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Hi, I'm Kate. Lesley. I'm going to tell you about Bruce Burnett. Um, in 1984 I was the social work manager at Auckland Hospital. Bruce had returned from San Francisco in 1983 knowing that he had HIV and he was unwell and depressed and most un happy. And it was not until 84 [00:00:30] that he kind of resurfaced and renewed and, um, was imbued with, uh, zeal to do something about HIV A. I DS in New Zealand. I first met him in August of 84 when he came to the, um STD department to a monthly meeting there. And, uh, there were clinicians there, mainly theologians and the infectious diseases clinicians. And [00:01:00] he came to talk to us about HIV a ID and his experience in San Francisco and with the project in the urgency for, um, uh, gathering information in presenting it, uh, to the gay community. And after that meeting, uh, we we stayed on and chatted to one another, and, uh, Bruce said, Well, I know all about, [00:01:30] um, HIV and AIDS in the programme. And you seem to know about the health system and, uh, counselling, uh, here within that, uh, could we work together? That would be a good idea that seemed appealing and interesting. And we did. From the end, we spent time together looking at what what was needed and what Bruce wanted to do. And, [00:02:00] um, the social work department was in what had been, um, the nurses' home at Auckland Hospital. Uh, was a large, large old brick building with individual offices that had been people's bedrooms and a huge room at the end, which had been the common room. And so I made that available, um, for, uh, gatherings. And, um, before that, Bruce set up a, uh, a training [00:02:30] session, which I said, Oh, good, I'll, I'll come to that and there was silence and and said, Well, not sort of the men who were interested. And I said, Oh, that's all right. Never mind, uh, and then said, Well, perhaps you could come on the Saturday uh, which I did. And then there was an agreement that that I seemed an all right person and I could stay, and from then on, we we adapted the shanty programme [00:03:00] with the aid of um, Ray Taylor and Simon Rosser in an increasing band of people training, working, learning to be there to support people with HIV aids. Can you describe what the the shanty programme is? Was It was a counselling and support programme that they'd come by in San Francisco, where they must have been inundated with people. And, of course, without our support services here for for ill people, so [00:03:30] they would have been reliant on, um on volunteers to, um do shopping, um, support people. I mean, you look at health costs there. People wouldn't have been able to have private health care Will do. So I imagine they were reliant on their friends to, um uh to support and and sustain them. Um, and of course there was, you know, many people, many people, [00:04:00] ill and dying. Um, and that's what, um, Bruce and Ray and others had come back to New Zealand with that message that we we needed to adapt. Bruce's Bruce's background was he had been the pastry chef and he'd set up, um, a number of places in Auckland just as which was very famous in Auckland and others. Um and, um later, one of the people used to say to me, You know, How do we And [00:04:30] I said, Bruce does the cooking and I eat it. He's a wonderful cook, but he he, uh he travelled. Um, he travelled about talking and engaging the gay community in in what was necessary to to preserve and save their health. Um, the Department of Health were wise in, um, making a PE P appointment and giving him a job as an age liaison [00:05:00] officer and giving him a space in, um, in Auckland, uh, to do that, which gave him an income and enabled him to, um uh to carry on there and not be reliant on the the gay community. But the gay community were wonderful. They had put money in and enabled us to make the the early pamphlets of the teddy bears and the traffic lights to get the information out. Um, [00:05:30] to the gay community, both an urgency about that. That that people desperately needed to know what was safe sex and what wasn't from my background. I was able to contribute. Well, if we're going to do this, we have to do it properly. And we have to do this in words of one syllable that people understand. I had seen too much in the health system. Where where clinicians gave [00:06:00] people information about, uh, medicines, treatments in medical with some Latin phrases and other language. And the people smiled and said, thank you and took whatever it was they were being given. And they went away having not understood a word and at times quite misused, Uh, what they'd been given. This was very evidence in contraception when people came back [00:06:30] pregnant and they didn't want to be. But they hadn't understood at all how they were to take, uh, these tablets. So I said, if we're going to do this, um, with the beers and particularly with the traffic lights, we need to be very plain and use language that people are no doubt about. This is unsafe sex. Do not do this. This is safe sex. Change your ways and do that. Bruce continued, um, from [00:07:00] his position there to, um to speak on radio and television to speak to groups. He was a very charismatic, engaging, uh, delightful man. And, um, people warmed to him, uh, but engaged, uh, supported his courage in being out and speaking about himself and issues, and they they admired [00:07:30] his bravery. So a whole lot of people who might have been otherwise, uh, standoffish and not supportive here Bruce was able to knit in by virtue of