Real Stories

Pink Shirt Day’s official waiata: ‘IARERE AIO’

Pink Shirt Day now has its very own anthem!

Fuimaono Karl Pulotu-Endemann

“I am Samoan, I am fa’afafine. That is my foundation. That is my strength.”

High school students launch nationwide campaign for gender neutral bathrooms in schools

Gender neutral bathrooms in schools should be mandatory and government-funded

Tip Top’s Top Tip for Inclusive Workplaces

Iconic Kiwi ice-cream company putting workplace wellbeing at the Tip Top of their list

Mercury Bay Area School take part in InsideOUT diversity workshop

Students, teachers and InsideOUT worked together to make their school more inclusive

Spark’s quest to make the internet more gender-inclusive

Battling the binary, one line of code at a time

Lucy Barge

Upstander Lucy is a published poet, piano teacher, and proud Pink Shirt Day advocate

CV Shastry

CV Shastry is an Asian New Zealander and proud Upstander who is doing his part to stop bullying and discrimination against Asian communities.

Nicola Frater

Nicola Frater is a multi-faceted woman.
She is a loving parent to three children: Ali, Richard and Nathan. She is a person of faith, having spent decades serving her community as an Anglican Priest. And, she is a transgender woman - an identity she is only recently embracing as her own.

Flight Centre

After a tough year for the travel industry, Pink Shirt Day “an opportunity to reset and celebrate”

Freemans Bay School – celebrating our differences

Inclusion and cultural understanding is an everyday part of learning at Freemans Bay School. Teacher Yu-Ching Liu hails from Taiwan, and describes celebrating diversity in her classroom as a normal everyday experience.

Te Manahou Mackay: Decide whether someone’s opinion is worth listening to

Te Manahou Mackay first began modelling in 2016, with her debut into the fashion world soon followed by a flurry of news articles and TV interviews celebrating her status as “New Zealand’s first Māori transgender model.” While this newfound fame made her feel uneasy at first, she has since come to appreciate the importance of sharing stories like hers, especially to those in the rainbow community.

Spark New Zealand a big believer in Pink Shirt Day

We spoke with Rhonda Koroheke, Human Resources Diversity and Inclusion Lead, about why Spark is choosing to stand up against bullying and celebrate Pink Shirt Day this year.

Tangaroa Paul: Finding belonging in Te Ao Māori as a gender fluid person

Tangaroa Paul is the kind of person who lights up a room just by walking in. With a huge smile and an infectious giggle, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Tangaroa’s life has been non-stop sunshine and laughter. However, dig a little deeper, and you’ll find that Tangaroa’s journey has been anything but straightforward.

Richard Hills: Bullying can change people’s lives

When Richard Hills became an Auckland City Councillor in 2016, headlines soon followed declaring him “Auckland’s first openly gay councillor”. For Richard, who had been living as an openly gay man surrounded by a supportive community for years, the sudden focus and ensuing negative social media surrounding his sexual orientation was a bit of a shock to the system.

ConneXu and Pink Shirt Day a perfect match

Laura Etz and Kelly Smith know first-hand the impact bullying can have on others, especially when it comes to the people they serve at ConneXu, a disability support provider based in Te Awamutu.

Chorus: Pink Shirt Day puts anti-bullying practices front and centre

In the lead-up to Pink Shirt Day, we spoke with Phillippa Powell, Organisational Development Advisor for telecommunications infrastructure provider Chorus, about why and how they’re getting involved in this year’s celebrations.

Creating Rainbow Inclusive Schools

For Petazae Thoms, the Pink Shirt Day kaupapa is all about providing rainbow rangatahi/young people with a sense of safety and belonging. As InsideOUT’s Auckland Schools Co-ordinator, his job is to empower students and staff with the tools and confidence to do just this.

Albert

If you know of Albert from Eat Lit Food, you know his Instagram persona and his unflinchingly honest restaurant reviews, written in his signature humorous, sometimes spiky, and always colourful style. But, in person, this online persona couldn’t be further from this friendly, caring and articulate young man who has something to say - and not just about what he likes for lunch.

