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Keynote Speakers

All of the keynote presentations are available as audio and text transcription:

Annette Xiberras (Australia)

Annette Xiberras is an elder of the Wurundjeri people, whose traditional lands cover the area now known as Melbourne. Since her early 20s, Annette's work has encompassed archaeological investigations, cultural heritage management and protection, reburials, and the preservation of cultural knowledge passed on by her elders. Her standing recently saw her elected as Co-Chair of the Victorian Traditional Owners Land Justice Group, which represents all Traditional Owners across Victoria.

A gay woman who came out in the 1970s, Annette now runs the first, and currently the only, cultural heritage consultancy owned by an indigenous woman in Australia. She and her late partner Cathy Adams have two young children.

Boris Dittrich (Netherlands)

Boris is currently the advocacy director in the programme for LGBTI rights for the American organisation Human Rights Watch, based in New York.

Boris comes from a legal background working as a lawyer and district judge in the Netherlands. In 1994 he was elected as member of Parliament for the Social Liberal Party D66e sitting on various standing committees. He was one of the first openly gay Members of Parliament. He sponsored the bill on the opening of civil marriage to same sex couples and the bill on adoption by gay couples. Both laws came into effect in 2001. He was rewarded with the Gay Newspaper award in 2004 as the most influential Dutch gay man.

In the period 1994-2003, Boris was the spokesman on various Dutch issues like euthanasia, LGBTI rights, legalisation of prostitution and condoning of soft drugs. In 2006 he was knighted in recognition of his public service. Boris' participation was made possible by funding from the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Elizabeth Kerekere (New Zealand)

Elizabeth has been active in Maori and LGBTFIQ communities for over 20 years with a particular focus on the health and well-being of takatāpui (New Zealand Maori LGBTI people) and queer youth.

She has managed her own consultancy in Treaty of Waitangi Relations, founded Tīwhanawhana in 2001 as a support, advisory and kapahaka group for takatāpui, represented takatāpui on the Lesbian and Gay Archive of New Zealand Board , and run the Maori programmes at OUT THERE! Queer Youth Development Project. Elizabeth is about to embark on the first-ever PhD focused on takatāpui.

Fuimaono Karl Pulotu-Endemann M.N.Z.M, J.P (New Zealand)

Born in Samoa, Karl has a national profile in the Pacific Island community in New Zealand as a pioneering advocate for the health and well-being of Pacific peoples.

He was the first Pacific person to represent Pacific people on the Mental Health Commission. He was founding Trustee of the Pacific Island AIDS Trust, founding Council Member for Manawatu Tangata Pasefika Council, and Mafutaga A Uso Fa'afafine ma Aiga. He was awarded Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for his contribution to Public Health.

Geetanjali Misra (India)

Geetanjali Misra is co-founder and Executive Director of CREA, an international feminist human rights organization. She has worked in issues of sexuality, reproductive health, gender, human rights and violence against women.

She co-founded SAKHI, an NGO in New York committed to ending violence against women of South Asian origin. She is on the International Advisory Board for the Global Fund for Women, Cordaid, and on the Board of Directors of Reproductive Health Matters (U.K), Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice and Mama Cash.

Grace Poore (Malaysia)

Grace Poore is the Regional Programme Coordinator for Asia and the Pacific Islands at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. She has been working to end domestic violence and child sexual abuse in the U.S. for over 20 years, and has been recognized for her work by the Sunshine Lady Peace Foundation.

Grace has written, directed and produced documentaries that have screened in 18 countries, and won the Rosebud Award and 2001 Creating A Voice Award. Grace's participation was made possible by funding from Rainbow Wellington.

John Fisher (Switzerland)

John Fisher is Co-Director of ARC International, a project-driven organisation which advances LGBTI rights internationally.

