The Pan Pacific Gathering for HIV+ People kicks off tomorrow and before its end on Friday will hear from speakers including the NZ Minister of Pacific Island Affairs Luamanuvao Winnie Laban, Papua New Guinea's Minister of Development Hon. Dame Carol Kidu, Rosslyn Noonan of the NZ Human Rights Commission as well as gay MPs Tim Barnett and Chris Carter, researchers and people living with HIV. In order to encourage free and frank discourse many of the discussions will be held in closed sessions.
120 people from the region have registered for the Gathering, including representatives of Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand, Vanuaatu, Kiribati, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Samoa and the Cook Islands.
"This is the only time most of these people can come together to educate each other and mark progress in their home countries, and to measure how far we have to go," says Bruce Kilmister of Body Positive Auckland, the organisation hosting the Gathering. "It will be a very relaxed and informal event," he says, "and like the last gathering, in 2005, "will be steeped in the honest reality of being HIV positive, free from the influence of political rhetoric... it's a chance for us all to discover the truth of what HIV positive people around the Pacific face in their day to day lives."
