Remembering the Children of the Royal Derwent Hospital’

A White Flower Memorial Event

The first week in December marks the beginning of Human Rights Week (3-10). This year it also happens to be the 15th anniversary of the closure of the Royal Derwent (Psychiatric) Hospital at New Norfolk. Sadly, the Royal Derwent was a hospital in name only. In practice it was a brutal asylum where children suffered human rights abuses, therefore it seems an appropriate time to remember the children of the Royal Derwent.

On Tuesday 8 December 2015 at 2:00 pm, a group of citizens will gather on The Avenue, outside the gates to The Barracks (Willow Court) at New Norfolk to lay wreaths of white flowers in remembrance of those children who suffered and died while in care.

The following people have been invited to participate. Jacquie Petrusma (Minister for Human Services), Cassy O’Connor (Greens Leader), Rebecca White (Labor spokesperson on health), Craig Farrell (Member for Derwent), and Martyn Evans (Derwent Valley Mayor). The Willow Court History Group has also been invited to attend.

The White Flower Memorial is a group that remembers people with disabilities who suffered appalling human rights abuses while in care.

The media are encouraged to attend this event in order to help show the Tasmanian community, and especially our politicians, that the darker aspects of our island’s history should not be erased from the public consciousness as many of the former institution’s buildings have been, because if we do not acknowledge our past then we are condemned to repeat it and it remains a festering thorn in the psyche of our society.
Dannii Lane Event Co-ordinator