Heritage Month activities

The 2016 Heritage Month activities were held at the privately owned section of Willow Court after the Derwent Valley Council refused to discuss or second a motion put forward by Councillor Frank Pearce to have the Council’s own committee hold the activities in the recently restored council owned area.

Haydn and Penny Pearce opened the doors of their private area of Willow Court, including the 1860’s built, Ladies Cottage for the Friends of Willow Court, Heather Burke Associate Professor in Archaeology at Flinders University and Mark Woodley, Heritage Plasterer, who has been restoring the original wall around the Council owned land.

The event was well supported by the public with a number of people attending either both days or both events in the one day and enjoying lunch at the well loved Patchwork Cafe.

Frascati House enjoyed their Heritage activities the weekend before and were fortunate enough not be be locked out by the Council.

Heritage Tasmania activities are held throughout Tasmania’s best Heritage sites and supported by both the Friends groups who understand the heritage values of each of the sites.

There wasn’t any activity on the DVC owned Willow Court site during the weekend and the site remained locked.

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Above. Associate Professor Heather Burke outside the locked gates of Willow Court with paying guests. (c) Copyright 2016

The next meeting of the Derwent Valley Council has a proposal:

8.1 Cr Bester – Terms of Reference – Friends of Willow Court Special Committee

1a. To work with Council to maintain public areas at the Willow Court Precinct
(excluding Frescati House and Garden, the Community Garden and privately-owned
properties in the precinct).
1b. To suggest projects to improve visitor amenity.
1c. To help foster community support for the site.

The Friends of Willow Court Special Committee has had to wait an unreasonably long time for a council response to its proposed Terms of Reference.

The local news team covered the Friends of Frascati Heritage event but there wasn’t any article for the four tours run by the FoWC.

 

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Mike Parr event nearly here. Dark Mofo.

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Full article from this weekend’s Mercury, click here.

Dark Mofo’s presence at Willow Court will include a “site activation”, with food vans and the like setting up around New Norfolk to help create a festival atmosphere in the Derwent Valley town.

Local shops will also decorate their frontages with mirrors in reference to Mike Parr’s work.

Willow Court was only closed in 2001, a surprisingly recent end for the institution-style mental-health facility, which housed its first patients way back in 1827.

It is still an intimidating and, in parts, unnerving building, its complicated history occupying a similarly complicated place in the minds of people who have some connection with it, or who lived in the community when it was operating.

Curator Jarrod Rawlins says the local community is supportive of the project and great care has been taken to be respectful of the site’s history.

“And it is also a great thing for a small community like New Norfolk to have such a big, important, international artist doing a project there,” he says.

“These things normally find themselves at places like the Sydney Biennale or other big cities and central places.

“But this is being done in this spot because of the site, and people will come because of that.

“And up there in winter it’s beautiful – the cold air, a bit of fog. If the interstate visitor wanted the drama of Tasmania in the winter, that has to be New Norfolk. And being free, people don’t have to think too hard, they can just go.”

Entry to Asylum is free. Open 24 hours a day, from Thursday, June 9, to Sunday, June 12 (by appointment after dark; register online). Open noon-4pm on Monday, June 13, and from noon-4pm on Saturday, June 18, and Sunday, June 19.

Entry by Mirror Only, performed in Asylum, will start at noon on Thursday, June 9, and go for 72 hours. To enter, bring a mirror – which you will leave behind. darkmofo.net.au/asylum

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Council back MOFO event with $37.900 event co-ordination

On the 5th May the Derwent Valley Council considered the Event Co-ordination Quote for support around the Dark MOFO event. A range of events and services were considered as part of the planning including:

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It is unclear at the moment if the “Proposed street events to compliment the Dark MOFO event to be held at Willow Court in June 2016″ was passed by the Council. It is expected that 8000 people will visit the free exhibition during the 72 hours that Mike Parr will be working.

The proposal is suggesting entertainment, marketing, stageing,  security and transportation, bonfires, lighting, food and drinks. This is the first big event that the site has had since the stage one restoration was completed and is inline with the DVC plans for the site to be an events centre of quality which would attract people and support the business opportunities of the town and area.

The full plan is 2 May 2016 – Special Council Meeting Agenda or click the picture above.

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Back in the office after 20 years

IMAG0690 It’s been twenty years since Tony Nicholson has returned to his old office on the second floor of the Administration building at Willow Court Training Centre. While we had a tour hosted by Ruben Cortes about the current state of the building and its restoration and repurposing, Tony was able to tell the Friends of Willow Court Committee and representatives of the Willow Court History Group about who occupied each of the rooms and their uses during his history as an employee of the hospital. It was a very insightful tour and it was interesting to see Tony as he entered this room after twenty years.

