Two people with mullets, Māori greenstone earrings, and jeans with rainbow designs are holding hands in a red sky with bright yellow stars. 

The Lowdown

Your gender and sexual identity are an important part of who you are. The Lowdown Aotearoa provides resources and support to help you explore and understand these aspects of your identity. 

Understanding Gender & Sexual Identity | The Lowdown Aotearoa

Gender & Sexual Identity

Te kore, Te po, Te ao Marama by Ivy Lyden-Hancy

In Te kore, Te po, Te ao Marama, 17-year-old poet Ivy Lyden-Hancy's words speak to her identity as a wahine Māori in a changing world. Surrounded by the lasting impacts of colonisation, Ivy paints a picture of the Aotearoa that was, and that one day could be.

In Te kore, Te po, Te ao Marama, poet Ivy Lyden-Hancy's words speak to her identity as a wahine Māori in a changing world.

Te kore, Te po, Te ao Marama - Ivy Lyden-Hancy | The Lowdown Aotearoa

Te kore, Te po, Te ao Marama - Ivy Lyden-Hancy

i walk through concrete rivers 
Wairoa lingering through powerlines
surrounded by rakau 
which has been manufactured 
manipulated 
into the warmth of one’s home 
many homes 
white picket fences and 
sky tower brown 

as i look up to pukekiwiriki 
laying at the sickle of this maunga 
i imagine i am my tupuna
our tangata from before
surrounded by rakau of lush forests 
While melodies of te manu engulf me in its mana 
While wahine moving through grub and fern 
stripping the white man's grass off all infinite crossways 
i replace it with kowhai 
                                  pohutakawa 
                   kauri
pikopiko
all things Māori 

to be Māori is to imagine aotearoa before colonisation 
to be grounded amongst papa 
amongst the kumara pits
their flagstaff will fall 
a tohu that we have taken our whenua back 
our tikanga 
our tangata
holy hands of concrete statues will reach out to me 
amongst the rubble
 they will speak reo pakeha 
a constant reminder of what they have taken from us 

in that we will remove the ink of our ta moko
unbury the mass graves 
remove our taonga from the museums 
reclaim our reo 

they will be at the end of our pū
our rangatira behind us on the path they have paved 
tapu tinana 
tapu wairoa 
aotearoa te tapu whenua 
amene

In 'ii - The Vessel', Laith Alawneh speaks to the whanaungatanga we hold with our whānau, our mātua and our tīpuna, and how our relationships with our loved ones evolve with us as we grow.

Laith is 17 and resides in Tāmaki Makaurau. 

In 'ii - The Vessel', Laith Alawneh speaks to the whanaungatanga we hold with our whānau, our mātua and our tīpuna, and how our relationships with our loved ones evolve with us as we grow.

ii - The Vessel - Laith Alawneh | The Lowdown Aotearoa

ii - The Vessel - Laith Alawneh

Family is a body
a vessel of life
each vein and artery plays a part
with each breath taken
love courses through your vessel
reminding you of who truly loves you
from the day of conceivement 
you were the heart

and your mother’s love flowed through you all the time
you used the wisdom 
that has been passed down through 
generations of warriors to guide you
touch, you learnt your fathers touch in his absence
knowing that it’s okay to be gentle

and you can plaster his pain across your skin but the body finds a way to heal itself
you learn to appreciate his absence
as he has gifted you life, and passed on your mind

as your mother births again, 
she cannot flow her love to you all the time, 

                it would be selfish of her

so your siblings lay in the hand of your vessel 
they help steer through the stormiest nights 
but sometimes they need you to take charge
so you cut them, so they can regrow into a better version of themselves

we take a lot of first breaths: shock, fear, excitement
with the conceivement of your own
the breath you take when you see them
opens your airways to a new dimension 
they become the heart of your vessel
and you breath for them, without them life can not be lived

as time continues
your mother will no longer be able to flow love through your heart 
and slowly the vessel collapses
but you live on in your son’s vessel
and if any part of your vessel is missing, the vessel will collapse
and that’s how life is


Ever since she was a young child Callida knew she was different to everybody else in her life, but for years she didn't understand what that meant for her. Watch the video to hear Callida share her journey, beginning as a rangatahi, toward understanding and owning her identity as a proud trans wāhine.

Join Callida on her journey towards self-discovery and owning her identity as a proud trans wāhine.

Manioro: Callida's Story | The Lowdown Aotearoa 

Callida's Story

Our panellists break down sexual orientation on this episode of AI. And, with the help of special guest Te Rangitutaki Rolleston we learn about pronouns, how to be come a good ally and some helpful tips to help our e hoas.

Our panellists break down sexual orientation with the help of special guest Te Rangitutaki Rolleston. Learn about pronouns, how to be a good ally and tips for supporting our e hoas.

Let's Talk about Ai: Sexual Orientation | The Lowdown Aotearoa 

Let's Talk about Ai - Sexual Orientation

Arataua Media 

A ship came into harbour with indigenous sex narratives before colonisation. Our panellists sit down with Tiana Griffin, educator by day and cock and culture owner by night. She shares her knowledge about indigenous ways of thinking about sex, monogamous relationships, cultural revitalisation for ai and her top three tips for decolonising our sex lives. 

