Positive Life NSW

Genesis means 'the beginning' and for Garry, the Genesis workshop was the beginning of a way forward from the initial shock of being diagnosed with HIV.

Now in his mid-50s, Ross Duffin has been integrally involved in the politics of HIV/AIDS since news of the virus first broke in the early '80s. In this first part of a wide-ranging conversation, Ross speaks to Susan Ardill about his early days at ACON, the antibody-testing debate of the mid-1980s, the 'sero-divide' and the terrible years when the epidemic hit hard in Sydney.

A veteran of the 'Love Army', Greg Kelly tells his stories in a powerful and empowering digital story-telling project.

Greg Page reflects on what leads him to donate an hour of his time each week to massaging HIV+ clients. Once a week I do a volunteer massage for HIV+ patients. As a trained massage therapist with over five years of experience, I'm constantly asked the same question by my clients, who are almost invariably middle-aged men: "Are you one of us?" By which they actually mean, "Are you HIV positive too?"

On a visit to New York, Leo Reid was lucky to catch the Broadway revival of one of the earliest pieces of AIDS theatre, The Normal Heart (soon to be made into a film by the co-creator of Glee, Ryan Murphy). Later Leo spoke to Wayne Harrison, who directed the Sydney production of the incendiary play in 1989.

Tobin Saunders joins the library - as one of the books. I was born and bred in Sydney, residing till the age of one at Milson's Point just across the Harbour Bridge. [I never quite understood that term 'born and bred'; it seems like a kooky anachronism.] Mum, Dad, my two brothers and I squeezed into a dark, red-brick Federation-style flat. Not that I have a visual memory of this time, but I do have photos.

For Peter Schlosser, the creative energy that surfaces through his art is a true life force. When I was three, so I'm told, I would often sit with Lego blocks or paper and pencils at the coffee table, chin in hand, elbow on table, in the classic pose of deep thought. Mum would smile and walk away. Ten minutes later she'd return and I wouldn't have moved.