Tees for the Toll Team

Transport and logistics company Toll is celebrating Pink Shirt Day (PSD) for the second time in 2020. Invited to come on board last year by official corporate partner Cotton On to help support the distribution of PSD tees around Aotearoa, Toll also decided to celebrate Pink Shirt Day throughout their organisation.

Jenene

Jenene Crossan knows what it’s like to be bullied for having COVID-19. As one of Aotearoa’s earliest positive cases, she’s faced ‘heinous online trolling’ and personal attacks since she contracted the virus on her way home from London.

Pink Shirt Day at the Museum

Auckland Museum sees the diversity of each of their employees as something that makes their organisation more than what it was without it. Catherine Smith, Director of People and Organisation, says her staff are not only accepted for their diversity but celebrated for it.

Elle

Elle has regularly faced racism since she moved to Aotearoa 17 years ago. She sees racism as a frequent and distressing part of her life.

Ending discrimination towards our frontline workers

Our frontline workers are our COVID-19 superheroes. Returning to work day-in and day-out in the face of the storm, they made sure - and are still making sure - that we're fed, cared for and transported.

Claudia

Claudia* became a nurse to help others. 21-years-old, fresh out of her degree and completing her first year of on-the-job training in Christchurch, her dream is to provide the same, high standard of care that she received when in and out of hospital as a child.

Standing up against racist bullying

Racist bullying is a problem in Aotearoa. Many of us like to think of New Zealand as a progressive, kind and inclusive nation, but to truly achieve that we need to reject racism wherever and whenever it occurs.

Spreading aroha to the takatāpui community

Growing up in Panguru as a young gay man, broadcaster Whatitiri Te Wake can say hand-on-heart that he was surrounded by aroha. “I don’t really have a coming out story – I was nurtured and cared for – and was as flamboyant or queer as I wanted to be, growing up.”

Liang

Liang Cui actively stands up against racist discrimination. She’s seen – and been on the receiving end of – too many examples of it over the four years she’s been living in Wellington.

How to be an upstander

Everyone has the power to prevent bullying. Being an upstander is one of the best ways to make a difference in our schools, workplaces, communities and whānau.

Jacqui

When Jacqui of Whangarei saw former X-Factor judges Natalia Kills and Willy Moon verbally abuse a contestant’s choice of clothing, she thought to herself: this is wrong.

Karley

Karley Johns and her daughter Melany have both had experience being bullied. Karley was kind enough to share their story with us.

Alofia

When Alofia moved from Samoa she thought it was the start of a great adventure, but soon found it was not the same going to a big city school in Auckland.

Hamish

Following the 2011 earthquakes, Hamish's school merged with a few other schools. Some of the new kids tried to make friends by tearing others down, and Hamish became a target.

Operation Pink Shirt Day

It’s fair to say that it's been a tough year for health workers, with the implications of Covid-19 acutely at the forefront of everyday life. But according to Joanna Sinclair, SMO Wellbeing Advisor at Auckland’s Middlemore Hospital, COVID-19 hasn’t dampened enthusiasm for Pink Shirt Day, but in fact, strengthened their resolve to promote it.

Pulling up Pink Socks

After celebrating for the first time in 2019, Otago Boys’ High School have found their own way of keeping the Pink Shirt Day kaupapa alive throughout 2020. They're now pulling up pink socks to send a message of acceptance and aroha to their community!

Pretty in Pink

As a plus size style and self-love writer, Meagan Kerr is all too familiar with how challenging it can be to find fashion that fits all shapes and sizes. That’s why this year, she is pleased that the range of Pink Shirt Day t-shirts has been extended to 5XL, so that more plus-sized people are able to support the Pink Shirt Day kaupapa.

Howick College support Pink Shirt Day

Pink Shirt Day is always a special event in the Howick College school calendar, and for senior dean Anna Marsick, it’s important to use the day as an activation point to plan long-term bullying prevention activities and events beyond Friday 17 May.

