Garden Dedicated To People Living With HIV Opens In Canberra Australia

The Australian National Arboretum Canberra has opened a new 500–square metre AIDS Garden of Reflection – a garden dedicated to people living with HIV. Funds required to build a garden of $170,000, collected by The AIDS Action Council of Australia.

Part of a series of seven connected gardens, it serves as a permanent space for people to remember and pay tribute to loved ones who have lost their lives to AIDS. Kenn Basham, a National Arboretum volunteer, who has been living with HIV since 1986, said the new garden is a reminder that HIV and AIDS still affect the community.

“Everyone has to realise they are affected; it is a community thing,” he said, - “HIV is always going to be with us, but it is up to us to live the best life we can with it, whether it’s infected or affected.”

Basham said the new garden is a physical reminder for people affected by HIV. “[It’s] somewhere can point to and say to people, ‘You can go there for this person, for remembering or thinking or crying or whatever you need to do',” Basham explained.