Difficult hospital time tonight, home late & heart in bits.
But this morning, I felt so lucky to run 10km. carrying a very precious name into the peace of Matariki. Big love to #sweatwithpride sponsor Val Little for asking me to carry the inestimable Georgina Beyer today. I'm not sure anyone could do her fire full justice, but I thought about her the whole way, her wicked wit, her deep real wisdom, and the legacies she left us - being he whole self in the public eye, an early lighthouse for trans people in Aotearoa, and still large in the minds of many who might otherwise have fallen for the current rhetoric and stereotyping.
So on today's run I went off-track, to find the plaque to Kupe I knew was hidden in the harakeke, and listened for Georgina there. I swear someone laughed behind me. The last random song that played on this run was Madonna's Live To Tell. That felt right. We did. We do. We are, and we will, and we'll never stop.
A pinkush, masculine hand, beringed, held in a loose open fist against green flax, blue sea, grey cloudy sky. On the back of the hand, scrolled initials in pen: GB.
A very weathered bronze plaque with intermittently faded lettering, and a scratchy outline of what might be a waka at the top. Readable text includes:
HISTORICAL & EARLY SETTLERS ASSOCIATION
TO BEGINNINGS, BRAVED INCREDIBLE VOYAGES BY CANOE OF TE WHANGANUI-A-TARA (PORT NICHOLSON
THE GREAT POLYNESIAN EXPLORER-NAVIGATOR. KŪPE AND OCEAN-GOING WAKA TAUA (CANOES), MATAHORUA AND ORT NICHOLSON CIRCA AD 950.
MES ISLAND (MATIU AND WARD ISLAND (MAKARO)
SEATOUN, HE NAMED TE AROARO O-KUPE
#SweatWithPride Day 20
Mānawatia a Matariki, m'loves ✨️
