"The House (of Alexander) has actually shown me that the world is my oyster and the possibilities are endless." Aniita Maka on power of chosen family in Ballroom.
The House of Alexander Ball 2022, delivered as part of Bris Fest was a stunningly sensory delight and incredibly aesthetically arousing. Six huge hours of looks, categories, screams, and confidence. This Ball was one of the biggest in Australian and Aotearoa / New Zealand history, with nine judges on the panel and visiting teams from New Zealand and Sydney, namingly the House of Silkie from Sydney and the Witches House of Coven from Aotearoa. Last years Ball was epic, but this year they really elevated their delivery and I was there to take it all in and offer a take of the show for Nothing Ever Happens in Brisbane (NEHIB).
The ultra-kind editors (thanks Nadia and Adam) from NEHIB have given me some creative freedom to do a little scoop of one of the personalities from the House of Alexander fam. House of Alexander are more than a dance crew, a performance team or a ballroom House, they are indeed family. It’s one of the most infectious elements of witnessing a House of Alexander event, is the relationships that are visibly supportive on and off stage.
I wanted to delve a little deeper into what makes the House of Alexander the force that it is. I poured through who I might interview, and in all honesty, it could have been any of the members, but my first pick was Aniita. I chose the beautiful, elegant and vivacious Aniita Maka. I contacted Ella Ganza, the mother of the house, and asked her permission to speak with Aniita and asked if she could link us. Ella gave us her blessing, and Aniita responded with such grace and sweetness and spoke of the gratitude she felt for being asked. I was more than stoked with this opportunity to have a chat with her.
My first question asked just how one goes about finding a group like the House of Alexander (HOA) and a mother like Ella Ganza?
“My journey of finding The House was a blessing that really came from struggle, I became involved with everyone through the activism and performance that was happening at the time and then became intertwined with what was unfolding within the group. I had been going out with the girls for a bit by then and that’s when I became tight with mama Ella.”
Aniita went on to describe her journey from reaching out to Ella at age 17 and being kicked out of home soon after at age 18.
“My father is Tongan and my mother is Maori. I come from cultural expectations which are very very strict. My family just weren’t as supportive as I wish they would’ve been. My parents weren’t actively religious, but I grew up around family values which derived from the teachings of the church and western religion”
Aniita defined being kicked out of home as a ‘rough patch’ in her life, a term I think of as pretty generous for someone who spent a bunch of time on the street because of this. Aniita eventually reached out for help and contacted Neesha who she knew was living with other Femme Queens. She goes on to explain how humbled she was by the love and support she received from this HOA family.
“ At about 10pm that night, I got a call from Vita who Neesha must’ve called, and he just said, where are you?, I’m coming to get you.”
She said that Vita drove over an hour and a half in the middle of the night to come and ‘rescue’ her. A familiar story of what happens in many families when parents just don’t seem to understand or are equipped to handle what’s happening for their kid who may be presenting as ‘different’, or non-binary.
She goes onto explain how her Tongan brothers in the group have been a huge support to her.
“The House literally saved my life, but if I’m getting down to the nitty gritty of it all, Leki and Vita gave me a chance at life, to believe I am worthy of living, beyond just a means of surviving.”
Cover image and this image by Imani Ah-Hi Andersen.
I express to Aniita that I’m so grateful that she found her people, and what I think the HOA movement are doing for queer Pasifika young people, that the visibility they are providing are allowing these young people to see role models and be okay with being who they are.
“Growing up as a transwoman of colour, queer and Pasifika. You come from the standpoint - I’m too brown to fit in with the white queer community, I’m too feminine to fit in with the gays, and because of who I am I can’t fit in with the church group……. but the beautiful thing about The House is that they’ve taught me that I can be part of all of these minorities and still be authentically me.”
Anita defines for me how the House have been more than a project or a dance crew, but her chosen family, often doing the things that only family does in paying for access to education and providing that ongoing presence and emotional support to her.
“People see all the glitz and the glamour but they don’t see all of the hard work and the journey that it takes to get to this point.
One thing we say about the House is….. we are family before we are a House.
The glitz and glamour will always be there, I find that a lot of our family values come from our Pasifika culture”
I go onto to quiz Aniita on her inspirations and what keeps her going through it all.
