Some years ago, in 2004 (see items under 2004 on this page) at a World AIDS Day event in Melbourne at the Positive Living Centre, a web site was launched which contained all the details of all Australian AIDS Quilt blocks and panels, and was easy to operate:
Because we have counters on all our web pages we are able to see which of our web pages are looked at, and often what links on our web pages people left that particular web page.
This has meant that we discovered that the Australian AIDS Quilt index page was still in existence, but all the links on it failed to work, thus rendering the site unworkable
Gary Jaynes from the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives (ALGA) suggested that we might be able to resurrect the Quilt blocks and panels from the Wayback Machine, and as a consequence we have now been able to put together most of the Quilts of the Australian AIDS Quilt Project. These links will take you to the web pages:
These are the panel pages. Please send us any information you would like included on any of the panels.
We decided to make a web page of those Quilt displays which we attended and put on this page as many photos as we have which are related to the Australian AIDS Quilt in the hope that this will help those looking for blocks and/or panels to find some of what they are looking for. Obviously our photos are not as good as those on the missing web pages. The resurrected pages mentioned above should fill in most of the gaps.
Display of AIDS Quilt panels at Martin Place, Sydney for World AIDS Day 1988:
Kendall Lovett started work on his first AIDS Quilt panel in Woolloomooloo in Sydney, somewhere around 1991 and completed it in Newcastle around 1995. The photo shows the work in progress.
Display of AIDS Quilt panels at The Domain, Sydney for World AIDS Day 1992:
Unfolding, Laying Out and Display of AIDS Quilt panels at The Domain, Sydney 22 MAY 1993:
AIDS Quilt panels on display at a forum for the launch of the Australian Centre For Lesbian and Gay Research by the Governor General, Bill Hayden at Sydney University
AIDS Quilt panels on display at the Convention Centre, Darling Harbour, Sydney, for World AIDS Day 1993
World AIDS Day service and AIDS Quilt display at Newcastle Anglican Cathedral. Kendall Lovett is shown with his first completed panel and other panels are displayed - hung on the Cathedral walls
Mannie and Kendall "presenting" Kendall's new quilt panel to the people in the Cathedral on World AIDS Day.
Preparations under way at the Hunter offices of ACON in Newcastle for an AIDS Quilt unveiling ceremony towards World AIDS Day 1996:
Unveiling and showing Hunter AIDS Quilt blocks and panels in the making at Civic Park, King Street Newcastle as an event leading up to World AIDS Day on 1 December:
Full Display by the Australian AIDS Memorial Quilt Project at the Sydney Convention Centre, Darling Harbour (for 2 days)
As an educational tool, ACON Hunter organised quilt displays at shopping centres around Newcastle for World AIDS Day on 1 December 1998
Full Display by the Australian AIDS Memorial Quilt Project at the Sydney Convention Centre, Darling Harbour
Hunter ACON arranged with Mereweather High School in Newcastle to have an AIDS Quilt display as an educational item for the school, and Mannie De Saxe, a CSN carer was asked to speak to the students and explain the significance of the quilts as an AIDS Memorial. The talk is printed on HIV/AIDS - PART 3.
As it was the end of the year, about 100 year 12 students were away on study leave for their HSC exams, and there were about 900 students in the hall to hear the talk. When it was their lunch break, upwards of 100 student were interested enough to come and look at the quilt blocks which were laid out on the school hall floor. Out of a staff of 35 to 40 teachers, only 5 managed to show enough interest to come and have a look.
Here are some of the items from the display:
We were in Melbourne when there was a candlelight rally in association with a complete display of Australian AIDS quilt panels gathered from around the country.
The display was held at the Exhibiton Building after the candlelight rally which was held outside the GPO in Bourke Street after which the procession wound its way to the Exhibition Building to see the Quilt Display.
Two Stars: A Celebration of Life - was launched at the Newcastle Library on 16 November 1999.
The launch of the Two Stars book was accompanied by an exhibition the following year in November 2000 - see below - 17 NOVEMBER 2000 for details and photos.
SEE ALSO CARRINGTON COMMUNITY MEMORIAL PARK
On World AIDS Day there was a further event relating to the book and some AIDS quilt panels were displayed at the Anglican Cathedral in Newcastle:
AIDS Quilt Display, Convention Centre, Darling Harbour,Sydney
The launch of the Two Stars book in 1999 was accompanied a year later by an exhibition in November 2000 which honours the lives of those people from the Hunter Region who are living with HIV and those who have died in the AIDS epidemic.
