Meet the organisers
You can reach any of the WYFC admins on wellingtonyoungfeminists@gmail.com
Vanessa Haggie
Vanessa is a Masters Law student in her late 20s who is committed to Human Rights and feminist legal study. Raised in a queer family, she feels strongly about gender and sexual minority rights and furthering understanding of the queer spectrum in both the legal sphere and the community.
She spends what seems like her entire life at Victoria University, both as a student and as a research assistant to a senior faculty member. Having written previously on feminist perspectives of pornography and censorship, she is currently engaged in completing her Masters through postgraduate work on the extension of hate speech legislation to gender and sexual minorities.
In her non-scholarly life she enjoys pug dogs, watching her cat do stupid things, and dressing like a Scandinavian corporate witch.
Tania Sawicki Mead
Tania has an Honours degree in International Relations and currently works in the education sector with refugee background students. Tania has been involved with the WYFC since its inception, and is also a member of the Freerange Collective, an occasional contemporary dancer and an amateur gourmet cook.
Pollyanne Pena
Polly is a Filipino feminist in her late 20’s. She is a Policy Analyst by day and also volunteers at Wellington Rape Crisis and Wellington Women’s Refuge. She gained her LLB in Otago and completed her postgraduate Arts study (English and Political Science) at the University of Canterbury. She is currently working toward her Masters in Public Policy.
Polly is committed to the betterment of the lives of those who have survived sexual and domestic violence, rallying at any opportunity to rid the world of slut shaming, rape culture and the social determinants of intimate partner violence. She is especially interested in how Asian women can contribute to New Zealand and the feminist movement here as tauiwi.
She has a fond appreciation for cats, beautiful food, vintage clothing, household linens and craftivism and is often found at weekend markets sourcing retro treasures for her wee home.
Rachael Wright
Rachael is a 23 year old feminist law and Gender Studies student, with a passion for all things cute, all things social justice, and all things cheese-related. She likes riot grrl, John Waters, and gender diversity.
Rachael’s experience is largely in sex-positive activism and student politics, and she firmly believes in fighting slut-shaming, gender and sexuality binaries, heterosexism, transphobia, and body-shaming. She also is a burlesque performer on occasion locally, and plays guitar in her spare time.
Rachael has a passion for working on safer spaces policies within community groups and sexuality discussions based on consent and desire. Did we mention she likes cute things? Specifically kittens
