Andre Chumko05:00, Jun 07 2021
STUFF
Four dames and four knights have been appointed to the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2021. Years ago, when Mani Bruce Mitchell was talking with the late Rangimārie Te Turuki Arikirangi Rose Pere, she told them Māori have always known about intersex people. “[Kaumātua] would say: ‘this child has been sent to us to teach us something’. What a beautiful way of looking at and holding difference,” Mitchell, who uses they/them pronouns and the honorific Mx, said. In this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours, Wellington-based Mitchell is believed to be one of the first intersex, non-binary Kiwis to be made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit. They were awarded the honour for services to intersex advocacy and education, having helped found Intersex Awareness New Zealand (also known as the Intersex Trust of Aotearoa New Zealand/ITANZ) in 1997 – the first of its kind globally.