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Howell Phillip Deshong
Brave heart, Bright Spirit,
Gone, In all but memory.
Malcolm
Malcolm Arthur Thomson
Life's journey over - United in love!
Gently rest, Now you are there
Joint Panel by Malcolm's sister, Robyne
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World AIDS Day was celebrated with a display of AIDS quilt panels and a memorial service at the Anglican Cathedral in Newcastle:
This Candlelight and AIDS Quilt Ceremony was held at the premises of Positive Living in Melbourne at 51 Commercial Road, Prahran. At this same ceremony the Australian AIDS Quilt website was launched.
It contained some 120 blocks with many blocks having 8 panels to a block. Searches on the website allowed one to find the names of those commemorated on the quilts and those who had made the quilts. It was very comprehensive.
Here are some of the quilts displayed at the event:
When we think of Keith Haring (1958 -1990), religion is perhaps not the first thing that comes to mind. Yet, the last work of the artist, completed just weeks before his death - of AIDS - is a triptych, 'The Life of Christ'. Made of bronze and gold, it constitutes the altarpiece of the Interfaith AIDS Memorial Chapel at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral. Hanging at the rear of the chapel is a block of the ‘mother of all AIDS Memorial Quilts’, founded in San Francisco in 1987 and now comprising over 5800 quilt blocks, each block consisting of eight quilt panels.
In over three decades of AIDS, hundreds of memorials have been established worldwide, ranging from highly individual written documents to public monuments and recurring events like AIDS Candlelight Memorial. Recent years have shown digital versions of established forms like the quilts. For the first time, these AIDS memorials are now being documented. Initiator Jörn Wolters of The NAMES Project Netherlands rightly considers them to be part of our cultural heritage, that needs to be cherished, conserved and, even more important, kept alive. The NAMES Project Netherlands Foundation is the keeper of both the physical and the digital Dutch Quilts.
AIDSmemorial.info and memorialSIDA.info features an overview of existing memorials worldwide in the languages of the participating countries: English, Spanish, French, German and Dutch. Through Google Maps the visitor can zoom in on the monument. The portal is interactive: just send a photo of yourself in front of an AIDS Monument or Quilt together with your impressions to office@aidsmemorial.info.
The AIDS Heritage Action pays tribute to the objects of remembrance and contributes to their preservation. Also, it forges links between a generation that has lost many loved ones to AIDS and a new generation that experiences an HIV infection in most cases as a treatable disease. The more people participate, the more this interactive catalogue of AIDS memorials will be complete and lively. Moreover, individuals and local communities can find inspiration for establishing their own AIDS memorial, thus keeping this vital tradition alive.
In addition to the Interfaith AIDS Memorial Chapel at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral, the site offers a large number of other highlights. These include the National AIDS Memorial Grove in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, the Vancouver AIDS Memorial, L'Artère - Jardin des Dessins in Parc de la Villette in Paris, the Beacon of Hope in Manchester, Wolfgang Tilman’s design in Munich, and the Monuments in Nickerie (Suriname) and Durban. The site is built by the Amsterdam design agency Gebr. Silvestri and sponsored by the PlanetRomeo Foundation, Global Quilt and the Aids Fund Netherlands.
(Photo © Sherry and Joe) - not yet availableFor further details please contact Jörn via office@aidsmemorial.info
"All of the 97 Australian AIDS Memorial Quilts we have acquired are now on line and can be viewed here
Australian AIDS Memorial Quilts
The Museum's fabulous team of volunteers have also been documenting (as much as we can ) information on the individual panels and are up to Quilt 88 so by early next year (2014) the panel information will be up in detail.
I also developed an exhibition last year HIV & AIDS 30 years on: the Australian story
HIV and AIDS 30 years on: the Australian story
These are the panels we have resurrected. Please send us any information you would like included on any of the panels.
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of the Groves |
Mannie has a personal web site: RED JOS: HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISM
Mannie's blogs may be accessed by clicking on to the following links:
MannieBlog (from 1 August 2003 to 31 December 2005)
Activist Kicks Backs - Blognow archive re-housed - 2005-2009
RED JOS BLOGSPOT (from January 2009 onwards)
This page created on 25 JULY 2012 and updated 8 MAY 2017
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