Porirua City Council looks to find family of 1800 people in unmarked graves
Photo:
Supplied / Porirua City Council
Porirua City Council is hoping to find family members of more than 1800 former hospital patients who died in care and are buried in unmarked graves.
As part of the Inquiry into Abuse in Care, the government set up a fund for headstones for patients around the country who lay in unmarked graves.
Porirua was planning a memorial to those patients buried without a headstone.
The Porirua Lunatic Asylum, which later became Porirua Hospital, opened in 1887. It was the biggest asylum in the country - at its height in the 1960s it had more than 2000 patients and staff and covered just over 400 hectares of land. It closed in the 1990s.
The city cemeteries manager Daniel Chrisp said Porirua Cemetery opened in 1895 - right next door to the asylum - and had a contract to bury patients. Most of the unmarked graves were here - with about another 100 at Whenua Tapu Cemetery. Together, Porirua had the highest tally of unmarked graves in the country.
For these patients, the hospital was their last known address.
Chrisp said the proximity of the cemetery and the stigma of mental illness meant many patients were laid to rest without a headstone.
"The sad history of people in care was that you were shunned if you were admitted to a mental hospital and families often forgot about you as well," he said.
"So when the patient passed away, there was very likely no family ... and no money for a headstone."
The council had released a list of people who were known to be patients and who did not have a headstone.
Chrisp said the council was keen to hear from families who had identified relatives on their family tree who may be among the buried, so they can have a say in the memorial.
"We want the project to be informed as much as possible by family members so that whatever we do to restore patients' mana and dignity is what the families want."
The shape of the memorial was yet to be decided but Chrisp expected it would include the name of every patient.
"It's a significant and special project and it's an honour to be part of restoring that mana and dignity for the deceased," he said. "They may not be here any more but the least we can do is try to remember them."
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