New Zealand AIDS Memorial Quilt

This block is part of the New Zealand AIDS Memorial Quilt. The people remembered on this block include: John Nash, Freddie Mercury (Fredrick Bulsara), Rex Pekin, Bob Warren, Neil Costelloe, Phillip Bailey, Patrick McGregor, Sallie, Ken, Bob, Maurice, Archie, Roy Ormsby, Rick, Mark, Robin Murie, Michael Hansen, Spring, Murray, Mervyn, John, Charles, Brian, Brett, Sydney, Noddy, David Wood, Rudy, John Nash ('Touch Panel'), Kombo, Ray, Kirt, Peter Swanson, Nepia, Roderick Horn, Frank, Peter Taylor, Trevor, Peter (Australia), David (Aust.), Neville (Aust.), Richard Noonan, Garry, Nigel, Lynn, Darren Bruce Horn, and Steve Maxted.

The bottom right panel features large daisies in which each petal holds a name. It was made by early AIDS activist and educator Darren Horn and Peggy Dawson. They provided light touch massage for many people living with HIV and AIDS in Auckland. Each petal contains the name of someone they had worked with who had subsequently died. The last two petals were left blank and only completed after Darren's death in 1993. They commemorate his partner Stephen Maxted who died in May 1993, and Darren himself who died four months later at the age of 32.

Darren (1960-93) lived in Auckland and was a founding member of Auckland Community AIDS Services (ACAS), and an early member of the Auckland Branch of the NZAF. He organised the first AIDS March up Queen Street in the early 1990s, and was also one of the early organisers of the New Zealand AIDS Memorial Quilt. In 1992 he wrote ‘all the quilts speak of love, compassion and memories. Each is composed of recollection, sadness, acceptance and letting go. The quilts help us to learn and accept.’

New Zealand AIDS Memorial Quilt project

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.