Queerguru loves to look around the world to see the different ways that World Aids Day is on December 1st each year. Technically there is a  particular project in Sydney Australia that will not be ready by then but will be a remarkable memorial when it is completed.

Sydney’s new LGBTQI museum Qtopia has announced its very first exhibition – a restaging of Ward 17 South, Australia’s first dedicated HIV/AIDS unit that was located at St Vincent’s hospital.  They have just signed a lease with the City of Sydney for a temporary venue at the Bandstand in Green Park, Darlinghurst.

For Sydney WorldPride, from February 17 – March 5, 2023, Qtopia will have two exhibition spaces – Green Park Bandstand and the National Art School, according to CEO Greg Fisher.  The Ward 17 installation will be set up at the National Art School premises. David Polson, Chairman of Qtopia Sydney, said Ward 17 holds a special place in Sydney’s LGBTQI history. 

“Between 1984 and 2000, the first dedicated HIV/AIDS unit in Australia – Ward 17 – was a haven for people who were infected with HIV/ AIDS, people who were very sick, who were dying and who were challenged with a situation that until most recently, no one had ever envisaged,”  Polson told the Star Observer

“Ward 17 in St Vincent’s Hospital is special to Sydney and it all started with the Sisters of Charity. They stood up to the Pope, to the Archbishop of Sydney, they stood up to everyone. They said it doesn’t matter who these people are, they need our support, they need our care. They made it a haven and if it wasn’t for the nuns it would never have been there,” Polson, an avowed atheist, said.

https://qtopiasydney.com.au/