Sites of conscience redressing disability institutional violence

Abstract

Australian victim-survivors of disability institutional violence have been unable to obtain public recognition and justice through conventional court-based processes and legal remedies. Redressing or ‘setting right’ the ongoing and structural phenomenon of disability institutional violence requires a new approach. This article introduces one dimension that might form part of such an approach: re-engaging through sites of conscience practices with former disability institutions. Sites of conscience practices engage the broader community in memories and histories of places of injustice in order to prompt collective action to prevent further injustice through broader social and legal change. The article proposes that through sites of conscience practices former disability institutions in Australia can be part of how we collectively recognise and ‘set right’ disability institutional violence. The article begins by explaining the approach to ‘disability institutions', ‘disability institutional violence’ and ‘redress'. Next, the article uses the example of Peat and Milson Island Hospital (New South Wales, Australia) to discuss how former disability institutions – through demolition/dereliction, repurposing or redevelopment – might sustain disability institutional violence. The article then introduces the concept of ‘sites of conscience’ and presents examples of sites of conscience practices in relation to former disability institutions across United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Denmark. Reflecting on these examples, the article makes preliminary suggestions of how we might re-position engagement with the memories, places and materiality of former disability institutions as integral to redressing disability institutional violence in Australia.