---
title: "Acknowledgements | Local Drag Directory | Local Drag Directory"
description: "Local Drag acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the lands our infrastructure sits on, the queer artists who paved the way for drag across history, and those who continue to defend and grow queer rights today."
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> Index of every page on this site: [llms.txt](https://www.localdrag.co.nz/llms.txt)

Ngā mihi

# Acknowledgements

Local Drag would like to acknowledge those who have made space for our site to exist.

Ngurra · Te whenua · Country

## The lands our site stands on and serves.

In the spirit of reconciliation, Local Drag acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea, and community — including the Eora Nation, on whose lands in Sydney this directory's infrastructure is hosted.

We pay our respect to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

From Aotearoa, we also acknowledge mana whenua across the motu — the iwi and hapū whose whenua hosts the performers, businesses, and communities this directory exists to serve.

Ngā tūpuna · Those who came before

## The ones who paved the way.

Drag did not begin with us. It carries the work of generations of queer and gender-diverse artists — takatāpui, fa'afafine, ballroom houses, cabaret performers, female impersonators, kings and queens — who built a craft and a community when doing so was criminalised, pathologised, and dangerous.

We remember those who performed in raids and back rooms, who were arrested for the clothes they wore, who lost friends and lovers to a plague the powerful chose to ignore, and who kept the lights on anyway.

Every stage in this directory stands on theirs. We name them, even where history tried not to: the unrecorded, the erased, and the ones whose names we will never know.

Te mahi tonu · The work continues

## Those who keep fighting today.

Queer rights are not settled — they are held, and they are contested. We acknowledge the advocates, organisers, rainbow health workers, lawyers, educators, and volunteers who defend and extend those rights every day, often without thanks or pay.

We acknowledge the performers who turn their art into protest, the venues that make space when it is risky to, and the whānau and allies who show up.

This platform is a small part of that work — making Aotearoa's drag artists visible, valued, and bookable. We are grateful to everyone, named and unnamed, who keeps the door open behind us.

Mauri ora

## Taonga tuku iho.

A gift handed down. We hold this stage in trust for those who built it, and for those still to come.

[**About Local Drag **](https://www.localdrag.co.nz/about)

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## Sitemap

See the full [sitemap](https://www.localdrag.co.nz/sitemap.md) for all pages.