During 1999 Community Support Network (CSN) in the Hunter, a group within the AIDS Council of New South Wales (ACON) Hunter Branch, was approached by the Australian Quilt Project to do an educational display of some panels of the AIDS quilts at various high schools in the region. The approach was accompanied by a request that a talk be given to the children at the schools at which the display was to occur, to explain the significance of the Quilt Project, and the additional educational information concerning HIV/AIDS and World AIDS Day on 1 December annually internationally.
As long-time volunteers with CSN we were approached to give the talk, and the school selected was Mereweather High School in Newcastle.
Here is the talk, given on 14 October 1999 which was followed by a display of Quilt panels in the school hall:
George Shaekelford, curator of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas, said "The quilt [is] one of the great memorials of our time - and one of history's most powerful works of political art."
In June 1987 a small group of strangers gathered in a San Francisco storefront to document the lives they feared history would neglect. Their goal was to create a memorial for those who had died of AIDS, and to thereby help people undertand the devastating impact of the disease. This meeting of devoted friends and lovers served as the foundation of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.
Today, 12 years later, the Quilt is a powerful visual reminder of the AIDS pandemic. Over 42 000 individual 3-by6-foot memorial panels - each one commemorating the life of someone who has died of AIDS - have been sewn together by friends, lovers and family members. The NAMES Project Foundation coordinates displays of portions of the Quilt worldwide.
Organisations in 37 countries from Argentina and Ireland to Thailand and Zambia, have adapted the idea of the Quilt to their own cultural traditions and use the Quilt in their work against HIV and AIDS. Through their efforts, they have created a rich, multicultural tapestry of the lives cut short by the global pandemic.
The QUILT PROJECT is a memorial to those lost in the AIDS epidemic. Composed of fabric panels, each in memory of an individual who has died of HIV/AIDS, it is a symbol of the humanity behind the epidemic statistics.
The panels measure 90x180cm (3'x6'), and are designed and made by lovers, family or friends.
The Quilt Project has four goals:
1) To provide a positive and creative means of expression for those whose lives have been touched by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and to facilitate the grieving process.Inspired by the American NAMES PROJECT, based on the folk art traditions of quilting and sewing bees, the AUSTRALIAN AIDS MEMORIAL QUILT PROJECT was founded in September 1988 by Andrew Carter, OAM, and Richard Johnson, in Sydney. It was formally launched on World AIDS Day, 1 December 1988 by Ms Ita Buttrose. The founding 35 memorial panels were displayed that day with visiting panels from the American Names Project.
The Quilt is displayed regularly right across the country. Displays help people understand the names behind the statistics. They also help to dispel some of the prejudices and misinformation, and help to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS and promote a more comassionate understanding.
People also see the love, caring and hope of friends and family sewn in every stitch, and painted with every brushstroke.
Each panel is unique as the person it memorialises. Names, dates and personal information are often included, as well as favourite objects or special mementoes. Some panels clearly show the fear of prejudice, arriving without last names or other identifying details. Perhaps most importantly, creating a panel help people confront the pain and grief of their loss.
AIDS is a worldwide problem that knows no territorial or cultural boarders. It is a disease that can only be fought globally with global understanding. You can help by encouraging friends to create panels for their loved ones. Make a panel yourself. Your contribution will help bring about a truly international QUILT spirit.
The project has now reached the stage where a book has been written illustrating Hunter AIDS Quilt panels.
The book will be dedicated to, and in memory of, all our loved ones here in the Hunter Region who have died of HIV/AIDS.
The book is called the TWO STARS PROJECT and is due to be launched om World AIDS Day, 1 December 1999.
The production of this book relies solely on fundraising and donations. You can contribute to the production of this book through a donation, ideas and fundraising.
Quilt panels on the floor of the school hall where many students came to look at the panels. Of great interest is the fact that about 120 students came during their break to see the panels in a school of about 900 students, of whom about 100 were away on study break before their HSC exams. Only about 5 teachers at the school came to the hall from a staff of about 40.
World AIDS Day in Melbourne 1999 - photos show gathering outside GPO Bourke Street Mall and AIDS Quilt Display in Exhibition Buildings, Carlton Gardens.
From Positive Living, November 2008 edition, as printed in MCV Issue 411, 20 November 2008
This letter is from The Age newspaper:
ON TUESDAY, the White House was bedecked in a large red ribbon in honour of World AIDS Day. How sad that this important day and its message passed with barely a mention in the Australian media and in Federal Parliament, when there are more than 17,000 Australians living with HIV/AIDS and a further 900 diagnosed with the virus each year.
Contrast this with the aftermath of the Black Saturday bushfires this year, in which every newspaper devoted pages of coverage to the disaster and it was practically un-Australian not to don a large yellow ribbon.
I wonder why World AIDS Day is not seen as just as tragic and worthy of recognition? Perhaps because it does not concern an issue that speaks only to ''working families''.
Ingrid Weinberg, North Caulfield| Photos
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