‘Mother of K Road’ honoured

Pokeno woman Karen Ritchie has dedicated more than 30 years to the Rainbow Community.

She was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in recognition of her countless hours given to the Rainbow Community, her advocacy for the safety of sex workers, and her work to help change laws making prostitution legal.

“I was shocked by the honour, I was grateful but shocked because I wasn’t expecting that. It was something that I wanted to do, because I was living in Karangahape Road, in that environment,” said the 73-year-old.

Between 2016 and 2023, she helped set up The Karangahape Road Community Safety Group, a safe space designed to help prevent violence against members of the Rainbow Community and sex workers.

It was this commitment to these marginalised groups that earned her their trust and made her known affectionately to some as ‘mother’ or the ‘Mother of K Road’.

In 2002, Ritchie founded the Cartier Bereavement Charitable Trust to assist with the funeral costs of people living with AIDS/HIV.

The trust was named after Courtney Cartier, a well-known drag queen and co-founder of the Caluzzi Cabaret, who died in October 2000 aged 32 due to lymphatic cancer and other health-related issues.

“I decided to start this trust up, so people could be buried with dignity, as their families had disowned a lot of them because of their status.

“I ran some very big events in Auckland, even down by The Viaduct, where hundreds of people turned up, and we did bucket around there in those times to raise money.

“I had a board, an accountant, and a lawyer for the trust, and each and every one of them did it for nothing”, she said.

In 2018, the Cartier Bereavement Charitable Trust closed due to new HIV life-extending medications helping to save lives and making HIV/AIDS a more manageable illness. The excess money the trust held was split between Body Positive Inc and the Positive Women Institute (PWI). Body Positive Inc is a free service available to everyone, regardless of gender or sexual identity, and the Positive Women Institute is a support organisation for women and families living with and affected by HIV.

In 2010, she heard many young people were being diagnosed with AIDS, and set up the Under 35s HIV Support Group, a safe space where they could come and speak to people their own age.

“I started the Under 35s and ran a meeting on the first Sunday of every month so that they could sit around and talk to each other.

“It was a support group for them, and that went very, very well; it was just lovely that they had that.”

She also played a role in the passage of the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 and was in Parliament the night it passed.

Ritchie said she made sure massage parlours had signs up informing customers that prostitution was legal and protection was mandatory. She remembered going around to parlours in Auckland and double-checking that they were complying.

In 2008, she was made a life member of the New Zealand AIDS Foundation (NZAF), now called the Burnett Centre, for her work in helping people living with AIDS/HIV.