, I guess newsier than the general. 233 00:26:11,300 --> 00:26:23,510 So I was looking to kind of the origin story involving kind of music and the two flutes and the two male lovers kind of thing that fits together. 234 00:26:23,510 --> 00:26:32,630 And then I started to look into, I guess, more recent histories of the tucked up wee community. 235 00:26:32,630 --> 00:26:40,780 And one of the first figures that came to mind for me was Carmen, who was, you know, 236 00:26:40,780 --> 00:26:47,390 some people will call her a drag queen, but essentially, you know, kind of a trans a trans woman. 237 00:26:47,390 --> 00:26:52,950 She was from the Wellington area, which is also where I'm from in New Zealand. 238 00:26:52,950 --> 00:26:56,840 So she was very well known to me. But she's not just well-known in in Wellington. 239 00:26:56,840 --> 00:27:03,410 She's well known kind of throughout the country and just particularly permanent. 240 00:27:03,410 --> 00:27:08,420 In 70s, she ran a kind of cafe club type place, 241 00:27:08,420 --> 00:27:15,640 which was essentially kind of a home for all the sort of misfits and, you know, obviously the LGBTQ community. 242 00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:22,640 But, you know, kind of anyone that sort of didn't really belong in kind of mainstream culture felt very, very welcome in her establishment. 243 00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:27,080 And she kind of did performances and that sort of thing. 244 00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:32,330 And she also sort of got involved in politics. 245 00:27:32,330 --> 00:27:36,950 So she ran for mayor and Foxygen win. 246 00:27:36,950 --> 00:27:46,700 But she she came close. And, you know, you know, her whole kind of campaign was based around LGBTQ rights. 247 00:27:46,700 --> 00:27:59,570 And she yeah, she sort of was just I can't really sort of equate toe with any kind of contemporary figure because, 248 00:27:59,570 --> 00:28:05,700 you know, she just had this this kind of status, this this kind of persona that, you know, anyone who ever met her. 249 00:28:05,700 --> 00:28:09,050 Well, sort of, you know, came in in contact with her. 250 00:28:09,050 --> 00:28:18,170 Just have you know, it's kind of amazing memories of sort of, you know, well, warm and amazing and, you know, this unique personality she had. 251 00:28:18,170 --> 00:28:27,580 And so, you know, a couple of years ago in Wellington, the the well in the city council wanted to honour common, 252 00:28:27,580 --> 00:28:31,130 you know, which which again, goes to show how important she was. 253 00:28:31,130 --> 00:28:39,170 She's not you just never forgotten and that she wasn't, you know, just important to the LGBT community, to LGBTQ community. 254 00:28:39,170 --> 00:28:43,580 She was considered to be important to the whole Wellington region, essentially. 255 00:28:43,580 --> 00:28:51,770 So they created traffic lights. Well, pedestrian crossing lights with her silhouette. 256 00:28:51,770 --> 00:28:59,660 So when you cross the streets and kind of parts of Wellington that she was particularly prominent in, for example, 257 00:28:59,660 --> 00:29:07,050 a street called Cuba Street, which is kind of the kind of a sort of alternative, I guess, street in in Wellington. 258 00:29:07,050 --> 00:29:13,910 And so the traffic lights there, you're going to be where you're going to be waiting for Carmen to go green to cross the street. 259 00:29:13,910 --> 00:29:18,860 And so, as they all would be, you know, I got very excited by this. 260 00:29:18,860 --> 00:29:24,800 And you know what? We're telling the people about it on the project. 261 00:29:24,800 --> 00:29:28,460 For example, you, Jose, is very excited. 262 00:29:28,460 --> 00:29:33,560 Ever got pretty excited about this. Is that right? We need one of these for the exhibition. 263 00:29:33,560 --> 00:29:42,170 So, yeah, just a email. The Wellington City Council. And they very kindly sent the silhouette free, not the whole traffic light, but the silhouette. 264 00:29:42,170 --> 00:29:51,590 And so, yeah, I think that's for me, that's a very exciting way to kind of connect more modern stories, 265 00:29:51,590 --> 00:29:56,330 kind of with this kind of tucked up wee mythology and history. 266 00:29:56,330 --> 00:30:00,320 And to show that actually, you know, 267 00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:09,890 despite the European oppression that the tucked up early committed members of the tucked up community still, you know, 268 00:30:09,890 --> 00:30:17,090 had this very high and important place in society and sort of really kind of, 269 00:30:17,090 --> 00:30:22,430 you know, common was almost like this mother, the mother of the community. 270 00:30:22,430 --> 00:30:30,740 And I think it's yeah, very much sort of connected to the sort of tucked up wee community. 271 00:30:30,740 --> 00:30:37,190 And you know what it's like to be part of that community and everyone's sort of looking out for each other. 