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[00:00:05] Kevin, we're just standing with two blocks of the New Zealand aids Memorial quilt. And we're actually standing in front of the first panel, which is Peter, catapults. When did you first become aware of the quote,
[00:00:18] met this must have been back in the early 1990s when I became involved with Nelson HIV AIDS support network, and we were looking at bringing what we heard about the quote through the network, and we looked at the possibility of bringing it to Nelson. And I think it was 1994 when it came to Nelson for the first time with Nicki Ed, who was the coordinator and he bought eight blocks down with her. And he took it on a two week tour of Nelson.
[00:00:48] And each block has how many panels
[00:00:50] aight aight panels per block. And course each panel measuring six foot foot by three means each block is 12 foot by 12 foot, which is roughly three and a half meters by three and a half meters, which is quite a size.
[00:01:05] So bringing that many blocks down to Nelson, and how did how did Nikki go about kind of shutting them down.
[00:01:10] Back in those days entity lines was operating, and they actually transported the quilt around the country free of charge. And so we've made use of the surface layer to bring it down to Nelson. And then when it Lyft, Nelson, it actually went up to Tara Nikita, Dr. Karen, Jackie, and the inset took it up.
[00:01:30] So you were saying the tour around Nelson, where where did you tour it? And can you explain to me what the reaction was like?
[00:01:38] We spent a week going around some of the high schools and secondary schools we even talk right after attacker. And then which is the capital of a house, why we had use of a hospital board allowed us to use one of the events for the day and we use better take it over to attack occur. And we also speak awake, we're awkward on display in the cathedral and Nelson and that particular display in the cathedral. I know there is at least one panel on the block on the quote today, which specifically mentions that display where the person who commemorates actually saw the club for the first time hanging in the cathedral.
[00:02:21] So it was the cathedral and schools with
[00:02:23] with or other places that it was no that was all we did at that stage was just there for the two weeks and sort of like a different school every day except the day we went to tactical and it was model acre in the morning and a knife attack occur at lunchtime for the afternoon session there
[00:02:39] was easy to get into schools.
[00:02:42] And some yes, some now. And we still to this day have not had a definite yes or no from Nelson boys college. But I've had the Colton there three times since.
[00:02:57] Yeah, the reaction. Very lucky, I didn't have much trouble at all really getting it into the schools. Most the hassles if you could call it hassles of getting it into schools came on subsequent tours later on. one that comes to mind was in 2002. I think it was when I took it down the west coast where there was schools just didn't bother to get back to me or to the the Health Board person who was doing a lot of organizing for me. There's one definite flat no right from the beginning.
[00:03:36] But there's other times I went to I actually went down there year to earlier and asked what would be the possibility like of bringing it into the school. And the principal said to me because it in the can now and bring it a nephew, which unfortunately I didn't have that ended up the fan 2002 had a very good day there. And that was done.
[00:04:01] Did you take other people with you to explain the quarter were you were you running kind of workshops,
[00:04:07] there's basically a one man band, take it and we sit up the displays on the floor, usually, and then the classes came through two or sometimes three classes together, we concentrated on the teens, four to 14 year olds, and fourth form. And they we had them for a whole period we talk about HIV and AIDS, what it is, what it isn't, how you get it, how you don't get it. And then about the quote the story about the quotes, and then we'd have a look at the
[00:04:46] chance to have a closer look at the quotes network around them. Talk about them. And then we'll come back together again. So talk a bit about more about the course if anyone has any specific questions. And then we'll talk about how to protect themselves and their including four safe six message.
[00:05:04] What would the reactions like from the students?
[00:05:06] It was amazing as the some schools in particular where it was, I was really blown away, the kids would obviously talk about it amongst themselves that playtime then fell on lunchtime, and that and the classes later on in the day came back with questions, which is how I knew that obviously been talking about that. And that then they they had some awareness, which was good. At the end of it. There's one particular display I did in a school where that ended tentacle towards independence or one of the teachers came in and had a look and there and she started getting a bit tearful, we always carried a box of tissues, let us know that would happen. And some of the senior girls were around and as well. And she started talking about that the end of the communist regime and Romania. And that actually you actually went over to look after some of the AIDS affected orphans in there and the way they were treated. And matters are being almost subhuman and that and by the
[00:06:13] way that the individual to go back to class and that and they still carried on talking about him, it's cold if now they're together and they attend.
[00:06:21] There wasn't a dry eye amongst everyone present. And from what I can gather, that was the first time that she'd actually be able to talk about the quote about her experiences net and Romania. And their turn. Yeah, very, very moving. period of time.
[00:06:39] In the presentations, did you find that there was a moment where it suddenly clicked for people?
[00:06:45] And it theories some yes, some now. There's one school in particular with the boys and particular senior boys, they just couldn't be interested. And the girls in the classroom master apologetic about their behavior. In they were really full of questions in there. Yeah. The, in general though the reception was really brilliant is I've lost count of the number of times that teachers have said to me, I've never seen the class that quiet before. So obviously the message did get through was getting through to some degree in nearly all cases.
[00:07:24] I mentioned taking these panels around
[00:07:29] the chance of being desensitized, are we but if you're telling some more stories time after time, how did you ever find this? And if you did, how did you kind of counter bad
[00:07:42] times it was a little bit sore towards the end of a tour and but then again, you start getting the reactions net from the from the kids next year, you knew you're on the right track and catch you going and then course in the next time we had the quote down the different blocks and there's involved and there's okay going that way.