Let's Talk about Ai - Traditional Narratives

Sex can still be a tapu subject to talk about for some. Ai - Let's Talk About Sex follows a panel of Māori from all walks of life in Aotearoa who share their indigenous perspectives, unravel lived experiences and kōrero about sex and related topics in hope of normalising sexual health talk for rangatahi so you can connect, learn, and express yourself.

Break the taboo on talking about sex and learn about indigenous perspectives on sexual health with our group of Māori panelists. 

Let's Talk About Ai | The Lowdown Aotearoa 

Let's Talk about Ai

Our panellists get creative and show us their favourite sex positions (made out of play dough of course!). We get to kōrero all things pornography with Martin Cocker, CEO of Netsafe, who shares with us how rangatahi can watch porn safely, tools and advice if you are a victim of revenge porn and much more.

Let's Talk about Ai - Porn

Our team of panellists kōrero about sexual health. They get into specifics - from STIs to STDs and explore the stigma associated with getting check-ups. We also catch up with Anatola Finau, founder of Brown Girls Have Sex Too who offers some sound advice on the subject for rangatahi.

Our panel dives into sexual health, exploring the stage around getting check-ups, STIs and STDs. Special guest Anatola Finau, founder of Brown Girls Have Sex Too, offers sound advice on the subject for rangatahi. 

Let's Talk about Ai: Sexual Health | The Lowdown Aotearoa 

Let's Talk about Ai - Sexual Health 

Our first anonymous confession at the table prompts our group of panellists to discuss how comfortable they are talking about sex with their parents, friends, and whānau. They go down a rabbit hole, delving into religion, colonialism and Takatāpui and how they’ve influenced today’s thinking and conversations about ai. 

Let's Talk about Ai - Me Wānanga Tātou

Let's start with thinking of health as a state of wellness. We can think of wellness as choices, ways of being and activities that provide balance in our lives that improves our whole self; mind, body and wairua. As we evolve and grow and as our environment changes, our state of wellness may require adjustments. It's helpful to think of a state of wellness as flexible to what WE need WHEN we need. This gives us room to explore and try new practices, connecting with different support and resources.

Everyone has mental health. Mental health is a part of your hauora, it’s the wellness of your mind, your thoughts and how you feel. On any given day, the state of your mental health can be really good, okay, a bit up and down, feeling a bit low or really struggling, and it can change quickly and massively based on all the things that happen in life, both big and little. It’s often complicated because everyone’s experience of it is personal and unique.

Our hauora is not individual. It’s a weaving together of our whānau, our whakapapa, our connection to the world around us and our beliefs. This helps us form an identity that connects us to our past, grounds us in our present and lifts us up to the opportunities our future holds.

It means that we’re a part of something bigger than ourselves, and within this we can find people who care and support, stories that uplift us and help us to feel connected and heard, and a sense of belonging and acceptance of who we are.

Your mental health is closely linked to how you think and feel about yourself and others, how you create and manage relationships and friendships and the ways that you’re able to cope with the ups and downs of emotions that you face in your everyday life.

If you’re feeling good, you might say your mental health is all good right now. If you’re feeling down, anxious or confused, you could say your mental health is struggling or just a bit shitty at the moment.

Sometimes your mental health can be impacted by things that you can’t control. These can include sickness, injuries or other impacts to your physical health, systemic inequalities, the way other people act or treat you, hormones or other chemical changes inside your body, and even the time of year, temperature and weather.

Your mental health doesn’t always stay the same.

There are many factors that impact our mental health and shift the balance between feeling good and feeling down or having a hard time as you move through different stages of your life. These challenges may come and go over time, they may be short or might last for many years. Everyone’s experience is unique and different from everybody else and can be heavily impacted by things like your culture, your family and your identity. You might be able to bounce back from a tough experience while someone else may feel weighed down by it for a long time and both of these responses are normal.

The one thing you always need to remember that you’re never alone in what you’re facing. People care about you and want you to be ok, and they may have a better understanding of how you’re feeling than you realise.

Positive mental health is often connected to having a sense of purpose, knowing who we are, being able to do the things that matter to us and feeling connected to others. This is linked to resilience, which is having positive ways to deal with your feelings, recover from things that impact you and enjoy life even when things are hard.

It’s important to know, though, that having positive mental health overall doesn’t mean you’re excluded from experiencing mental distress.

A great resource to assist with this is the 'Five Ways of Wellbeing' from the Mental Health Foundation 

If you’re thinking about harming yourself or are having suicidal thoughts, 

to talk to someone who cares and can support you.

You may hear the words ‘mental health’ being thrown around a lot in conversations, in the news or on social media. The thing is, you might not know what that means exactly. No worries, we’re here to help.

Mental health is a critical part of your overall wellbeing , but what does that actually mean? Get informed about mental health with The Lowdown Aotearoa. 

Gender & Sexual Identity

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