Source: Porirua City Council
A meeting with family members of those in interred in unmarked graves in Porirua Cemetery attracted more than 50 people, as the Council applies for funding for a fitting memorial.
The meeting, on 28 June at the cemetery, was spurred to take place by some of the families once it became public that the Council wanted to memorialise more than 1800 former Porirua Hospital patients. Cemeteries manager Daniel Chrisp says it was pleasing that so many people had been in touch about the project.
“It’s fantastic that we’ve got to this point, having the descendants of those in unmarked graves encouraged to be involved,” he says.
Chrisp says his team have placed 99 pegs on the unmarked plots at Porirua Cemetery to represent all the families who have contacted the Council.
“One family member told me at the meeting it was deeply moving to see the markers and being able to photograph where two family members had been interred. These plots represent mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, children and other relatives – so it’s important to a lot of people.”
The Porirua Lunatic Asylum, later Porirua Hospital, opened in 1887. At its height, in the 1960s, it had more than 2000 patients and staff and covered 1000 acres of land, making it one of the largest hospitals in the country.
By the 1980s, many patients were in community-based care and the hospital was closed in the 1990s.
As part of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into abuse in care, the Government has set up a fund for headstones for patients buried in unmarked graves throughout the country.
Council has now submitted an application to this fund for $200,000 to install a fitting memorial that lists every single name known to be in an unmarked grave.
Chrisp says the public is welcome to head to Porirua Cemetery and view the pegs to see the scale of the project.
