<H1><b>AUSTRALIAN AIDS QUILT PROJECT</b></H1>

Some 5 or 6 years ago, at an event commemorating World AIDS Day on 1 December, the group in Melbourne called People Living with HIV/AIDS used the day to launch, at the premises of Positive Living in Commercial Road, Prahran, one of the best resources recording the Australian AIDS Quilts which had been photographed and placed on a web site where it was possible to look for a particular quilt block or panel and it was found easily while the site also gave information about the Quilt Project and its history in Australia.

Suddenly in 2011 this site ceased to function. The index page was still available, but the links no longer worked and the resource vanished from the scene, leaving people puzzled as to what had happened and why the site no longer worked.

The web site for the Quilt was aidsquilt.org.au and even now, if you look at this in a browser you will get the index page.

So it was with some surprise that we saw an announcement in the latest edition of the Star Observer of 27 April 2012 headed with this web address followed by the subheading "AIDS Memorial Candlelight Vigil & Quilt Project Inc" inviting people to an Annual General meeting at 2pm on Saturday 5 May 2012 at the premises of the Victorian AIDS Council in South Yarra.

When the Quilt web site ceased functioning, we contacted the AIDS Council and People Living with HIV to try and find out why the resource had vanished and were met with silence - we had no feedback whatever!

As a consequence of this failure to communicate, we acted on a suggestion of a friend of ours to do a little research and resurrect the AIDS Quilt blocks and panels and although this is a huge task, we have done a fair amount already and the Australian AIDS Quilt may now be found at: Australian AIDS Quilt


The meeting announcement stated that the Quarter-Centenary of the Australian Quilt is coming up and they are asking for community involvement and input with ideas for future directions.

One of the best ideas we can think of is to be pro-active with people who contact them and support efforts to continue the memorial work from years past.

This won't happen because all these groups are so busy big-noting themselves they have no interest in people who are not in their mainstream agendas.