You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)

You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) is a week-long exhibition presented by LPV, the National Association of People with HIV Australia (NAPWHA) and ViiV Healthcare.

The exhibition brings together three interrelated bodies of work:

• Let Them Know: Why and How to Share Your HIV Story by LPV
• HIVtest.au by NAPHWA
• HIV Still Matters by Thorne Harbour Health

Together, these works centre the leadership, visibility, and lived experience of people affected by HIV, and reflect how contemporary HIV campaigns are shaped through collaboration, care, and community knowledge.

Threaded through the exhibition is This Is How It Feels (2026), a take-away work by co-curator Emil Cañita. Made from mixed campaign posters drawn from HIVtest.auand Let Them Know, the work invites visitors to take home a poster as they leave, reflecting how HIV enters people’s lives through circumstance rather than choice. As the stacks shift and are replenished, the work centres exchange, care, and the movement of meaning beyond the exhibition space.

Let Them Know: Why and How to Share Your HIV Story feature portraits and stories drawn from a national disclosure resource written by and for people living with HIV. Developed through dozens of workshops and conversations across the country, the project brings together over 140 voices and nearly a thousand years of lived experience. The work reframes disclosure not as something driven by fear or obligation, but as an act of trust, generosity, and self-determination.

Displayed alongside it, HIVtest.au is a national campaign developed and led by NAPWHA, Australia’s peak body for people living with HIV, promoting Australia’s first national HIV self-testing service. The campaign features people living with HIV, while also including people across the serodivide. It positions HIV testing as an act of care and connection, grounded in positive-led leadership.

HIV Still Matters, developed by Thorne Harbour Health, sits within the exhibition as a reminder of the ongoing relevance of HIV campaigns today. The work speaks to continuity, urgency, and memory, connecting past and present struggles for visibility, care, and justice.

As curator Emil Cañita reflects, “Disclosure, for me, is a gift. A quiet offering of trust.”

The exhibition takes its title from Sylvester’s 1978 disco classic You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real), honouring a legacy of visibility, joy, and resistance. It is presented at Collingwood Yards, home to one of the few remaining public Keith Haring murals in Australia.

Throughout the space, visitors will find QR codes linking directly to Let Them Know: Why and How to Share Your HIV Story and HIVtest.au, making these resources accessible to everyone.

Please note that this exhibition includes works that engages with experiences of HIV stigma, disclosure, and sexual trauma. The HIVtest.au section of the exhibition features nudity and adult themes and is only open to people aged 18 years and over. Viewer discretion is advised.

Registration is encouraged to help us plan catering and manage numbers. By registering, you’ll also receive event reminders and updates, including notifications about the exhibition opening, panel discussion, and HIV Disclosure Guide launch.

Exhibition Events:

• Friday 6 February 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Storytelling Evening / Exhibition Launch

An intimate evening of readings from contributors to Let Them Know: Why and How to Share Your HIV Story, creating space for shared listening, connection, and community.

🔴 Register for this event using the button at the bottom of the page

• Sunday 8 February 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Panel Discussion: HIV Campaigns, Memory, and Visibility
Held during the VicPride Street Party as part of Midsumma Festival, this panel brings together people from our communities to reflect on the cultural, political, and community histories of HIV campaigns.

🔴 Please register for this event separately HERE

• Wednesday 11 February 4:30PM – 7PM

HIV Disclosure Guide launch + workshop

Living Positive Victoria and the HIV/AIDS Legal Centre (HALC) invite you to take part in the re-launch of the updated and revised HIV Disclosure Guide, plus a workshop exploring it in detail and answering your questions, hosted by Hope Street Radio.

🔴 Please register for this event separately HERE

Everyone is welcome. These events are open to everyone regardless of HIV status.
Please feel free to invite the people who matter to you and make a day of it together.

You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) will be FREE and open to the public from 9:00am to 5:00pm daily, from 6–12 February, and can be visited at any point throughout the day.

Acknowledgments:

Presented by: Living Positive Victoria, the National Association of People with HIV Australia (NAPWHA) and ViiV Healthcare
Curated by: Emil Cañita and Beau Newham
Artists and Contributors: Emil Cañita, Beau Newham, John McRae, Henry Small, and Jake Neville
Graphic Design: Marc Lyons of Marky Makes

This exhibition was developed with the support of ViiV Healthcare and NAPWHA.

We acknowledge the First Nations communities and lands across which this work was developed, including lutruwita (Tasmania), Boorloo (Perth), Gimuy (Cairns), Tarntanya (Adelaide), Magandjin (Brisbane), Naarm (Melbourne), and Warrane (Sydney). We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and recognise sovereignty was never ceded.

We also acknowledge the support and expertise of the HIV/AIDS Legal Centre (HALC), whose HIV Disclosure Guide informs and underpins ongoing conversations around disclosure, law, and lived experience.

We thank the many advocates, contributors, and community organisations across Australia who hosted consultations, shared their time and knowledge, and whose care, labour, and lived experience made these projects possible.