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Overview
This block is part of the New Zealand AIDS Memorial Quilt. The people remembered on this block include: Tom McLean, Peter Cuthbert, Michael and others, Grayham Kenneth Haste, Andrew Carter, 'For those loved and known', Paul Noble (Paui Nopera), and Murray Hammington.
The New Zealand Quilt Project dates from 1988, and is part of a worldwide movement that grew from communities most affected by HIV and AIDS. Each quilt panel represents a person who died of AIDS, and was made by family members, partners and/or friends.
The Quilt concept originated in San Francisco in 1987 in response to the devastating impact of AIDS. Its intention was to raise awareness and enable loved ones to express feelings of love, loss and regret in a permanent and tangible way.
The quilt panels are moving, creative and positive memorials to those who died, and testaments to love and community support. Their presence and endurance reminds both of the need for remembrance and compassion, but also the need for continued awareness and education in response to HIV and AIDS. AIDS deaths have dropped in New Zealand because of medication, but HIV infections remain an ongoing concern.
There are 16 quilt blocks in total, most consisting of 8 panels stitched together. This particular block includes the first panel to be made for the New Zealand AIDS Memorial Quilt - for Peter Cuthbert.
It also includes several rainbows. The rainbow flag began as a symbol of the gay rights movement in the United States. Gilbert Baker designed the first rainbow flags which were flown in San Francisco in June 1978.
The rainbow eventually supplanted the pink triangle and the Greek letter lambda symbols, and came to represent LGBTIQ+ diversity, aka the 'Rainbow Community'.