Collage

This collaged panel once hung in Wellington’s Evergreen Coffee Lounge in Vivian Street. 

It is part of a collection of panels and other items that relate to the life of Chrissy Witoko, the  Evergreen Coffee Lounge, and the communities of people who congregated in the cafés and night clubs around Cuba and Vivian streets between about 1970 – 2002.

Each panel includes a combination of photographs featuring people that Chrissy associated with, news or magazine clippings, business cards and other ephemera.

This collage is about the Awhina World AIDS Day Variety Concert. The concert was organised by Drew Hadwen and took place on 5 December 1998. Approximately a year before the event, a client had burnt down Wellington's Awhina Centre, and so the 1998 concert was also a fundraiser for building new centre. The concert was held at Soundings Theatre at Te Papa, which had opened earlier that year. Concert tickets were sold at the Evergreen Coffee Lounge.

The collage features images of the concert's major supporters, the former Governor General of New Zealand Rt Hon. Sir Michael Hardie Boys (patron of NZ AIDS Foundation) and former mayor of Wellington Mark Blumsky.

The other people featured in this panel were the executive members and staff of the NZ AIDS Foundation. They include:
Kevin Hague (chief executive), Anne Carson, Matt Whyte (manager), Tony, Greg, Andrew Pihema, Alison Murrie-West, Suzanna Parry, Douglas Jenkin, Johnny Croskery, Valerie van der Donk, Brian King, Te Herekiekie Herewini, Haniko and William Harrison (Harry).

Te Papa is working in collaboration with LGBTI communities and individuals to discover the histories represented in the panels. If you have any information you would like to share in relation to this panel please contact a history curator at Te Papa on +64 (0)4 381 7000 or email Evergreen@tepapa.govt.nz