Originally from New Zealand, John completed a BA, LLB(Hons) in 1989, spent two years as a judges' clerk, and moved to Canada in 1991, where he completed an LLM thesis on Lesbian and Gay Rights in International Law at Queen's University in 1992. John became the founding Executive Director of Egale Canada (Canada's national LGBTI equality organisation), a position which he held from 1994 to 2002. He participated in the UN World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993, where he became the first openly gay person to address a UN World Conference.

As co-founder of ARC International, John has worked with Co-Director Kim Vance to strengthen cross-regional networks, enhance international standards, develop accessible materials and build the capacity of groups and individuals to become engaged in UN processes. He played a key role in the expert's meeting to develop the Yogyakarta Principles, co-authored an article on Contextualising the Yogyakarta Principles with Prof. Michael O'Flaherty, and has been invited to deliver conference presentations and workshops in every region of the globe.

Joy Liddicoat (New Zealand)

Joy has her own legal practice, Liddicoat Law, and is based in Wellington. Joy specialises in public law and human rights and was a Commissioner with the New Zealand Human Rights Commission between 2002 and 2010. Her expertise is in human rights issues in the Asia and Pacific regions, women's rights, sexual orientation and gender identity, and human rights and the internet.

She is a member of InternetNZ and chairs the board of the Domain Name Commission Limited which oversees the system of domain name registration for .nz in New Zealand. Joy is also a trustee of the Intersex Trust Aotearoa New Zealand and a Board member of Creating Resources for Empowering Action, a non-governmental organisation based in New York working on sexuality, gender and human rights.

Professor Marilyn Waring (New Zealand)

Marilyn Waring is a Professor of Public Policy at AUT University, New Zealand. Internationally known for her work in political economy, development assistance and human rights, Marilyn has worked in many countries. She was elected to New Zealand Parliament at the age of 23, and served 3 terms.

She has been a director of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, and a member of Creative New Zealand. She is treasurer of the Association for Women's Rights in Development and a lay member of the New Zealand Board of Judicial Studies.

She has authored and edited many books, and received one of New Zealand's highest honours, Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM), for services to women and economics.

Phylesha Brown-Acton (New Zealand)

Phylesha is Niuean, Cook Island, Samoan and Pākehā. She is a professional Polynesian cultural entertainer, is descended from a line of master weavers and has used and extended this knowledge to produce costumes in the Miss South Pacific beauty pageants from 1995-2000. She has won major awards in several categories at these events.

Phylesha works for the New Zealand AIDS Foundation on their HIV Prevention response for Pacific Peoples. She uses an evidence-based model that builds healthy and strong social environments, and develops strong and supportive communities. She also focuses on peer leadership and developing skills in community members to deliver services and programmes within their own communities

Phylesha's participation is made possible by funding from the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Sunil Pant MP (Nepal)

Sunil is an openly gay Member of Parliament in Nepal. He was petitioner of the writ to the Supreme Court against the Government of Nepal demanding that it defend and protect the equal rights of LGBTI people in Nepal. This resulted in the Court making the historic decision to protect and defend LGBTI rights.

Sunil is founder and Executive Director of the Blue Diamond Society, an NGO working on Human Rights, Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS in Nepal. Sunil's participation was made possible by funding from Rainbow Wellington.

Vaito'a Toelupe (Samoa)

Ms. Vaito'a Toelupe is a very outspoken and proud samoan fa'afafine. She is a member of the Samoa Fa'afafine Association by which she is the Chairperson of its Social Committee. She is a graduate of Auckland University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. She is currently a Senior Officer of the Disaster Management Office in Samoa.

Asides from that, she is infamous in Samoa for his designing consultancy by the name of Island Couture, by which she designed and dressed numerous Miss. Samoa and Miss. South Pacific title holders. She had also successfully organized the Fa'afafine Industry Variety Awards which was the first of its kind in Samoa to showcase the colourful entertainments by the fa'afafine in Samoa and to date remains the talk of the town.

Vaito'a replaces Roger To'oto'oalii Stanley who was unable to attend. Vaito'a's participation was made possible by funding from the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

You know it was so bloody hard coming out in 1978 I don't intend to go hide anymore

- Ruth Busch