As Sharman Matthews strides across the road in her hometown of Ngāruāwahia someone yells out to her from a passing car.
“Hey Aunty!”
Sharman shouts back before telling me it’s one of her nieces.
The 37 year old has recently moved back to Hamilton - where she lives with her partner.
In Ngāruawāhia it’s a fine day - but there is a cool breeze shooting off the banks of the Waikato River.
But looking at Sharman you wouldn’t know it.
She’s in her element, confident in her own skin wearing an outfit you’ll likely to see at the Melbourne Cup races - a short, summery dress, a shimmering choker, sharp red velvet pumps and slicked back hair.
It’s a far cry from when Sharman left this town as an 11 year old.
“Being brought up in this kind of neighbourhood and this kind of town, you know it was unheard of being transgender,” Sharman says.
From a young age, Sharman knew who she was. Although born male - she identifies as a wahine.
However, growing up transgender in small town Waikato in the late 1990s was a lonely experience.
Her whānau was not willing to accept her in the skin she was in.
“It was taboo, you know. It wasn’t something that was common, and especially with so young,” she says.
“They were kind of blaming themselves, you know, and they were looking at why. Unfortunately I did have to leave home.”
Sharman ran away from home catching a bus to try and find her sister in Tauranga.
She quickly found herself on the streets at 11 years old - and her teen years would be filled with crime and prostitution.
“I was doing burglaries. I was stealing cars and also taking drugs, to take me out of the reality world. There was fraud. By the time I was 15 years old, I was an advanced criminal by then.”
After almost being sent to jail - Sharman moved to Auckland.
“I ended up in Auckland in the red light district, that kind of life continued for me for a long time. I was trying to get a normal job but what I could make in a normal job in a week, I could make that in a day.”
But she found her community in the bright lights of Karangahape Rd.
She discovered a passion for cabaret and soon found work in film, television, and modelling.
“It’s been a very long journey to get to where I am today.”
It’s taken a lifetime for Sharman to be recognised as a wahine.
She’s now in a stable relationship and is a mum.
“I’ve been very fortunate to have love and found love.
My life is completely different. I’m now a mum, I am a grandma - it means the world to me absolutely.”
However, this year New Zealand First introduced a controversial new member’s bill.
It means trans women will not fit the definition of a woman under law and Sharman can’t fully live her authentic life.
Sharman has started a petition against the bill as she believes it will have a major impact on the transgender community.
“This bill is not only stripping trans women and trans men of standard healthcare rights, but also having the right to just walk in a public space and being accepted in society.”
But there is strong support for the New Zealand First member’s bill - and one of its strongest advocates is a wahine Māori who lives in Australia.
Michelle Uriarau is Māori and grew up in Hawke’s Bay - but for the last three decades she’s lived in Australia.
She’s not alone - well known anti-trans advocates include Harry Potter JK Rowling and Kellie-Jay Keen Minsull known better as Posie Parker - who sparked protests when she visited Auckland in 2023.
Uriarau co-founded Women’s Action Group in 2019 - a group of rural women concerned about the erosion of women’s rights.
However, she’s drawn the ire of the trans community who believe she’s spreading trans-hate and mis-information.
Uriarau is adamant in her stance.
“No one knows what a woman is anymore. Everyone’s suddenly developed amnesia.
“I am wahine, I’m wahine Māori. That’s all it is. It’s not complex.”
Uriarau admires figures such as JK Rowling and Posie Parker for taking a stance on trans-issues.
She’s also held a number of protest events in Melbourne.
“We’ve been called all kinds of things,” Uriarau says.
“Bitch, slut, c***, witch, Nazi, TERF, everything but a wahine, interestingly And all we call trans women are men. And I don’t think being a man is a bad thing.”
Uriarau believes teaching kids about gender diversity is to blame for the rise in children believing they’re born in the wrong bodies.
“That’s a very new thing in my generation and even in my grandmothers and so forth.”
Even though she says she’s faced abuse - she won’t back down from her position.
“Why should I be forced to call men women? Why should I be forced?”
But for Sharman Matthews this is a view which is uneducated.
“Most ladies that have had those kinds of opinions.
“Most of them haven’t actually had an encounter or had a sit down and met a trans woman and gotten to actually know what we’re about and who we are.”
A cold river gust blows through her hair as she sits by the corner shops in Ngāruawāhia.
She reflects on the road she’s taken since leaving her hometown at 11-years old.
“I would say to the 11-year-old me that it’s all going to be worth it and keep going.
“Don’t let anybody’s opinions stop you from being the amazing person that you’re capable of being.”
Made with the support of Te Māngai Pāho and New Zealand On Air