his personality and his commitment, Um, commitment to the work, I guess at this stage as well that, uh, you know, you're talking 1984. So it was still illegal. Homosexual law reform hadn't happened. And was Bruce also out in terms of [00:08:00] having a i DS or HIV HIV? Yes, he was. He was playing about that. He was playing about his his, um, sexual orientation. And as I say people, people warmed and admired that that he was an he was an honest person And waging and engaging people and giving people people had, you know, the media information about HIV aids. And, um, one of Bruce's major things was the terror management. Because [00:08:30] people were just so frightened and had all sorts of fears and worries and bogey and extraordinary things. And what was our task was to get the facts clearly and present them in a way that we could say No, this is people had notions, uh, that the kind of that HIV was floating through the air or you were going to catch [00:09:00] it from cups and saucers or shaking hands or the swimming pool or, um, food, whatever. And we needed to one by one dispel all these things. And Bruce was fy uh, good and plain at doing that and travelling around and talking to gay men and encouraging them to to change their behaviour. But of course, bit by bit, uh, I mean, the immense efforts he made told on his [00:09:30] his health. And he had, um he had been, uh, engaging with the Department of Health and lobbying the government and aware that if we were to continue here, we needed an organisation and we needed the government to come on board, um, and get funding so that we could do things other than by the the, uh, goodness of heart of the gay community in contributing. So the health department gave money, and we made [00:10:00] this initial, um, campaign that that was very accurate, scientifically. But Bruce wanted to engage with with whoever was there that would listen, um, as well as the gay community, because we needed the wider the wider community netted in as well. If we were to, um, combat, um HIV aids. And at that time, um, homosexuality was still, um, illegal. So for many [00:10:30] people, uh, to get even to get the information we were aware, uh, was a danger to them. And which is why we pressed for the the the public information campaign that went to newspapers so that everyone could be seen to be reading this rather than someone picking up a brochure and other people saying, why? Why would you have been interested in, um in that, uh, which [00:11:00] may have impinged on their relationship or their their job or their status in society. So our our aim, until we eventually got the law reform was was to preserve people's, uh, privacy and, uh, and dignity. And, uh, Bruce was out at the front there, Uh, not doing any of those things and calling upon people to, uh, to people [00:11:30] to rally here. And how did how did Bruce interact with the medical profession? How did they see him? Oh, they they he he was engaging and charming, but he was also brave, and they appreciated that they also appreciated that he was this massive scourge from abroad. Um, and when we looked at the numbers that were projected, uh, this would have been a huge cost to the public [00:12:00] health, um, budget. And so they were supportive. Uh, if if Bruce, with his efforts could bring about some changes could, um um, and some assistance at the education campaign could bring about helping people make changes in their behaviour. Then all of that would reduce the the incident in New Zealand and the impact on the on the health costs. And that's not [00:12:30] just penny per budget. That meant that there was enough resource to go around to actually care adequately for people, uh, both in the hospital setting if they needed or, um, in the community, if they needed support there. Um, so any inroads we were able to make in, um, in reducing the incidents where we all to the good for us all, it must have taken a huge toll on Bruce. I'm just thinking in in [00:13:00] kind of 84. 80 in the early part of 85 where you know, for anyone to be establishing a network, a nationwide network of people that would voluntarily support and educate about HIV aids. Uh, it must have taken a huge toll on him. Yes, yes, it did. And he put so much energy into that. And and I think by his example, a whole range of people from every walk of life [00:13:30] and occupation were encourage driven Sam to to make a contribution. Um, and that was largely down to him. Um, some people, I'm sure were surprised that they ended up, uh, doing this. This was right out of their comfort zone, but But he was this brave person saying, uh, come on. You all need to be part of this. We need We will need a whole [00:14:00] lot of people to help. We need people to educate. You all need to do a piece here to to help. Don't leave it to Don't leave it to the medical profession. Don't leave it to a few. We need to do this. The gay community needs to do this. We need to engage other people and tell them it's it's safe to be involved here and to do. And he was quite brilliant at doing that. And, uh, a support [00:14:30] network and eventually the foundation, a testimony to that, you know, here was someone who gave the all, uh, to the end of their life to, uh, to fight to further the cause and to work for, um, for their lifestyle. But but for public health, for safety, like like this is safe sex. Do these behaviours don't do Do these change, change your ways. Stay alive. [00:15:00] Because at that point in time, there were no, there was no hope There were no medications. Uh, this was, uh if you had HIV