My Body, My Business by Madeleine Slavick

Author:Madeleine Slavick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Otago University Press
Published: 2018-11-17T16:00:00+00:00

When we began, we looked outwards internationally, but we were restricted by technology and distance. We had no idea that further along, we would be recognised internationally, in terms of decriminalisation in particular.

After the law change, gradually the invitations started to come in, the curiosity about what had happened and the realisation that New Zealand had done something really big – the first country to decriminalise sex work. People started to arrive from overseas – we’ve had researchers from countries like Japan, we’re written up in a Japanese book. Namibia, another book, it’s written up as a model. Europe, Canada, the UK, film crews arrived, like the CBC – the Canadians. International media ring a lot, the Irish. In 1995 I did a short-term consultancy for the World Health Organization, working with the Ministry of Health in Vietnam to develop a program for sex workers based on our community peer model. Of course we have our own researchers here, Gillian Abel, Mike Roguski, Calum Bennachie, cutting-edge stuff.

Vietnam has sent high-ranking officials to look closely at what we’re doing here with decriminalisation, and they had a conference in Hanoi to discuss our model. There was also a formal discussion in Beijing. It was really gratifying to speak to these audiences. So it’s gratifying to know that the law change and the work that we do is recognised in other parts of the world. It’s referred to as the New Zealand Model.

I spoke at the international Aids conference in Toronto in 2006. There were 26,000 delegates, 4000 speakers. Bill Clinton was there, and we were on the same page in the programme, which was the size of a telephone book of old. The rooms we were speaking in were cavernous, and I was speaking in the room next to his, at the same time. Both rooms were packed. It does say something about the interest, internationally. But then again, I may have just got Bill Clinton’s overflow, without the dry-cleaning bill.

Then the Oxford Union debate came along. In 2009, December, I opened an email and screamed – it was, ‘Dear Ms Healy, I would be very honoured if you would come and speak to the Oxford Union debate.’ It was about, we’ve had President So-and-so here, we’ve had famous movie stars, and I thought it was a joke. I wrote back and said, ‘I’ve received this email and I just want to clarify if it’s for real or not.’ They replied, and laboured on their credibility, as if they needed to convince me that the Oxford Union was an OK thing to deal with. So that was February 2010, and they asked if I would like to be a speaker or if I would like to have a debate. So I said I’d like to have a debate, and then thought, shit, what do I do?

I took my step-grandson, Kyle. My sister Patricia and my niece Jessie came – they live in Europe. We arrived in Oxford. It was winter, and it was just rich with all that you would have imagined.

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