Thorne Harbour Health, Victoria's LGBTIQ+ & HIV community health organisation, is proud to partner with Naarm’s emerging Ballroom house, House of DIESEL, renowned for their exceptional talent on the runway and their impactful contributions to community building.

Thorne Harbour Health, Victoria's LGBTIQ+ & HIV community health organisation, is proud to partner with Naarm’s emerging Ballroom house, House of DIESEL, renowned for their exceptional talent on the runway and their impactful contributions to community building.

In celebration of International Trans Day of Visibility, House of DIESEL and Thorne Harbour Health have come together to host a two-day event focused on empowering and uplifting the Trans/Femme Queen (extended out to the Naarm Ballroom) community. Join us at Howler for an intimate and empowering conversation with Legendary Overall Mother Jaycee Tanuvasa of the House of Iman, as she sits down with TINKER TALKS host, Tinkerbell DIESEL, for an exclusive panel discussion in celebration of International Trans Day of Visibility.

Jaycee Tanuvasa (Sāmoa) is an inter-disciplinary artist and creative director of fa’afafine, femme queen & trans experience, born and raised in South Auckland, Tāmaki Makaurau. Her work is firmly rooted in community, and she places autonomy and story sovereignty at the core of each of her projects. She celebrates the fullness of young, queer, brown life and works collaboratively to create empowering and responsive reflections of this across a range of media.

Tanuvasa is a Legendary Trailblazer of the Aotearoa & Oceanic Ballroom vogue scene and the founding Mother to the international House of Iman, dedicating 10+ years to the development of both the community and the artform nationally and across the Pacific. She has produced a variety of events for the scene with IMAN Ball, 2021, held at the ASB Tennis Arena, being a most significant culmination of her work across the decade. In theatre, she recently premiered her production ŌVAH ŌVAH as part of the 2023 Sydney World Pride core programme, and acted as co-creative director for FEVER-Return of the Ula, for Auckland Live Cabaret Festival and Nelson Arts Festival. You can find Jaycees screen work within ‘Shortland street’, ‘Ahikaroa’, ‘inky pink ponky’ to name a few and her personal project as part of TVNZ’s anthology series, Jaycee & Koha productions created Mother Hood which is an episode shining light on Aotearoa’s beautiful Ballroom scene, a femme queen lead coming into her mother hood and an unbreakable bond between daughter & mother.

She is currently working closely with Queer Pasifika art collective Fafswag on their new performance show FALE SĀ / SACRED HOUSE - SAUNIGA (CEREMONY) directed by Pati Tyrell, which will be showcasing in Manchester this July 2025. 

As a legend notably for playing a part in pioneering the Aotearoa (New Zealand) Ballroom scene and Overall Legendary Mother to the House of IMAN, join us as we explore Jaycee’s journey as a fa’afafine, femme queen & trans creative and Ballroom leader delving into the intersections of identity, survival, and artistic expression.

Doors open at 6.30pm with the talk starting at 7.00pm.

Tickets for the second event, community workshop taking place on the 5th of April 5-8pm can be found HERE

Any more information or access requests, please contact events@thorneharbour.org 

This project has been supported and funded by the Merri Bek Council.