Her words came after two hours of highlight reels, songs, and stories from those who knew her best. The stage was draped in flags left over from Splore Festival, an event Jools and her sister had a history of performing at.<\/p>\n
The Jools Topp Memorial service was held at the Auckland Viaduct Events Centre. Photo \/ Jason Dorday<\/p>\n
Bagpipes, owing to the twins\u2019 Scottish heritage, ushered the family in, with Lynda holding a box containing Jools\u2019 ashes.<\/p>\n
Host Miriama Kamo told family, friends, media and politicians in attendance that they were there for a celebration, not a memorial service.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is the point in life if you\u2019re not having fun? It\u2019s what Jools would have said.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lynda, who appeared emotional, yet defiant, wearing her sister\u2019s cherished pounamu, opened by saying goodbye to her twin was the hardest thing she has had to do.<\/p>\n
Her speech was supposedly written in Jools\u2019 notebook, which was revealed to be empty as the crowd laughed. Lynda said she \u201cdidn\u2019t have to write things down\u201d and \u201cwanted to speak from the heart\u201d about her sister\u2019s final days and death.<\/p>\n
\u201cFour women she adored and loved were there when she died, passing away in their arms,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe formed a circle around her, and we\u2019re all instructed to pull a word card out of a small box and to place it in front of where we stood.\u201d<\/p>\n
The words included gratitude, trust, willingness, peace, light, love, honesty, truth, purpose, balance, openness, compassion and kindness.<\/p>\n
Dame Lynda Topp speaks at her sister’s celebration of life in Auckland. Photo \/ Jason Dorday<\/p>\n
\u201cI know there are a few politicians in the room. Perhaps we take all of those words and run our country with them,\u201d Lynda joked to widespread applause.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want a good election campaign, you will hire me as your adviser.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brother Bruce Topp also paid tribute, labelling his sister as kind, generous, funny, forgiving and intelligent.<\/p>\n
\u201cRide well on your horse into the sunset, darling sister.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jools\u2019 activist spirit played a key role throughout the service. <\/p>\n
Former Prime Minister Helen Clark said the twins were always generous with their time when it came to the matters they cared about, listing numerous social issues the Topp Twins campaigned for, including the nuclear-free movement and the rainbow community.<\/p>\n
Helen Clark pays tribute to Dame Jools Topp. Photo \/ Jason Dorday<\/p>\n
Friend and M\u0101ori activist Mereana Pitman said the twins were the Che Guevaras of the P\u0101keh\u0101 lesbian movement.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the eight times I was arrested, Jools and Lynda would always turn up. They would always end up getting my kids and taking them to the Gluepot [Tavern in Ponsonby].\u201d<\/p>\n
Michaela Evans, who was part of a group caring for Jools\u2019 beloved horses, said the singer was a \u201cdevoted lifelong student of the horse and a steward of good horsemanship\u201d, even as she lived with her illness.<\/p>\n
Manager of 35 years, Arani Cuthbert, said the Topp Twins leave \u201ca mighty big legacy\u201d and that New Zealand mourns the end of a cherished cultural phenomenon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have given so generously to charities and helped three generations of lesbians in this country come out, including myself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey taught me that being gay wasn\u2019t something to be ashamed about, it was something to sing about. Out loud, together.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Jubilation Choir were among the many performers at the celebration of Dame Jools Topp. Photo \/ Jason Dorday<\/p>\n
Performers included the Jubilation choir, Anika Moa, Tami Neilson and Neil Finn, who sang from Greece via a video screen. All spoke of the Twins\u2019 massive impact on New Zealand music and culture. A powerful rendition of Smith\u2019s Bathe in the River made the audience leap to their feet.<\/p>\n
After a closing sing-along of the Twins\u2019 hit song Untouchable Girls, Lynda had a strong message before the election, saying there were \u201cthousands of lesbians out there ready to march for a different country\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said there were many people out there wondering how they would get through the next week. <\/p>\n
\u201cNew Zealand, do not let that happen. Make your statement at the voting stations. Honour Jools Topp and let\u2019s make New Zealand a much better, much fairer country.\u201d<\/p>\n
A crowd of thousands came to celebrate the life of Dame Jools Topp in Auckland. Photo \/ Jason Dorday.<\/p>\n
Mitchell Hageman joined the Herald\u2019s entertainment and lifestyle team in 2024. He previously worked as a multimedia journalist for Hawke\u2019s Bay Today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Her words came after two hours of highlight reels, songs, and stories from those who knew her best.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3648,51,9063,168,2947,16719,156,40139,78,170559,65617,424,22643,111,139,143298,69,83612,156938,18154,55401,42591,2742,61,170558,2963],"class_list":["post-485573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-animal","tag-auckland","tag-celebration","tag-ceremony","tag-dame","tag-emotional","tag-entertainment","tag-gather","tag-in","tag-jools","tag-laughter","tag-life","tag-marked","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-noises","tag-nz","tag-pleas","tag-poignant","tag-political","tag-remember","tag-singing","tag-thousands","tag-to","tag-topp","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}