In 2021, Te Ngākau Kahukura hosted a series of webinars for the youth sector, sharing the expertise and lived experience of those working with and amongst rainbow rangatahi.
In our fourth webinar, Nate and Slay from Rainbow Hub Waikato (formerly WaQuY) talked about how they support rainbow rangatahi living in rural areas, and what differs between rainbow mahi between the centres and the regions.
About the presenters
Nathan Bramwell is a Transgender Pākehā man who grew up in an equally religious and liberally queer family. He attributes his strong moral compass and respect of diversity, visibility, and autonomy to his Grandmother, a staunch lesbian and educator. He cares deeply about empowering local communities, especially the Rainbow/LGBTI+ populations, and children through Early Childhood Education. He is often in the background in some sort of advisory group, collaboration, or project. He is the Manager of Rainbow Hub Waikato (at the time of recording this webinar, he was managing Waikato Queer Youth, a community-led charitable organisation that provides advocacy, education, referrals, and support for queer, gender, sex, and sexually diverse young people in the Waikato).
Slay Way is a Gender-fluid human, going by the pronouns they/them. They grew up in Thames, so have a lived experience growing up as a gender/ sexually diverse youth in a rural community. Having had a traumatizing experience as a young queer person, they have a passion for supporting rainbow communities. Slay has gone on to launch their own wellbeing business, having completed a degree in Sports Science and Human Performance. They have won 3 New Zealand Exercise Industry awards and now focus on helping others through Personal Training, Massage Therapy, Life Coaching & Wellbeing Workshops. Having recently finished their Adult and Tertiary Teaching in Practice qualification, Slay has a passion for enriching the lives of others through education. Slay is the Education Coordinator for Waikato Queer Youth/Rainbow Hub Waikato.