As was the case across the world, HIV and AIDS devastated communities across Australia in the 1980s and 1990s. In the midst of this profound health crisis, nurses provided crucial care to those living with and dying from the virus. They negotiated homophobia and complex family dynamics and defended the rights of their patients. Yet, as new generations of HIV treatment have transformed the treatment and prevention of the virus, the contribution of nurses and their unions in the crisis years have slipped out of historical view. Drawing on oral history testimony and archival evidence, this talk centres nurses as caregivers and political agents who worked alongside communities affected by HIV to shape Australia’s response to the virus and remake the medical system.

Dr Geraldine Fela is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Humanities at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Her research and teaching traverses histories of gender and sexuality, labour, social movements and medicine. Her work examining the role of nurses during Australia’s HIV and AIDS crisis and has appeared in both scholarly and popular outlets. Her first book, Critical Care: Nurses on the Frontline of Australia’s AIDS Crisis, was published by UNSW Press in July 2024. In October 2025, Critical Care was awarded the prestigious Prime Minister’s Literary Award.