Tihei: Manioro Festival returns to Hawke’s Bay

Nevertheless Trust co-founders and co-directors Shaqaila Uelese and Maia Wati-Cooper.

Nevertheless Trust is bringing Manioro home in two forms, as a three-day festival and as a mental wellbeing service for rainbow rangatahi and whānau in the East Coast region.

“We created Manioro as a kaupapa that would enhance the wellbeing of takatāpui and rainbow+ communities through providing opportunities for whānau and workplaces to be educated and rainbow+ people to be celebrated,” Nevertheless Trust co-founder Shaqaila Uelese said.

Manioro Festival 2024 is a three-day event bringing all takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ people across Aotearoa together, with a special focus on seeing what Māori, Pacific and rainbow excellence looks like, from academia to performing arts.

Manioro means to make a noise or to create a disturbance.

“Our Manioro kaupapa is based on using creativity, education and awareness to disrupt toxic narratives and discriminating stereotypes for people of diverse genders and sexual orientations,” Uelese said.

Manioro Festival 2024 will be made up of six main sessions from Thursday, February 29 to Saturday, March 2. It will be held at the Toitoi: Hawke’s Bay Arts & Functions Centre.

It will open with an exhibition called Tūrama, which is a suicide prevention project featuring 24 stories of lifelines and resilience from takatāpui/rainbow+ people. Other features include an educational session for workplaces, an evening of storytelling and creative wānanga workshops, including tapa cloth making, kapa haka, ei katu making and more.

The festival ends with a fiafia night featuring the best Pacific & Māori rainbow+ cultural and contemporary performing arts groups. White Chapel Jak will play at the after-function.

Uelese and co-director Maia Wati-Cooper said: “Our Manioro opening and creative wānanga sessions are free to the public, thanks to assistance from the Community Hauora and Wellbeing fund. Other sessions are ticketed with costs. All information is available at www.neverthelessnz.com

“We are grateful to the support of funders such as Creative NZ, Tindall Foundation, JR Mckenzie Trust, Te Whatu Ora - Pacific Health, Te Aka Whai Ora, Le Va, Te Rau ora and Mataatua Takatāpui Trust who have all made Manioro possible from funding event costs to enabling our facilitators, speakers and performers from outside of Hawke’s Bay to attend and inspire our local rainbow communities.

“Nevertheless is not the only organisation supporting rainbow people in Hawke’s Bay. Rainbow people have always had a presence in Hawke’s Bay, it has not always been obvious but there have always been LGBTQIA+ people advocating for our rights. We are inspired by the likes of Teine o le apu who are the local Hawke’s Bay Fa’afafine Association led by Miss Samoa Fa’afafine 2023 Annie Kaio and Faleniu Laga’aia. Tautoko Takatā led by Paris Brown, Whaea Hira, Dion Reid, the Hastings Library and InsideOUT are some of the amazing rainbow trailblazers who continue to be staunch advocates in Hawke’s Bay.

“Manioro 2023 was a huge success as we saw 1000+ people attend the event over two days. As a pathway following Manioro 2023, we opened the Rainbow Hub Hawke’s Bay on April 1. The Rainbow Hub has provided a space for all LGBTQIA+ people to attend workshops and connect in a safe environment every Tuesday and Thursday evening.

“The Rainbow Hub is supported by Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga and the Hastings District Council.”