New artefacts for an updated museum

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New museum facilities will soon be opening in Perth, Western Australia. One of the significant new exhibitions will feature artefacts loaned by the Sisters of St John of God Heritage Centre, Broome. In the 1920s and 30s, in the northwest of Western Australia, the spread of leprosy (today known as Hansen's Disease) had increased dramatically. One in ten families in the region was affected. Leprosy is a long-term infection. Sufferers may not feel pain which can lead to the loss of parts of fingers and toes from repeated injuries or infection due to unnoticed wounds. From 1936 to 1986, the St John of God nuns were charged with running ‘Bungarun’, a leprosarium located at Derby. Thousands of Aboriginal people were treated there and at least 357 people died, and are buried, at Bungarun. While Bungarun was a place of displacement, painful medical procedures and isolation, it was also a place for sharing of culture, music, art and healing. The museum has been given medical equipment, carved boab nuts made by the patients, photographs of patients and staff, and a precious violin and bow - one of the last remaining instruments from the Bungarun orchestra, which was formed in the 1940s by Sister Alphonsus Daly. She believed music served a dual purpose: playing provided movement and exercise for stiffness, a symptom of the disease; and the orchestra was also a welcome distraction from the routine of institutional life. There was a busy schedule of sport, craft, cooking and music. Bungarun was the last Australian leprosarium to close. Leprosy is most common amongst impoverished or marginalized populations and is still found in some countries but, thankfully, no longer in Australia. I don't really have an appropriate photo so this is a sunset from Fraser Range on the Nullarbor Plain.