272 00:30:37,190 --> 00:30:42,020 Yeah. So it's really amazing to be able to retelling that story in the pit. 273 00:30:42,020 --> 00:30:47,150 And I think I'm just talking through the objects that we're including exhibition with some rock 274 00:30:47,150 --> 00:30:51,770 meets Traitor's and some of our volunteers and the young people that come and use the museum. 275 00:30:51,770 --> 00:30:56,780 And some of them find it really affirming, really, that these stories are being highlights. 276 00:30:56,780 --> 00:31:00,890 And they've never known about that, actually. I mean, there's obviously lots of impressions. 277 00:31:00,890 --> 00:31:04,490 Do most of the coaches around queer lives? 278 00:31:04,490 --> 00:31:10,550 There are really amazing examples of celebration and victory, and I think that's really important. 279 00:31:10,550 --> 00:31:17,140 So while we're telling we've really trying to tow the cloning story and the impacts of Myanmar, 280 00:31:17,140 --> 00:31:21,580 as well as the really horrible laws and all the awful stuff that has happened and the legacy of that, 281 00:31:21,580 --> 00:31:25,250 we're also trying to talk about the victories as well, kind of balance out. 282 00:31:25,250 --> 00:31:30,530 People have lost hope and they are examples of success. So, yeah, I think Colman's really powerful for me. 283 00:31:30,530 --> 00:31:34,250 And I'm really excited that we're going to light her up to a working traffic light 284 00:31:34,250 --> 00:31:41,750 to show you success stories and really show that though that's positivity in this. 285 00:31:41,750 --> 00:31:46,730 Just one more thing I thought is also important to mention, you know, objects. 286 00:31:46,730 --> 00:31:50,410 So stories that are kind of closer to home as well. 287 00:31:50,410 --> 00:31:59,330 You know, there there are. I want to quickly mention the old witch in the bottle, because I know that is, you know, the most popular. 288 00:31:59,330 --> 00:32:03,130 Everyone comes in in the museum. 289 00:32:03,130 --> 00:32:11,080 So this object is the object most popular, one of the most popular objects of school kids, so it's something that kids go straight to and look up. 290 00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:17,980 Yes. Yeah, I thought I'd just mentioned the Whitsun bottle. You know, because I was also very much interested. 291 00:32:17,980 --> 00:32:24,890 I was drawn to this object two to one for personal interest and to you know, as Jose was saying, it is an object. 292 00:32:24,890 --> 00:32:31,360 It's going to focussed on schools. And also a lot of people come into the museum like West, the witch and the bottle. 293 00:32:31,360 --> 00:32:37,460 I want to see that. And, you know, it's not it's not actually the display displayed particularly prominently. 294 00:32:37,460 --> 00:32:42,400 There's not a huge amount of labelling that goes with it either. And so I was very intrigued by this object. 295 00:32:42,400 --> 00:32:49,420 And I you know, I had always known that was a very strong connexion between witchcraft and the queer community. 296 00:32:49,420 --> 00:32:54,580 And, you know, particularly in kind of a queer sort of pop culture and that sort of thing. 297 00:32:54,580 --> 00:33:01,890 But I knew that that was kind of a long history. And also, you know, the fact that that people women that were persecuted as witches, you know, 298 00:33:01,890 --> 00:33:08,920 were often persecuted, which is for other reasons like, you know, being gender nonconforming or being a lesbian. 299 00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:12,640 So I thought, oh, yeah, yeah, we could tell some stories about that by using Elsa. 300 00:33:12,640 --> 00:33:19,420 Well, what's a good witchy object. Which in a bottle. But then as I kind of actually read into the details, 301 00:33:19,420 --> 00:33:26,530 I realised that actually the subject was collected by Margaret Murray in 1959 and Margaret Murray was an Egyptologist 302 00:33:26,530 --> 00:33:34,240 and a folklorist that you had already been kind of familiar with through kind of my background and archaeology. 303 00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:39,610 And so I was like, oh, wow. School was collected by Margaret Murray. 304 00:33:39,610 --> 00:33:45,560 There's a interesting history there with Margaret Murray. And actually contemporary LGBT activism. 305 00:33:45,560 --> 00:33:51,010 And so, you know, Margaret, I developed this kind of which cult theory, this Murray idea, which called theory. 306 00:33:51,010 --> 00:33:52,120 And within that, she was you know, 307 00:33:52,120 --> 00:34:01,660 she basically developed this very elaborate theory about this idea of what she thought this witchcraft might have been in the past. 308 00:34:01,660 --> 00:34:07,240 You know, saying actually, you know, these these witches were real. These are the kind of rituals they were undertaking. 