[00:08:04] Are there any specific panels that just really kind of get to you
[00:08:09] is been the block saving the title, block, I know that there's a, there's two panels side by side on that.
[00:08:19] When the story was first told to me, that particular block was all assembled on the Titanic around Mariah Northland. And these, one of the people on one of the two panels, was interested in genealogy and had the initial Sophos am sisters, and they're treading on the side. And the people, the family members for the one next to this and says the block was being assumed actually being joined together. So see what are those main and that and they got talking? And it turns out that one person is memory. Remember, one saw his ancestors Salt Lake, and to the people on the adjoining panel? Say, yeah, it's quite a secret sort of a weird sensation at the time. And I'm actually feeling it now, too. Yeah.
[00:09:15] After that tour in the mid 90s, or what was your next involvement with the quote.
[00:09:20] And it's been sort of ongoing all the time, really right through and so started from the gesture whenever we sort of thought I would bring some the quote down to Nelson, and that is sort of ended up being sort of de facto coordinator of the support network and coordinating all these things. And
[00:09:43] we also had helped a father make a panel for sun heat last, that is still one of the individual panels hasn't been joined to quote, he says bit of money to work on my effort, along with the part of the tape nearly came complete, like table, because we have super glue to present material on that wouldn't stick, and recluse like right, which I able to add faithfully, we managed to separate, you can still see it a little bit of vanish attached at the backup.
[00:10:21] You've been from there. And I've always sort of maintained an interest in the felt in that and right up until the the present day, with having created the website for the quote as well, which I still maintain,
[00:10:36] will get onto the website in just a minute. But I'm just wondering, what can you describe to me what it was like to actually be part of making a panel and and working with with somebody who's lost somebody to HIV night,
[00:10:49] at that stage where initially he came, his son actually died in London. And it came to me, and we got talking. And that was towards the end of it all sort of mentioned about the fact that had the quote existed. And I told him about it would be lovely idea. And that niche came along to one of the meetings of the support network, which we had on a monthly basis back then. And he and from there where you're sort of saw Micah, a panel in Latin would help them do it and which he he was most thankful for. And even today, just a couple of weeks ago, I was talking to him and see that the quote was actually coming here into Harper. And he was correct with that. Yes. That it was coming. His quote was coming to papa on a permanent basis. Yeah, it's really good. But we together making it we shared a lot he shared a lot of memories with us about his son is actually a twin.
[00:11:54] I think memory is the oldest of the two twins. And there was another older brother as well. And I has talking about the theme. When his wife is pregnant with the twins, they still have just down the road from the hospital and took took his wife to the hospital to deliver the twins. I know we all are
[00:12:14] a lot from the memories show the with the set. But there's still a lot of laughs for this around the table as well.
[00:12:23] Yeah, a lot of good memories from that time with all of us here together.
[00:12:28] And there is actually a FIFO effect on the website of us making that quote.
[00:12:34] So the website, how did that come about? And why is that important?
[00:12:39] website came about as a as a permanent memorial to the quote, I was always been thinking in the back of my mind for some years, what was going to happen to the quote eventually, and all the work and love and everything that's gone into it, what's going to happen.
[00:12:59] And then I was talking with Michael Bancroft there about the
[00:13:06] possibility of doing a website, they've been talk from Rachel and Sergei from the AIDS Foundation, about creation of the site, and it just sort of grew from there, I sort of said, Well, I can do this and do that. And yet, the Japan and fund and I actually did a dummy site from some of the information that I had, and took it up to Auckland showed them and they were really blown away with what they saw. Go for
[00:13:41] God for the
[00:13:44] when you first started out on the website, how was it trying to collate all that information.
[00:13:49] And a lot of the early stuff was pre computer days, really, for some of the early panels, but eventually was able to get hold of the archives that Michael head and was having to go through those and sought out all the relevant details regarding the panels and everything. And also the a lot of the stories were eventually actually put onto computer by the quote network outside of the court project. And they get and Michael actually gave me a copy of all those files. And so there's quite a lot of cut and paste from those original files on the website, which cut down a lot of work. And it also set aside a lot of research to just once I found out just the how the the files that were arranged on the desk and just been from the end, when I got hold of the physical files themselves. I've done a lot of updating as well. And that included photographs and everything that were on those that were included, but the files about never included with the display information.
[00:14:55] So when a family or friends or loved ones donated a question panel did they also donate stories and other memorability around that person. So because I mentioned it was quite hard to track people down now to get those kind of stories is very, very difficult to track down people these days. And there's there was no actual compulsion to but we asked if they could give a story about a just sort of explaining just sort of the significance of various things on the panels and that,
[00:15:29] sadly, there's still about 2025 panels that we still have no information on. As it turned out this morning. I've actually, we have already with someone who made one of the panels. We don't have the information and she's kind of seen that to me. So I can get it up on the website. But there is provision on the website for people to make contact with me so we can get that information there. And if there's a penalty for someone who has a
[00:15:58] story even if they've got a story in at the end, they want to add their own memory of IT person that can be done quite easily and it's about half a dozen panels already with that second
[00:16:10] or third edition being done.
[00:16:12] So the original materials from the cool project so the quilt, and also the the archival documents and photographs are now with to Papa, what are your thoughts about them
[00:16:25] couldn't go to a better place we know they will be looked after all the work and the love that's gone into that work over the years it hasn't gone to waste, it will still be in existence and that and even though it might be difficult to access them physically here at Harper, they are still accessible in the digital format. And that as well particularly with the wonderful photographs all of the blocks in that which end of the series on the website.