“…… my main source of inspiration is my sisters in the house, especially mama, even though her journey might not be exactly the same as mine … before all of this I never knew personally any other transwomen, let alone Pasifika transwomen. We face challenges even within our own Queer Pasifika community as well as in the cis heteronormative society, like trying to find a job, or walking to the grocery store thinking….. Worrying about am I gunna get beat up? or am I gunna get cat called? So there are those constant struggles that we face every single day……
Seeing women like mama Ella … She was the first openly transwoman who worked in the airlines, and she’s worked in many different industries and how she has navigated through that lifestyle is something we don’t envisage for ourselves, because we feel its out of our reach. To see someone overcome that and negotiate through that stuff, is what inspires me and keeps me going as a person.
Because, if we’re being real, transwomen of colour, especially black transwomen have a life expectancy of 35 years. Seeing Ella achieve all these things, being able to carve out spaces, in the nightlife, in the 9 to 5, and conquer all these spaces and create a name for ourselves is ultimately so inspiring.”
At the premiere of the House of Alexander documentary at Palace Barracks, Aniita is asked a question from the audience. What advice would you give to young trans people, and Aniita in her softness replied …always lead with love, I ask Aniita’s to reveal more about how she came to access this in herself ….
“Leading with love regardless of how life gets……For transwomen of colour, the common reality for us is that we are at the bottom of society. Not to compare struggles, but this goes above the experiences of lesbians, gays, and the bi-sexuals…..
Going through what we go through every day it’s easy to become consumed by the pain and the struggles and the trauma. I see a lot of transwomen of colour suffering and using negative ways to deal with trauma through substance abuse and self harm. Being a part of the House and a lot of the things that the girls have taught me is, why – if you’re surrounded and fed nothing but constant negativity, and hurt and pain, why continue that?
As hard as it may be, I don’t think we know how much leading with love has an effect on the world. For me and the girls, it’s become second nature to us and now it’s just how we function. “
Bringing it all back to the ball, I inquire with Aniita about how her night at the ball was, and how she copes with all the nerves and the long night….
“It’s most definitely tiring, everyone sees the glitz and the glamour, but there is a lot of stuff that happens behind the scenes for all of it to function…
“It’s kind of like a drug, like you get a hit from the atmosphere and at the end of the day it’s everyone coming together to express their creativity, our artforms and everyone’s categories. But regardless of how many balls I’ve been to, every ball I go to I’m nervous before I get on the walk…..”
Image: Alia Ardon. Aniita and fellow members of the House of Alexander at West Ball II
So how does the ball work?
“They release a date, in advance so houses from interstate or overseas can work those dates out for themselves. Then about a month out they announce the categories. Then houses go into creative mode. Source their looks etc….”
“Creating themes for categories, are not easy, it’s honestly such a process. We have to be considerate of things like people’s time and people’s ability to source looks.
The thing with ballroom is like say for example like Face this year called for ‘stone cold face’, a look dripping in diamonds that reads ,you know, we wanna see fur and elegance, opulence.
The thing with ballroom is, you may think that it just requires money, but all it requires is creativity and imagination……go to a second hand store and whip up a look, y’know …… make it work.”
We had visiting houses from Sydney and New Zealand come and join the festivities in Brisbane. How do you find the culture and togetherness of the other houses?
“… as much as you think we support each other on the stage, we are doing it 10 times more off the stage. We really role model how tight knit our house is for the other scenes.
There was a point in time where houses weren’t mingling with one another, because of this or that or history, but it was really refreshing to see people putting aside their differences and just have a fab night.”
So………What’s next for Aniita and HOA?
“The overall goal for us to keep going, and to keep carving out spaces for Queer Pasifika community. We pretty much dominate the scene in Brisbane, so its more about how can we elevate, and how can we keep creating spaces on a wider scale. Why would we limit ourselves to just one thing. Our goal is to keep pushing and see how far we can go…..
My personal goal , although ballroom is huge part of my life it’s not the entirety. I have goals for myself whether it be affirmation surgery, or career goals, because I’m still so young and life is great at the moment, but there is still so much more I’d like to experience.
I feel like the house has been a stepping stone, and has helped me realise that there is still so much more out there for me and that I’m capable. I’ll tell you right now that if you had of asked me this question two years ago I would not have seen a life for me beyond serving my parents, maintaining the house and all that kind of stuff, but the House has actually shown me that the world is my oyster and the possibilities are endless.”
