Research with Pride public talk - speakers

Mani Mitchell

Mani B Mitchell, Pākehā, change agent, non binary, intersex and queer identifying person. 

Born in the shadows of the second world war, my parents, loving, remote rural conservative people were poorly equipped to deal with the reality my birth brought to their life. I did not deal with the trauma of my childhood until my 40’s - I had trained as an educator, gone onto local government emergency management, specialized in critical incident stress management, management and then psychotherapy. 

Once I started to ‘deal’ with my own birth realty, my own trauma, suicidal ideation, I made the decision - I could not change the past - I could, I concluded assist with changing the future. So I have used all my training, my lived experience, aroha, stubbornness, my pain, sadness to bring awareness - visibility of intersex realities and awareness to the world. Find people to collaborate with, work beside - inspire, by working locally, nationally and internationally. 

My dream is, we will as a global collective, achieve critical mass - change the model. That trauma, stigma, shame and secrecy will be relegated to history as a sad artifact of the past. That intersex persons will be free to be the magnificent humans we are all entitled to be.

Denise Steers

Denise did her PhD about the health care for children born with a variation in sex characteristics (intersex). 

She has continued to partner with those with lived experience to create resources for parents and young people to support better health outcomes.

Michaela Pettie

Dr Michaela Pettie (Ngāti Pūkenga) is a Research Fellow in Public Health at UOW (also UOC). 

Michaela's research seeks to understand the health outcomes of Indigenous peoples', especially Māori and takatāpui experiences of mental health and the contextual factors that shape those experiences.

Alex Ker

Alex Ker (he/him) is a Pākehā trans health researcher and community advocate based in Aotearoa. Alex loves being outside in Aotearoa's beautiful environment.