Submitted by Nicole Coryell on the 2018 winter session program in Australia sponsored by the Department of Health Sciences…
One of the excursions our instructors planned for us was to go to Tasmania, a little island that is only about a one hour plane ride from Melbourne. They planned a trip to the Bonorong Animal Sanctuary (where we got to feed kangaroos) and a visit to Port Arthur historical site. Port Arthur was a prison back in the 1800’s where British convicts would be, “transported” there for a number of years to do manual labor based on their crimes. What was shocking to me is that the men who founded this place had good intentions; to teach convicted men skills to “reform” them then send them back into society where they could use their skills to better their communities. While these intentions were good, Port Arthur was still one of the most feared places to be sent to especially because they were known for harsh physical punishments. We had a chance to walk around the site and it is astonishing to think about the number of men who lived here, worked here and even died here. What’s worse is that Tasmania is a beautiful area and it’s hard to envision that a place that looks as it does was so feared. Here, they also started an insane asylum. What shocked me most was thinking about how far we’ve come in treating mental illness since then, when those who were sick were either isolated or piled in rooms on top of each other, but how far we still need to come to break stigmas around mental illness and truly help people suffering from it.