Student creates Kindness Week for Pink Shirt Day

Being showered with kindness, aroha and safety is what inspired a Hamilton high school student to set up an anti-bullying club. Timi Barabas started the True Colours Club in 2018 after realising some of her peers weren’t being treated with the same respect as her.

Proud to be me: Aziz Al-Sa'afin

For journalist Aziz Al-Sa'afin, Pink Shirt Day represents an opportunity for Aotearoa to stand united against bullying.

Mangere to turn pink in support of Pasifika LGBTQIA+

The Cook Island Development Agency of New Zealand (CIDANZ) is hosting an event in Mangere on Saturday 4 May in support of Pasifika rainbow communities, who experience higher rates of bullying in New Zealand.

Fighting bullying with aroha

MMA fighter Shane Young is a man on a mission this Pink Shirt Day to make Aotearoa a place where our rangatahi feel safe, valued, accepted and supported.

Sparklers activities align with school’s drive for kindness

‘Kindness is free. Sprinkle it everywhere.’

That was the message being shared at Chisnallwood Intermediate in the lead up to Pink Shirt Day.

Tabby

Stories

Twenty-two-year-old Tabby is no stranger to stigma, discrimination or mental distress. Since coming out as bisexual in her teens, the Wellingtonian has seen a lot of stereotyping and myths around bisexuality.

Barry

Barry Hart’s son Josh was 8 years old when the texts started. “He would get text bombed at one am, four or five kids at a time sending him terrible messages, every night."

Jesse

I am Jesse and I have a condition called neurofibromatosis. I would like to share with you my story, as someone who has experienced chronic bullying.

Generation Queer

Young people who identify as queer, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, takataapui, fa’afafine, questioning or curious meet at Rainbow Youth HQ to support each other and have fun.

Constable Adele White's advice on bullying

Adele White is the School Community Officer for Howick, Auckland, working to promote safety to schools in her area. She has lots of advice.

InsideOUT

Bullying can take place when someone is targeted because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity, or that of someone within their family or friend group.

2015 Pink Shirt Day Heroes

For Pink Shirt Day 2015, we ran a competition in partnership with the Defence Force to find five Pink Shirt Day Heroes from around New Zealand. Here are the five winning entries.

Speak up! It does make a difference

Mikayla Creswell, a student at Otago Polytechnic, knows all too well the effects bullying can have on young people. She’s taking part in Pink Shirt Day to show others that they’re not alone.

It’s OK to be different

Arish Naresh believes standing up against bullying is a strong step towards elimination of wider discrimination in Aotearoa.

Proud to be part of Pink Shirt Day

Ala Vaka, a year 13 student at James Cook High School, is proud to be part of a school which celebrates Pink Shirt Day

Pink Shirt Day is an attitude

Constable Bryan, who is one half of the dynamic television duo known as Bryan and Bobby, has been a keen supporter of Pink Shirt Day even before it arrived in New Zealand.

How a small act of kindness changed a life

For a long time, Lisa Maree Hall had no idea her small act of kindness had such a big impact on her former classmate’s life – that’s a big reason why she’ll be supporting Pink Shirt Day on Friday, 26 May.

Junior rugby league team gets behind Pink Shirt Day

For Riccarton Junior Knights Rugby League Club, Pink Shirt Day is a chance to celebrate and promote the true meaning of team mates.

Trade Me to hold biggest ever Pink Shirt Day

Trade Me’s iconic mascot Kevin the Kiwi is getting ready to dust off his tailored pink polo in preparation for this year’s Pink Shirt Day on 18 May.

Waikato primary school student gets behind Pink Shirt Day

Six-year-old Tegan Way is one of many people in Waikato leading the charge to support Pink Shirt Day, and she’s challenging the rest of the region to join her.

Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment dons the pink shirt

Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has made significant changes to its anti-bullying and wellbeing policies since joining the Pink Shirt Day campaign