Part 6: Our future is our past

There’s a lot to be proud of in the response to HIV and AIDS in Aotearoa. We’ve come a long way since the early 1980s — but the mahi isn’t over just yet.  Since the discovery of life-saving treatment, much has happened in the HIV space. Prevention, testing, treatment, combating HIV stigma, and edu…

Part 5: Do we dare to hope?

In 1995, the New York Times reported that complications from AIDS were the leading cause of death for adults aged 25-44 in the US. Although Aotearoa still had relatively low rates of around 100 cases per year, public perception of HIV and AIDS had shifted. AIDS could no longer be reduced to a ‘gay…

Part 4: How we lost so many

By the mid-1980s, knowledge of HIV and AIDS had entered the public consciousness. Safer sex practices and prevention messaging were being promoted by advocacy and support groups, medical organisations and the government. But an HIV diagnosis was still considered by many to be a death sentence. The…

Part 3: Our communities take action

The people most affected by AIDS in the early 1980s were gay men, people who injected drugs and sex workers — those who were already on the margins of society. At that time in New Zealand, all anal sex, the possession of drug paraphernalia and sex work were illegal. As the threat of HIV and AIDS b…

Part 2: Who was Bruce Burnett?

Bruce Burnett is a name everyone should know — a name that should sit alongside all of New Zealand’s heroes.  Instead, until recently, his legacy seemed to be in danger of being forgotten — other than by the people he worked with, those whose lives were saved by his actions, and the organisation t…

Part 1: An epidemic arrives

In the early 1980s, people in Aotearoa started hearing rumours of a new, mystery illness that seemed to mostly be killing gay men overseas. Early rhetoric around the illness, still without an official name or known means of acquisition, was overtly homophobic and harmful. Rainbow media, such as Pi…

'Our Forgotten Epidemic' launches on Tue 19 Jul 2022

Our Forgotten Epidemic is a six-part series about Aotearoa New Zealand’s response to HIV and AIDS, and some of the many brave individuals who changed the course of history. Thanks for listening to Our Forgotten Epidemic, a show about Aotearoa New Zealand’s response to HIV and AIDS, and some of the…