The former Wellington premises of the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective (NZPC), seen here in 1988, signal the collective's commitment to safe-sex practices in the array of posters displayed in its window. Inside, pamphlets for sex workers are available and a comfortable couch invites visitors to sit down, relax and talk.
In the sound file, long-time NZPC national co-ordinator Catherine Healy talks about why a group of current and former sex workers set up the collective in 1987.
Transcript
I think the crime was the fact that sex work was a crime was a big motivating factor for some of us and the idea that people didn't accept sex workers, you know, that was a factor as well that sex work felt like work was work, needed to be recognised as work. So yeah, labour management, stigma, recognising sex workers, work, equal rights, equal protections, public health, HIV and AIDS the major themes and of course the criminalisation, the fact that sex workers were criminalised and that there would be these police raids we'd call them, where they'd come in undercover and entrap sex workers for soliciting and then there would be this reality of going to court and being prosecuted and then, you know that was pretty horrific.
Using this item
New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective
Sound file: Catherine Healy, interview by Caren Wilton for oral history project Selling sex: the New Zealand sex industry, 2011
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