Part 1: An epidemic arrives Our Forgotten Epidemic

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 Pink Triangle, the newspaper of the National Gay Rights Coalition of New Zealand, had some early articles in their health sections. But, on the whole, the government, mainstream media, the wider public, and even the medical community largely knew nothing or thought it was just ‘something going on overseas’.

Then, Kiwis began coming home sick… and several brave people stood up and demanded that people take notice before it was too late.


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

Burnett Foundation Aotearoa is proud to be able to tell part of this important story from the perspectives of some truly remarkable people. And we want to acknowledge there’s so much more than we can tell in this short series. 


Our Forgotten Epidemic was produced by Wavelength Creative, in collaboration with Burnett Foundation Aotearoa.
Written and researched by Alyssa Partington, Matt Bain and Dr Jason Myers.
Music composed by Alex Cox | alexcoxmusic.com
Hosted and narrated by Dr Jason Myers.
Many of the voices you’ve heard in this episode are from a series of interviews conducted by Dr Cheryl Ware in 2019 for the New Zealand AIDS Foundation Oral History Project.
Thanks to Pride NZ for allowing us to use portions of an interview with Kate Leslie. You can listen to this interview in full, alongside many others, at PrideNZ.com
The audio featuring Bruce Burnett and Phil Parkinson is from the Gay Broadcasting Collective Wellington, held at the Lesbian and Gay Archives of New Zealand, Te Pūranga Takatāpui o Aotearoa (LAGANZ).
Special thanks to our test listeners including staff living with HIV at Burnett Foundation Aotearoa, Gareth Watkins, the Lesbian and Gay Archives of New Zealand and PrideNZ.com
Special thanks also goes to Peter Davis for his excellent book, Intimate Details and Vital Statistics: AIDS, Sexuality and the Social Order in New Zealand.

This show is produced in collaboration with Wavelength Creative. Visit wavelengthcreative.com for more information.