When we discovered that a World AIDS Day event was to take place at the Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens - a walk to raise funds for AIDS organisations - we thought we should make it known that Sydney Park was a large park with AIDS Groves and a Reflection Area which could be used as a focal point for an AIDS event. We wrote a letter to the Sydney Star Observer about this and were ignored, as has become the way with the SSO in relation to community organisations which don't meet the "glamour" criteria of the paper.
The first letter was written 3 years ago in 2005 and the second letter was written recently, in 2008. It too was ignored by that bastion of "glamour" events, so we thought we would place it on our SPAIDS web pages so that those interested in the SPAIDS project would understand how the AIDS communities in Sydney have become so politicised that they are no longer able to see "the wood for the trees"!
John Burfitt,
Sydney Star Observer,
PO Box 939, Darlinghurst NSW 1300.
Email: {mail@ssonet.com.au" }mail@ssonet.com.au
Friday, 2 December 2005.
From: Kendall Lovett,
Mannie De Saxe's partner, and Co-Coordinator SPAIDS,
PO Box 1675, Preston South, Vic 3072.
Tel: (03) 9471 4878, email: josken_at_zipworld_com_au
Dear John,
Apparently you spoke to Mannie by 'phone on Thursday afternoon about SPAIDS and he referred you to our website for the story. He mentioned as well that there is now only one planting each year in late July on National Tree Day.
It concerns me though that you implied that the SSO probably would only consider an article about the project around that time. I wondered why it had to wait until July. Why not in the new year?
In the current issue, SSO 793, I noticed that the World AIDS Day Walk in the Botanical Gardens was a wash-out. On the other hand the SPAIDS Memorial Groves in Sydney Park are meant especially for the observance of AIDS remembrance ceremonies with long and short walks through this beautiful parkland which includes its own lakes and birdlife.
Sydney Park AIDS (SPAIDS) Memorial Groves also has its own Reflection Area, designed and built for us by the then South Sydney City Council in 2001 and dedicated to those who have died from the effects of the AIDS pandemic, as an enduring memorial .
If each of the AIDS organizations named as the sponsors of last Sunday's wash- out Walk were interested, they could quite easily sponsor separate walks in Sydney Park throughout 2006 ending up with ceremonies in the Reflection Area which overlooks the groves. If they would go and look at the SPAIDS area for themselves instead of pretending it doesn't exist, they would recognize its potential. Sydney Park is large and attractive and is in lesbian and gay heartland 'Newtown/Camperdown/Erskineville/St Peters/Marrickville. Last July Sydney's Lord Mayor Clover Moore came and planted a tree in the Groves. So, even if the AIDS organizations don't recognize the park's potential at least Clover does.
SSO need not feel that it would be overdoing things if it published an article or two about SPAIDS in the new year, would it?
Regards, Ken Lovett.
Photo: Kendall Lovett.
2 November 2008
Mannie De Saxe, SPAIDS (Sydney Park AIDS Memorial Groves)
co-convenor,
PO Box 1675
Preston South, Vic 3072
Sydney Park AIDS Memorial Groves
Recent evidence shows an alarming rise in rates of HIV infection in Australia after some years of fairly stable rates of infection.
Educational programmes for those at risk in our communities have become necessary after many years of such programmes disappearing or being reduced by AIDS organisations around the country.
The Sydney Star Observer supports the "Walk for AIDS" event as shown by the full page item on page 28 of issue 942 of 30 October 2008, as do several other organisations listed on that page.
The annual event will be held in the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain on Sunday 23 November 2008.
Some years ago we asked the organisers of the event why it was not held in Sydney Park which is a well-developed venue with enough space to hold the two kilometre walk, and in an area where many people in our communities live.
But the main attraction for holding an AIDS event in Sydney Park is that it would also be a place of educational significance. The SPAIDS Groves have a Reflection Area in the middle which would be a good central meeting place to start off such an event.
SPAIDS co-convenors have applied for the Groves to be placed on the National Heritage list, and we were supported by Clover Moore, Lord Mayor of Sydney, who was pleased to offer any help she could for us to gain the listing.
We hope that all those organisations which sponsor and support the "Walk for AIDS" event will give consideration to the 2009 walk being held in Sydney Park.
SPAIDS hopes to have its 35th planting at the end of July 2009 when the Groves will be turning 15. We have planted over 8000 trees since 1994 and have listed about 1200 names of people who have died of AIDS. We believe this would provide an excellent educational opportunity for the "Walk for AIDS" event in 2009.
Mannie De Saxe, SPAIDS co-convenor.