and you were going to get AIDS, then then you were going to die. Um, as many young men did, and as Bruce, um, did many of those young men died at, you know, around 30. Um, but they were They were pretty dark in sad and challenging times. [00:15:30] Yes. And in socially, uh, really tragic times as well. I can, um I can think of Bruce and I being in one funeral. Where was a young person had died? And, uh, the whole funeral was addressed to Auntie and the said loss of her nephew. And there was sitting the partner of 15 20 years, um, totally ignored, Never once mentioned, never acknowledged. And in so wrong [00:16:00] and so awful and so bruising that this was with galvanising ourselves a bit more to, uh to, uh we have to do better than this. We have to. We have to make this. We have to get law changes. And we have to make this safe for people to stand up and own one another end end, be proud of who they are and, uh, and support one another in in death, if that's where it's leading. [00:16:30] Bruce passed away in the on the first of June 1985. Yeah. How did that affect you? Oh, devastating. Devastating. That was a loss of a really important person in my life. And, um, arranging. Bruce's funeral was most interesting because his family were were conservative people and they they didn't beyond Bruce. They didn't know anything of the gay community. And so they they thought they'd be to have a private, [00:17:00] um, funeral. I did explain that. I thought then mhm there would need to be another one, because the gay community wanted all to come together to honour him for what he had done. And so eventually the family thought about that and said, No, no, they needed just to be one. and we heard that that was a huge, uh, farewell and Thanksgiving. And the family after that said how wonderful it was [00:17:30] to meet all those. All those men that they had not realised were were out there and were so ordinary and, uh, were so much part of their lives, probably that they hadn't known about or seen or thought of. And and Bruce said he'd led the way in in making that possible, Uh, and with the law of reform, for people to be out in visible and to be [00:18:00] safe. Uh, and that was his That was his gift. He also drove you in a direction that maybe you wouldn't have gone there. Was I heavily going along in my social work department and my life took off in a totally other direction. And what began is yes, we'll do a bit of alteration of this, and we'll do a bit of counselling, kind of grew like the snowball rolling down the hill and, uh, became more and more. And then, uh, [00:18:30] the the speaking in support of Bruce and the the training and then when he could see that, uh, he was not going to be able to sustain this. He was becoming ill to say, Uh, here we are. We've got this far You need to hold onto the public health. See that this is not syphoned off by people who think, Oh, this is a good bandwagon. Let's get on it. Um, and hold onto this and hold on to everyone else and, [00:19:00] um, keep keep this going and the focus. And until we've, um, made some success in the diminish of HIV aids in New Zealand and, uh, I was proud and pleased to do that on his behalf, but certainly I did my life. And so this is where the New Zealand A foundation was born. Yes. Came about in, uh, in 1986. And, um, I was the [00:19:30] first chair of that and stayed there until 1988. When when there were enough, uh, great people around, Um, and we had gained enough strength, and, um, I passed on the banner and, uh, and it's gone from strength to strength since, and it must have been really neat to see that, actually, the the first AIDS clinic in New Zealand. Yes, that we that we set up the the Auckland Hospital were very supportive, Doctor Lesley [00:20:00] Honeyman, the medical superintendent. Chief, Um, and Murphy, who had been the, um, me in chief and then, um uh, one of the management of the board. Very supportive and and helpful. And, um, Honeyman had given, um, an old board building in Kitchener Street for the use of the AIDS network, um, to meet and to see people and then said that the Auckland hospital would have find a space for us [00:20:30] to make a clinic because we could see that, um, it couldn't be on the lines of the usual, uh, outpatient clinic where you sat and Siri Rose and someone came and called out you name in a loud voice. No one was going to come. Uh, so we we had some challenging times to find a space. Um uh, John Hughes, notable decorator, uh, devised the spaces and [00:21:00] decorated it wonderfully. And, uh, Michael Bassett opened that clinic, and we were able to call it the the Bruce Burnet Clinic. And we were able to assure people, uh, of their anonymity and their privacy, uh, so that it was safe for people to come and get tested because what we wanted was was for people to come and get tested, and that was a pretty scary proposition. [00:21:30] Uh, then seeing there were no medications and no vaccines or anything, and and this was a this was a dire prognosis. And and we wanted to be sure that we had an accurate test and that we were providing, uh, prior to post counselling of a very high standard and people's privacy, uh, was [00:22:00] protected. They could come and go from the building in absolute discretion, and they would be given sufficient counselling to support them and to provide, uh, whatever resources they they needed. Um uh, whatever diagnosis that they got from Nick. So we were very proud of it. Yeah, and Bruce would have been proud. And there he is, on the wall there.
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