Posts by Hilary Stace
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Access: The stories the Royal Commission…, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Yes, in those days we had government departments - departments of Government.. The monolithic ministries didn't come till the 1980s/90s. There were also varieties of inspection in these departments. However, I have talked to people who had some of these roles and they were not always aware of or alerted to abusive practices. There were many staff doing their best and presenting a benign face of institutionalisation. It was also accepted as best practice so not much desire to look too deep. Remember that it took a whistleblowing staff member to reveal the use of ECT as torture in Lake Alice and still more years for the practice to stop.
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Access: The stories the Royal Commission…, in reply to Sacha,
Good question. Social Welfare and Health I suspect. Some via Education. Government Departments weren't so silo'd in those days so I suspect there were many ways of uplifting children and making them the property of the State. I hope the Royal Commission investigates such questions and sorts out the tangled responsibilities of the State.
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Access: The stories the Royal Commission…, in reply to Sacha,
There was a major push for increasing the size and scope of the psychopaedic institutions following the Government's 1953 Aitken report, even though that was already against international WHO best practice. The stroppy parents who founded the IHC in 1949 lobbied hard for this committee which they hoped would instead recommend more community support and services. Instead they grew over the following two decades and places like Kimberley (just one of several institutions) had almost a thousand residents at times.
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Hard News: Public Address Word of the…, in reply to Nicole Murray,
Yes, kind or kindness. It has even been mentioned a lot in Parliamentary question time this year. Let's have an aspirational WOTY.
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This is the year that several 'new' words have become commonly used, often in a negative way eg cis, TERF, woke, social justice warriors, virtue signalling.
But I prefer the positive. I like that suggestion above for Neve. A new word to the NZ lexicon which means new life and hope.
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thoughts and prayers
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Happy International Disability Day. Time to smash ableism!
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Access: Lest we forget: the influenza…, in reply to mark taslov,
Thanks Mark. Great documentary.
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Access: Lest we forget: the influenza…, in reply to Craig Young,
This is a mystery to me. A failed overseas war versus a massive tragedy at home? Perhaps we needed Peter Jackson to dramatise the epidemic before we recognise it as valid history. I would be interested whether any museum around the country has featured it. History is gendered and this largely involved women's work.
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Access: Lest we forget: the influenza…, in reply to Bob Williams,
Yes, that's right, hardly any coverage.
That play was good but was only on for a few days. Volunteer Wellington has put out a booklet and a team of volunteers has had two days of tours of the flu deaths in Karori Cemetery. There was a public talk to launch it at which Geoffrey Rice and Grant Robertson (as local MP) spoke. I think there is more information about the cemetery research on the website of the Karori Historical Society. The University of Otago in Wellington had a very interesting lecture on public health interventions in both the war and the epidemic. Geoffrey Rice has about three book versions of his flu research out and has just published a booklet of oral history accounts. Dr Ryan McLane gave a lecture at the National Library about the Talune and had a brief radio interview. There have also been a few media articles. But that is about it.
I agree with you about the miasma theory. I thought that had long gone by then. But that is how I heard it described by other people who know about these things. But probably more accurate to describe the understanding as being caused by germs but not from other people. It wasn't considered a contagious illness (person to person) and that was why it took a while to be notifiable. In many communities isolation wasn't an initial response which added to its virulence.
The first polio epidemic only happened in 1914 and it was an era when people were learning a lot about epidemiology. Many doctors went overseas to the war and became skilled in injuries and wounds but didn't have time to give attention to viruses.