Like many staff the place was filled mostly with good memories, funny stories and struggles with consecutive Governments for the basics needed to support the many people that called Willow Court Training Centre\Royal Derwent Hospital home.

Since the closure, Tony has had a passion for the site and it’s history. He has wished only for a honest recording of history and has conducted many tours to educate people from historic societies, educational institutions and the general public. He has remained on the Friends of Willow Court special committee of the Derwent Valley Council. The Derwent Valley Council are the current owners of the Heritage Precinct area.

Tony has been a valuable historic consultant to this Willow Court History Group, our website and has helped many people who have contacted me through the facebook page and website in an attempt to find out information about the history. His knowledge of the early history of convicts and the military presence is second to none.

He has also been a part of the Derwent Valley Historic Society and has been a co-author of many historic books and articles that the group produce. Because Willow Court\Royal Derwent Hospital was a large employer for over 174 years most historic books have something about the hospital and how it fitted into the fabric of the community of New Norfolk and surrounding areas.

He also has been involved in cataloging many of the artifacts that came out of the hospital after it’s closure in 2000. He has, along with the Derwent Valley Historic Society manage many general community and hospital memories through artifacts, papers and displays.

Last year we revealed that the Friends of Willow Court Member, Mr Anthony David (Tony) Nicholson, of Lachlan, has been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to local government and to the community of the Derwent Valley. Tony had served as Mayor on the DVC for a number of years.

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Remembering

Today is a reflective day for many people. Some tell of stories of companionship, struggle and survival and for others, today lays heavy and serves as a reminder of past and current battles. For those that did, or still struggle with the conflict and the consequences we remember.

Bruce McLean

Lance Corporal Mark Krause 631833

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I Go Home

“I Go Home” is a documentary that was premiered last week in the United States and is a fantastic, open and honest expression of the history of institutional care. Although it refers to institutions (state schools) in the United States of America it really is the story of people with disabilities in Australia and the United Kingdom and anywhere that institutions have been closed. It tells the story from all points of view and enters into the darker parts of this history. People with disabilities should tell their own story and in this documentary we see that occurring. There are some podcasts that accompany this documentary.

The documentary is available to see after it was screened yesterday on PBS.  56 minutes. This is free and has closed captions. If you are curious about the history of People with Intellectual Disabilities, I recommend this film too you.

“For years, children with intellectual disability were not allowed in public schools. Parents were told to send their children with intellectual disability away to institutions. It was not until the late 1960s that a television expose shed light on what was happening inside the walls of institutions. It was that knowledge that fueled parents and the public to ignite change.”

I GO HOME

 

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Who closed Willow Court?

A new documentary has been released in the United States called, Valuing Lives, Wolf Wolfensberger and the Principle of Normalization. It was the theories and passionate delivery from Wolf Wolfensberger principles of normalisation that closed thousands of institutions around the world and release hundreds of thousands of people living with intellectual and developmental disabilities from institutional care. Click the picture below to view a preview and extended interviews. Most people believed that is was a Government idea to close Willow Court (Royal Derwent Hospital), but it was a single, powerful theory which changed the world and people’s thoughts forever.

Wolf Wolfensberger

Synopsis:

“No major change in the world was ever accomplished by a rational strategic plan. It was accomplished by completely unreasonable people who dared to be bolder than everybody else.” – Al Etmanski

Through archival images and footage, and dozens of interviews, “Valuing Lives” explores the principle of normalization, an idea that challenged our fundamental assumptions about people with intellectual disabilities, and the iconoclastic professor whose intense, multi-day workshops trained thousands of human services professionals in the theory and practice of this idea.

Originating in Scandinavia in the 1960s, normalization meant “making available to all people with disabilities the patterns of life and conditions of everyday living which are as close as possible to the regular circumstances and ways of life or society.” In the early 1970s, professor and change agent Wolf Wolfensberger expanded normalization into a framework for human services. His book Normalization, published in 1972, became wildly popular and provided a theoretical blueprint for community inclusion as the deinstitutionalization movement was gaining strength. His formulation of normalization swept through the field of disabilities and had a significant effect on the design of services and supports, in North America and internationally. This represented a sea change in thinking at a time when it was considered normal to warehouse nearly 200,000 Americans with intellectual disabilities in large institutions.

By the 1980s, the argument had been won and institutions, albeit slowly, were being phased out. The term “normalization,” widely misused, was replaced by Wolfensberger with Social Role Valorization, a complex expansion of his ideas with a greater emphasis on social roles. His teachings grew in scope and complexity as he addressed such controversial topics as society’s willingness to abbreviate the lives of those who are devalued, a process he called “deathmaking.” While his ideas continued to influence the direction of human services, Wolfensberger’s confrontational approach attracted fewer students and smaller audiences. When asked if there was any reason for optimism, Wolfesnberger responsed that the indicators are grim, and that “things have to get a lot worse before a lot of people recover reality.”

