Posts by Hilary Stace
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Access: Jacinda, please can you help…,
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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,
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Thanks Mark. Great documentary.
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Access: Lest we forget: the influenza…, in reply to Craig Young,
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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,
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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.
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Access: Lest we forget: the influenza…, in reply to Ewan Morris,
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The baby on the Talune was at one time my mother-in-law, who died in 2000. She was a wonderful story teller. After they arrived in Wellington they lived in the Nairn Street Cottage museum with her father's family. Two adults and babies lived in that small front room.
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Access: Lest we forget: the influenza…, in reply to Bevan Shortridge,
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Thanks for this. Yes I'm sure there are letters and diaries all over the place. But the flu hasn't had a fraction of the recent attention that the war has had so people might not realise the significance. 9000 deaths in a couple of months is pretty dramatic. InWellington they wrapped them in a sheet and put a name tag on the toe and the bodies would be transported to the cemetery for burial. Most families and communities would have known of people who died or survived. It would be great if they donated them to an archive or library.
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Access: Lest we forget: the influenza…,
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Volunteer Wellington has just published a booklet about the Wellington volunteer response. Link to pdf on this page (scroll down) https://volunteerwellington.nz/index.php/resources.
There has also been a project to find the stories of flu victims buried in Karori Cemetery
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Up Front: It's Beginning to Look a Lot…,
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My daughter and I usually host the wider whanau for Christmas. That means a midday meal, other events over several days, and one or two out-of-towners staying. Although everybody contributes food and drink, the actual planning starts a couple of months earlier and includes - as well as the process for agreeing on what everyone will bring, secret santa etc - household maintenance, gardening, cleaning windows, hiring the rug doctor for carpet cleaning, and ensuring there are enough acceptable chairs, cutlery, plates and everything else that could be possibly needed. Weather contingencies mean various scenarios. This year we have even bought a new dishwasher and oven as they will be in constant use. All this planning and preparing ensures the one time in the year that we all catch up runs more or less smoothly.
So I was bemused when a certain male suggested, "You don't need to worry about Christmas, it just happens".
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Access: Jacinda, please can you help…,
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There is an interesting conference on Labour, Employment and Work (https://lewconf.co.nz/) taking place this week in Wellington. Unfortunately, there don't appear to be any papers on disability. I considered putting in an abstract, but couldn't afford another conference (fees and time are expensive when most of your work is voluntary and your income comes from a few contracts).
But this is symptomatic of a bigger problem. Although 24% of the population identified as disabled in the 2013 census we have no academic departments or network of scholars or academics critiquing or advocating on disability issues. Again, disability is niche - assumed to be neither interesting or relevant to the wider population.
I wonder how this could be turned around?
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Access: Jacinda, please can you help…,
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We have some recent NZ disability employment guidelines
https://www.nzdsn.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/F_7270-NZD_Employment_Guidelines_WEB.pdf