In 2016 tsunami scientist Kaya Wilson survived an accident that doctors say should have killed him. While out surfing on the New South Wales coast, Wilson landed headfirst into a sandbank, breaking and dislocating his neck. He was told by medical professionals they expected him to be paralysed from the neck down.
Up until then, Wilson had been living as a woman and questioning his gender — but the near-death experience was the catalyst for him to make the transition to a man.
His story is now documented in his memoir As Beautiful As Any Other – which he will be discussing in conversation with Pōneke writer Emma Barnes as part of the 2022 Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts.
Photo: Supplied
