The public’s help is being sought as a project gets underway to memorialise more than 1,800 former Porirua Hospital patients.

The Porirua Lunatic Asylum, later Porirua Hospital, opened in 1887. At its height, in the 1960s, it had more than 2,000 patients and staff and covered 1,000 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. Porirua has more than 1,800 unmarked graves at Porirua and Whenua Tapu Cemetery.

Porirua City Council, as overseers of these cemeteries, want to hear from the public as a list of names of those buried is released.

The people on this list are known to be, firstly, patients of the hospital and secondly, without a headstone, Porirua Cemeteries Manager Daniel Chrisp says.

"This project is a significant and meaningful one to the Porirua and Wellington communities," he says.

"The hospital was once the biggest asylum in the country and working towards naming every single patient buried with us is a huge step to restoring the mana and dignity of those individuals who died while in the hospital’s care."

Please contact cemeteries@poriruacity.govt.nz if you see a known family member from the list, which can be found at www.poriruacity.govt.nz/cemeteries-project

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