309 00:34:07,240 --> 00:34:14,290 There was you know, it was all it was. You know, you're drawing elements from all sorts of kind of pagan traditions, 310 00:34:14,290 --> 00:34:19,410 you know, including classical, including one's more close to home British. 311 00:34:19,410 --> 00:34:26,080 You know, Drew, it's all all sorts of things. And also she she's talking about, you know, particular figures like Joan of Arc who, 312 00:34:26,080 --> 00:34:30,190 you know, misuses sort of saying was, you know, a martyr for the cause, 313 00:34:30,190 --> 00:34:36,820 not not for the Christian cause, but actually for because of witchcraft and also for the cause of, 314 00:34:36,820 --> 00:34:40,360 you know, even just being just of gender nonconforming. So, you know, that's what she was saying. 315 00:34:40,360 --> 00:34:44,170 Basically, that's that's what she was a martyr for. 316 00:34:44,170 --> 00:34:48,640 So this these ideas were taken out kind of late in the 60s and 70s. 317 00:34:48,640 --> 00:34:57,260 One example is Arthur Evans book, Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture, which basically, 318 00:34:57,260 --> 00:35:01,500 you know, kind of elaborated on on her ideas, you know, change change things a little bit. 319 00:35:01,500 --> 00:35:09,400 But yes, it is her ideas, this marryat, which goes there is a basis and then looked into further detail, into figures like Joan of Arc. 320 00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:15,800 But again, pushing that further and, you know, sort of saying basically, either they were. 321 00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:21,690 Allegedly, though, LGBTQ in some way, either gay, maybe trans, gender nonconforming. 322 00:35:21,690 --> 00:35:27,180 And basically saying, you know, you should if you're gay, you should be a. 323 00:35:27,180 --> 00:35:36,270 Just had to hey, you know, that it was kind of this sort of natural connexion between the two and that there was this kind of real power in it. 324 00:35:36,270 --> 00:35:44,020 And from that but that publication and other similar publications. A lot of activism kind of grew out of that. 325 00:35:44,020 --> 00:35:50,460 And a lot of activism was based in rituals. So they were sort of, you know, you know, things like sort of dance circles. 326 00:35:50,460 --> 00:35:56,070 And that's something that almost kind of mimic the sort of contemporary or not mimic but inspired. 327 00:35:56,070 --> 00:36:02,400 This is the great that inspired through these content like flashmob activism and that sort of thing. 328 00:36:02,400 --> 00:36:11,340 You know, it's I just find it so interesting that, you know, it this kind of 70s LGBT activism that has know very much influence. 329 00:36:11,340 --> 00:36:18,130 The activism that we have today was in turn influenced by these ideas about witchcraft and ritual. 330 00:36:18,130 --> 00:36:25,050 And so this kind of you know, there are there are reasons for these connexion between queerness and kind of witchcraft. 331 00:36:25,050 --> 00:36:29,040 A lot of people don't know the reasons they feel, you know, particularly jaunting. 332 00:36:29,040 --> 00:36:34,500 I never I was always kind of drawn to to witchcraft and paganism and Wicca. 333 00:36:34,500 --> 00:36:38,700 And I hadn't really known why. And there is actually a very good reason for it. 334 00:36:38,700 --> 00:36:46,140 So I just wanted to speak about about the about the witch and the bottle and kind of objects outclassed him because, 335 00:36:46,140 --> 00:36:51,600 you know, there are objects, you know, even from the UK or their histories from, 336 00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:56,520 you know, from the UK of of of of queerness and, you know, 337 00:36:56,520 --> 00:37:02,640 LGBTQ histories and being gender nonconforming that were also, you know, oppressed within this country as well. 338 00:37:02,640 --> 00:37:11,490 So I think what we've kind of found show in the exhibition is that oppression from KLC and patriarchy is universal. 339 00:37:11,490 --> 00:37:18,830 Right. So you even think what we've picked an expression sightly is that even if you don't know you're affected by plays and you. 340 00:37:18,830 --> 00:37:23,130 Oh, yes. You know, using the very local objects. 341 00:37:23,130 --> 00:37:28,780 When it comes to Sussex is like the witch in the book. Very MSE objects to talk with ICRA refocusing. 342 00:37:28,780 --> 00:37:33,040 And I'd like to advocate for a flashmob interpretation of this object. 343 00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:38,070 So that's something that you get even if it's just me. 344 00:37:38,070 --> 00:37:42,120 I will do. Exactly. Amazing. 345 00:37:42,120 --> 00:37:46,910 Thank you so much for talking about your research, Mara. And yeah, everyone must come and listen. 346 00:37:46,910 --> 00:37:51,780 I look at the expression and I might feel to discover lies of new narratives about the purpose. 347 00:37:51,780 --> 00:37:54,037 And I think that when we look to them rightfully.