This week’s pro­file takes us to the oth­er side of the Remu­ta­ka Ranges for a very good cause. 

1. Hel­lo! Who the heck are youse and what are you up to?

I’m Kylie, and col­lec­tive­ly we’re the Parry/Hannen whā­nau. My 17-year-old daugh­ter and I are walk­ing across the Wairara­pa into Welling­ton to raise mon­ey and answer ques­tions about rais­ing trans kids and being young and trans.  The rest of the whā­nau are act­ing as sup­port crew, pro­vid­ing hugs, band-aids and pick-ups at the end of each day. Com­ing to a library near you from June 10th !

The timetable is:

  • June 10th, 2pm: Mas­ter­ton Library
  • June 11th to 12th: Walk­ing, phew!
  • June 13th, 4pm: Upper Hutt Library
  • June 14th, 4pm: Te Awe Library (Bran­don St, Welling­ton)
  • June 15th, 2pm: John­sonville Library
  • June 16th: Rest­ing, whoo!

2. Why are you doing this walk? Is it some­thing you’ve done before?

We just fig­ured it was some­thing we could do to help out and maybe answer some ques­tions for peo­ple. This is our third walk, but the first time we’re stop­ping to give talks and answer ques­tions. The 1st walk was ‘48kms in a day’ when Mindy was 12 and three years ago we walked from Castle­point to Waikanae (as you do).

3. How can peo­ple sup­port you two now and also trans fam­i­lies in gen­er­al?

Well, since you asked… we do have a givealit­tle (mon­ey goes to Gen­der Minori­ties Aotearoa) and we’d love to see peo­ple at our talks. In gen­er­al, peo­ple could sup­port trans fam­i­lies by lis­ten­ing to us, treat­ing us nor­mal­ly and by gen­er­al­ly not being dicks.

4. Unfor­tu­nate­ly with our coun­try filled with politi­cians and oth­er grifters dog whistling, it’s not exact­ly a safe time right now. How do you keep your­selves safe?

Yeah, safe­ty is more on our mind this time. The gen­er­al feel out there is a bit scary (and ooo have we been called some names). We’re stay­ing safe by hav­ing a won­der­ful team of sup­port­ers to call on. This applies both on the walk and in our lives. We’re also very lucky and live in an awe­some com­mu­ni­ty who has our backs. Yay, Carter­ton! Not every­one is as lucky as us. So if you hear some­one being has­sled or some­one mouthing trans­pho­bic big­otry, call them out on it (if you can).

5. What are some of the best things to do in the Wairarapa/Wellington? Be it activ­i­ties or food or what­ev­er

Op Shops in the Wairara­pa and food. There are so many awe­some places to eat, and our op shops are the best. In Welling­ton, I love the water­front for peo­ple watch­ing and spot­ting stingrays.

6. What three actu­al­ly achiev­able things do you reck­on would make a sig­nif­i­cant pos­i­tive impact on the greater Welling­ton region in the next five years or so?

Re-open­ing the cen­tral library, more GPs and free pub­lic trans­port.