Uncovering the hidden stories of the AIDS Memorial Quilt Project

In 1993, a 10-year-old South Australian boy died of AIDS. Piers Stewart loved trains and dinosaurs and, while his life was cut short, he was not forgotten.

Radical Textiles is on show at the Art Gallery of South Australia until 30 March 2025.

In 1993, a 10-year-old South Australian boy died of AIDS. Piers Stewart loved trains and dinosaurs and, while his life was cut short, he was not forgotten. He was commemorated in a quilt panel made by his mother, who was also living with HIV/AIDS, as part of the Australian AIDS Memorial Quilt Project.

Originally launched in San Francisco in 1987 to memorialise those who died of AIDS-related illnesses, the project was brought to Australia in 1988.

It invited people to create panels roughly the size of a grave or a single bed to remember a loved one who died of AIDS-related ­illnesses.

Piers’ panel, heavily decorated with animals and cartoon characters, features the small handprint of his brother on the lower part of the panel, along with a label that reads “Handmade for an exceptional little boy”.

It stood out to longtime friends and collaborators Skye Bartlett, a fashion historian, curator and sexual health activist based in South Australia, and curator at the David Roche Foundation in North Adelaide Timothy Roberts, who had worked together before on exhibitions showcasing the quilts in SA.

Timothy Roberts and Skye Bartlett; courtesy Art Gallery of South Australia, photo: Saul Steed

Appearing via Zoom from Adelaide, the pair shares the story of Piers, and Roberts wipes away tears.

“We’re talking about a 10-year-old kid here. If you had to cast a 10-year-old for a movie, this would be it. He liked Batman, cartoons, and dinosaurs. This is the reality of the situation. It’s not just a ‘gay disease’, as it was once advertised,” Roberts says.

While researching Piers’s story, Roberts and Bartlett were able to contact Dean Gloede, a nurse who made home visits to the Stewart family.

“We would have conversations on the trampoline in their backyard so he could tell me things without Mum and Dad listening.” Gloede recalls. “He was such a courageous, smart, and humble human, who taught us all so much, well beyond his years.”

Piers is among many people whose panels are included in Quilt 70, including Andrew Roffe, Graham Ashe, John, Patrick, Peter Brosch, Phillip Wait and Sharna. In the panel for Patrick is a giant Thomas the Tank Engine, and there are two giant dolphins in the panel for Sharna.

On John’s panel is a poem that reads “You are part of us, as you always have been, as you always will be.” There’s also a panel for Peter Brosch, who served on the Queensland AIDS Council board, which reads, “I will always love you, Scott,” accompanied by an image of a cat.

Over the years, the majority of these AIDS quilts have been found and preserved at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. However, for Bartlett it became apparent – on his very first day in a new job at SAMESH (South Australia Mobilisation + Empowerment for Sexual Health) almost seven years ago – that some were ­missing.

Thus began a passion project to find all of the South Australian Memorial Quilt panels and return them to their home state.

“There was a fear in the community that they had been accidentally or deliberately thrown away,” Bartlett says.

After two years of searching and negotiating to get the quilts back – no small feat – Bartlett accounted for all the South Australian quilts.

“I had to take them from Melbourne to South Australia in these giant barrel bags. The quilts are huge and very heavy, each one weighing about 10 kilos. I had to get extra baggage and fragile stickers,” Bartlett remembers.

“I was flying with Qantas and when I was checking them in, the person working asked me what was in the giant bags. I explained it to him and instantly his tone changed. He said, ‘OK, I’m going to look after them. We are going to make sure that they’re the last on the plane and the first off.’ It was all very ceremonial and really beautiful. This guy knew how important they were.”

The quilts, now back in South Australia, are housed in the ­SAMESH archive and are among the collection’s community-accessible quilts.

Bartlett was later approached by the Art Gallery of South Australia’s curator of Decorative Art and Design, Rebecca Evans, who asked to include one of the quilts in a new exhibition celebrating the power of textiles, Radical Textiles.

“These panels are moments of activism and moments of love. What’s more radical than love and activism?” Bartlett says.

Roberts joined Bartlett on the research of the South Australian quilts and helped find out the names, dates and stories of the ­people depicted in the panels.

“Tim did an incredible amount of research into each quilt,” Bartlett says.

For him and Roberts, delving into the lives of those commemorated in the quilts brings up very personal memories.

“It’s an entire generation of people who were wiped out in their twenties and thirties,” Bartlett says.

“As a gay man in my 40s, I remember seeing the Grim Reaper ad on television. I was five or six years old – everyone was talking about AIDS. I was named after someone who died of AIDS, a close friend of my mother.

“In some ways, researching these stories is a rehashing of a collective trauma. We’re telling the stories of people who could have been us.”

But amid the tragedy of Quilt 70, there is also a great deal of joy and strength – something Bartlett and Roberts believe is the most important message. “When we look at these objects, they are full of life,” Roberts says.

“We are stepping into their lives, and that’s what makes these real celebrations of people. These are objects that, in one sense, are intensely personal biographies, and in another, a national ­monument.

“And the best thing about them is that you can pack them up in an oversized bag on a plane and bring them to the people to whom they matter most.”

Radical Textiles is on show at the AGSA until March 30, 2025.