Some women are born into womanhood
and some women have to fight for it.
I'm Stellar Angafili Makarita Pritchard.
I am 17 years old,
I love dancing,
I'm a part of Coven
and I'm also a poet.
Periodt.
At St Paul's
it's really supportive with the teachers
but I feel like... the students it's alright,
with the older students it's fine,
but like the lower students it gets kind of...
a bit... yeah
it isn't that great.
I guess it just comes from
a lack of understanding
and that's just the biggest thing about
being who I am
and trying to get other people to understand
who I am.
I don't necessarily want acceptance from them
but I do want them to understand me.
I came out as a trans woman last year
in my 'When You Present As Male' poem.
"I am a Pasifika trans woman.
"Brave, beautiful and bold"
And I walked in there with my head held high
and I just walked up, said the poem
and everyone was a bit baffled
and I walked off stage
and walked past everyone
with my head held high
and they were all staring at me
but it was all good
because I knew that I had
a 100% backing from so many teachers
who supported me
throughout my journey
and so many students who
held so much space for me
when I was in my lowest.
Coming out for me was difficult at times
because others couldn't accept the fact
or understood who I am
but now I feel like all of that pressure
has gone
because I've found my community
and I've found who I am and it's been
a rollercoaster,
that I've enjoyed.
Chosen families,
they're the love that you try to find
and them being there
it's like all of the past years
don't really matter anymore
because you have it now
and you should embrace it.
Chosen families always help you through everything
and they're always there for you
even when you think others won't be
and just having them backing you up
is the biggest support system
that you could ever get
because chosen families...
they might have been your friends before
but then when they become family
you basically know everything about each other.
They can see if you're down
and they can see when to talk to you
and they know to uplift you.
Moe Laga is
the mother of the house of Coven
and I've learned a lot from her
especially from her and
all of the other T- girls that I know.
Like the way their beauty is
has been the biggest impact
because the way they held themselves
the way that they talk,
the way that they dress,
was all empowering.
They taught me that being a woman
is more than genitalia,
it's being strong to who you are,
knowing who you are
and...
being passionate about what you do.
So I met Stellar at this programme
where I got told to come in
because there was this young trans girl that
needed support to
listen to her poem and
really support her through
her performance that night
and yeah,
I met Stellar and we instantly clicked
and she literally reminded me of myself
when I was her age
and yeah we really bonded that day
and ever since then we've been like
tight.
I've seen her become more confident
and more, like,
I feel like she definitely knows herself now
she's like,
'Yes this is the path I want to go through',
in terms of being a trans woman.
For myself, I ran away from home seven years ago
and I've always been looking for a family
and I feel like now that I'm a mother of a house
and I have, like, 41 children
and it feels good to know that I have
a bunch of kids to have
they're like siblings and
they've got each other's back
and if we need resources we can always
call each other, like, 'Hey, I need something'
and it's such a great support system
to have.
For me motherhood means...
it's creating
so it's kind of helping create worlds for,
say, Stellar,
creating a world of safety
where she's able to live her
authentic self and be unapologetic and
having support from us
as well as myself
to guide her through
this thing called trans queer life.
All of us weren't necessarily born into womanhood,
we had to fight to get accepted,
we had to fight to get understood
and we had to find who we are especially
and we had to find ourselves
through our communities
and we had to find ourselves through events,
the best and the hardest events of our lives.
I feel like all of us had to fight
for the womanhood that we have
because there's so many people that will
try and doubt our womanhood
and there's so many people that won't
understand our womanhood.
I may have been treated like that
but I'm not gonna fall.