Source: Radio New Zealand
Sunita Torrance (right), who goes by the stage name Coco Flash, and Daniel Lockett, also known as Erika Flash, hosted roughly 250 Rainbow Storytime events in New Zealand. Supplied
Sunita Torrance grew up in the rural Taranaki town of Stratford feeling largely distant from her Indian heritage.
The 46-year-old was born into one of the oldest Indian families in the country, but her parents didn’t seem to cling to their South Asian heritage.
“My family … were the only Indian family in Taranaki through most of my life up until I was about 20,” Torrance said.
“My mum and I didn’t necessarily embrace our Indian heritage all that much and we were very Western.”
Torrance’s family originally hails from the Indian state of Gujarat, and she spoke Gujarati as a child.
However, Torrance found identity to be confusing growing up in a place where differences stood out.
“I thought I was Māori [when I was a young child] but [I had] a weird name, and [later] found out that I was Indian,” she said.
“It took a little bit of time to figure out my identity a little bit.”
There were few Indian families in Taranaki when she was growing up, she said, and even fewer Indian restaurants.
As a child, she changed her name to Sunny, thinking it would be easier for people to pronounce and remember.
“But, also, I wasn’t really all that proud of being Indian back then,” she said.
“I didn’t understand it then but I’m now proud of my heritage and probably identify a lot more with that side than anything.”
Her first trip to India at 15 did little to spark that pride.
“I was 15 years old, you know, hormonal teenage girl,” she said.
“I had left my boyfriend in New Plymouth – and he was my life – and I was stuck in this awful village with a long trip for a toilet.”
Her relationship with her culture began to shift around the age of 18, when Indian influences appeared more prominently in mainstream pop culture.
“There were touches of Indian culture in mainstream pop culture like the Pussycat Dolls having Indian themes to their music and wearing saris and it was just, like, okay, so being Indian is quite cool [and] that’s when I kind of figured out maybe I should actually get into this,” she said.
Over time, Torrance said she came to see her culture as something to celebrate rather than hide.
She travelled to India again last year with her mother and said she now loved visiting the country.
Torrance said she began performing drag to support one of her best friends, who wanted to try it but did not want to attempt it alone.
She later began performing alongside Daniel Lockett, also known as Erica Flash.
What started as support for a friend grew into something much bigger, with Torrance eventually adopting the stage name Coco Flash.
“[And] it just developed into something bigger and then my allyship and activism in regard to the rainbow community really grew from that as well,” she said.
Torrance went on to host the first Pride festival in Taranaki and helped establish initiatives such as Taranaki Pride, Outfest and Out and Proud Taranaki to support rainbow communities.
Sunita Torrance said her business income dropped from about $150,000 to $30,000 in the past year. Supplied
Encountering threats of violence
Inspired by Drag Queen Story Hour in the United States, a South Taranaki librarian approached Torrance and Lockett about launching a similar children’s event in New Zealand.
This eventually became Rainbow Storytime.
The duo toured the country twice, performing at about 130 libraries and holding roughly 250 sessions before protests by Destiny Church halted shows in 2024.
In April 2024, Torrance and Lockett cancelled a nationwide Rainbow Storytime tour due to threats of violence.
Around the same time, two rainbow pedestrian crossings in Auckland and Hastings were vandalised, and multiple Rainbow Storytime events were cancelled in Hastings and Rotorua.
In February 2025, about 30 adults and children were barricaded into a room at a West Auckland library after a group linked to Destiny Church attempted to disrupt a Pride Festival event in Te Atatū.
Torrance said the fallout had taken a heavy personal toll.
“We were on the rise, we were getting keynote speaker invites and we felt it was super positive and then it’s all come crashing down and I can’t even do any of my shows that have a drag twist to it just because of safety and even the Rocky Horror Picture Show, which I’ve been touring for nine years, I haven’t been able to do that.”
In 2024, Haus of Flash, one of Torrance’s companies, filed defamation proceedings against Brian Tamaki and Destiny Church in the Auckland High Court, seeking just over $2 million in damages over alleged attacks on their Rainbow Storytime events.
Drag artist Sunita Torrance speaks to reporters outside Auckland High Court in June 2024. RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Torrance said the case carried wider significance beyond the rainbow community, particularly as other groups faced backlash.
In January, Sikh community leaders called for calm and dialogue after two Nagar Kirtan religious processions were disrupted in Auckland and Tauranga.
Videos later posted by Brian Tamaki showed protesters approaching members of the Sikh community wearing shirts with slogans such as “Kiwis first”, “Keep NZ, NZ” and “True patriot”, alongside a banner reading: “This is New Zealand, not India”.
In February, hundreds of people gathered at separate protests, prompting police cordons and some road closures.
Destiny Church-affiliated Freedom and Rights Coalition protesters assembled at Victoria Park before attempting to cross the Harbour Bridge only to be stopped by a police cordon.
A second protest on the same day, led by Toitū te Aroha, called for solidarity among diverse communities.
“It sickens me, it honestly does,” Torrance said.
“It was already personal with the rainbow community, even though I’m not a part of that community, but now he’s attacking hardworking Indians, people who have really built the foundation of our country along with other cultures.”
Despite the turmoil, Torrance tried to remain hopeful.
“I also think that the Indian community, or all communities really, they just need to show strength in numbers,” she said.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