“You might not find a lot of hope there [in Wolfensberger’s teaching]. But it was a voice that needed to be heard and reckoned with.” – Bill Gaventa

Gunnar Dybwad, an international leader in the field of disabilities, used to say, “When we kill our dragons, we need to make sure they remain dead.” We still have institutions for people with intellectual disabilities, and some parents are calling for new, segregated communities where their children will be safer “with their own kind.” And we still need to think critically about how to best support individuals with intellectual disabilities in living lives full of freedom, personalization, choice-making, friendships, and valued social roles that are normal for most people in society.

“We need people like Wolf. We needed him then and we need people like Wolf now to pull the veil away. We also need people to help steer us back on course.” – Chas Moseley

It is time for a new generation to rediscover the principle of normalization and ensure that all people who are devalued in society have access to the good things in life.

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Christopher Newell Memorial Library

crop newellThis collection of books and papers, some written by Christopher Newell are now available for public viewing at the TasTAFE Clarence Library. One third of his private Library was donated to TasTAFE some time ago and has been catalogued into this small collection. The remaining collection was donated to Trinity College Melbourne. Christopher Newell held the position of Associate Professor in bioethics at TasUni medical school, he was also known as the Reverend Cannon Christopher Newell and was on the staff at Hobart’s Anglican Cathedral.

Christopher has received many accolades from the community, including membership of the Order of Australia ‘for service to people with disabilities, particularly through advocacy and research, to the development and practice of ethics and to health consumers.’ He was a delegate to the ‘2020 Summit’ convened by the Prime Minister, the Hon Kevin Rudd, in April 2008 in Canberra.

Dr Newell has over many years lived with significant physical disability himself, whilst carrying a full workload. and authoring a number of important papers and co-authoring a number of books including the following:
disability apartheid digital disability

He was also instrumental in assisting Professor Keith McVilly put together the Australasian Code of Conduct for Disability Support Professionals printed in 2007. This text is used extensively within the vocational and tertiary educational areas and also within the workplaces where people living with disability are supported.

I had great pleasure in being Master of Ceremonies during the opening of the collection on the 14th April 2016. The event was attended by a great mix of people from family, academics, clergy and the many people Christopher touched in his life.

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Heritage Month / Dark Mofo events

Some great opportunities to get out and about at Willow Court and Frascati House in May and June 2016. The maximum cost is $5 for persons over 12 years old.

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The Friends of Willow Court will be running events at the site for Heritage Festival 2016 which you can access. On May 14th and 15th  Heather Burke, Assoc Professor of Archaeology, Flinders University, will talk about the results from the recent geophysical investigations around Willow Court and Frascati House, and her long term plans to conduct archaeological excavations at the site over the next 10 years. Cost $5, under 12 years, free.

Frascati house ex M Richards

The Friends of Frascati are also running an event the weekend before at Friscati House. Frascati dates back to 1834 when John Burnett, the first Colonial Secretary, built his country villa on the site. Recent works have questioned whether Burnett added onto an existing building and whether there was a pre-existing building on site at the time. Come and rediscover some of Frascati’s history. Tours of Frascati House and historic gardens available. Two great weekends of Willow Court activities to enjoy, entry by gold coin donation.

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Another opportunity to visit the site will be during a Dark Mofo event. Seminal Australian performance artist Mike Parr pushed to his limits in and around the grounds of the former Royal Derwent Hospital (circa 1827). Please register your interest in the event; full details will be announced soon: http://darkmofo.net.au/mike-parr-registration

Asylum, the exhibition, is open:
Thursday 9 – Monday 13 June, 12 – 4pm
Saturday 18 + Sunday 19 June, 12 – 4pm
Free

Entry by Mirror Only, the 72-hour performance, is open continuously for three days:
Begins 12pm, Thursday 9 June
Ends 12pm, Sunday 12 June
Entry by mirror only: bring a shard, or full mirror, to leave behind.

Please note that both the exhibition and installation contain disturbing content and themes, and may not be suitable for children.

Presented by Detached Cultural Organisation in association with Dark Mofo

 

 

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1856 Document found in the United Kingdom.

1856 cover
Regulations for the guidance of officers and attendants 1856‏

This is a document that gives clear guidance for each of the staff positions at the New Norfolk Lunatic Asylum. Dated 1856 and printed in Tasmania this is a truly rare document that was found in the United Kingdom Archives. Click the image above to read this document or click “Articles” below to see all documents stored on this website.

Articles

 

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