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Video History of leprosy patients inspires new play

Alison Middleton

A new play brings to life a chapter of our past.


CLAIRE MACKAY, PRESENTER: Today leprosy is rarely heard of in the Northern Territory, but the disease once affected hundreds of people here. Patients were mostly Indigenous and were treated in isolation, first on Channel Island and later at East Arm. The early years of the Channel Island leprosarium, before the bombing of Darwin, have inspired a new play at Brown's Mart Theatre. And a warning to Indigenous viewers, this story might include images of people who are now deceased.

ALISON MIDDLETON: A chapter of the Territory's past is being brought to life on stage.

SARAH CATHCART, CO-WRITER & DIRECTOR: This is yet another unique story to Darwin. It's about how we treated Indigenous people back then, how we regarded them, how we regarded leprosy as something that had to be put away and I think that that's an important part of our history.

ALISON MIDDLETON: The theatrical production "Contagion's Kiss" has been inspired by leprosy patients, who once lived in isolation on Channel Island in Darwin Harbour.

NICOLA FEARN, CO-WRITER & PERFORMER: So the whole idea of contagion which is the base of this play, the plague, next to something beautiful, a kiss. So it's really, the characters grow because of a hard situation.

ALISON MIDDLETON: The performance has no dialogue and instead tells a story using physical theatre and masks.

SARAH CATHCART, CO-WRITER & DIRECTOR: People will be transported by the magic of mask - mask invites a mythic feel.

NICOLA FEARN, CO-WRITER & PERFORMER: I love that thing of weaving in the mythic and the legend with true events and history. Leprosy, it's the oldest recorded disease, it's in the Bible, it's the whole mythology of the lepers, the outcasts who, who ring their bells and come into town.

ALISON MIDDLETON: Leprosy was introduced in the Northern Territory in the late 19th century. The bacterial infection affects a person's skin and peripheral nerves.

DR CHARLES DOUGLAS, PUBLIC HEALTH MEDICAL OFFICER: People start to lose sensations so they bang their toes, they bang their hands, they don't realise they've hurt themselves, so they get scars and become crippled.

ALISON MIDDLETON: From the 1930s, leprosy sufferers were confined to Channel Island.

DR CHARLES DOUGLAS, PUBLIC HEALTH MEDICAL OFFICER: Initially there was no treatment for leprosy. It was terrible fear of contagion and of course it is an infectious disease and it does spread to other people.

ALISON MIDDLETON: The patients were moved to the mainland at East Arm in the 50s.

SUZANNE PARRY, HISTORIAN: In the post-war period the treatment did improve - they did have a hope of being released from East Arm while at Channel Island there was never any expectation that they would be released and be able to return to their home and their families.

ALISON MIDDLETON: After the East Arm site closed in 1982 - patients were treated in hospital.

DR CHARLES DOUGLAS, PUBLIC HEALTH MEDICAL OFFICER: So nowadays we can give people three drugs. They are non-infectious within 24-hours of starting treatment and so there is no reason to keep them locked up in isolation.

ALISON MIDDLETON: The Northern Territory Archives were a rich source of history for the playwrights' research.

FRANCOISE BARR, NT ARCHIVIST: We love novelists and filmmakers and playwrights to come to the Archives and look at our collections so it's one way really of informing the community of the history of this place.

NICOLA FEARN, CO-WRITER & PERFORMER: We also traced people and asked if they'd be happy to talk to us about the disease, about experiences on that island and also the later leprosarium at East Arm.

ALISON MIDDLETON: Joy Cardona had leprosy as a child and was interviewed by the playwrights about the stigma surrounding the disease.

JOY CARDONA: Oh yeah that was a dirty disease. People will see this interview with me now, probably go back two steps and go "oh my god, we've known her all our lives and we didn't even know she had this" you know.

ALISON MIDDLETON: Her parents refused to send her to the East Arm leprosarium and she was instead treated in hospital. She still remembers her doctor vividly.

JOY CARDONA: Doctor Hargraves, who was probably the king of leprosy up here, he looked after all the people at East Arm the leprosarium out there, Channel Island and all the people that were in Darwin that had it, a lot of people used to line up to go and see him to be fixed. If it wasn't for him I don't think I would have my fingers and toes today.

ALISON MIDDLETON: From the playwrights' research a story grew, and rehearsals began to take shape.

SARAH CATHCART, CO-WRITER & DIRECTOR: The show is set in the late 30's and it's about a 15-year-old non-indigenous girl who's a piano player and she discovers that she has numb fingers and the doctor sends her over to Channel Island because she has leprosy.

ALISON MIDDLETON: A friendship she forms with an Indigenous girl is central to the play.

NICOLA FEARN, CO-WRITER & PERFORMER: A huge part of it was a dark part - Aboriginal people taken from their lands and placed in this barren island and that was definitely a negative. But out of that, as ever, comes positive stuff.

ALISON MIDDLETON: The play is also pays tribute to the Indigenous Health Workers who later helped to treat leprosy patients.

NICOLA FEARN, CO-WRITER & PERFORMER: The character that we're looking at who was one of the first Indigenous health workers working in the western medical model.

ALISON MIDDLETON: Bernadette Shields' career as an Indigenous Health Worker began at the East Arm. All that remains now is a memorial. 30 years since the site closed, Bernadette Shields looks back with fond memories.

BERNADETTE SHIELDS, ABORIGINAL HEALTH WORKER: But was still hard in terms of away from families, away from country, away from language so from that grew the community spirit, which I call the East Arm mob.

ALISON MIDDLETON: Leprosy cases in the Territory are now extremely rare.

DR CHARLES DOUGLAS, PUBLIC HEALTH MEDICAL OFFICER: New cases almost don't happen. It's still quite common in other parts of the world and we've to be conscious of that but in Australia it's not a major problem.

ALISON MIDDLETON: Those who recall the era of isolation say it's important to remember the past. And they hope the play will help to dispel any stigma that may still surround leprosy.

BERNADETTE SHIELDS, ABORIGINAL HEALTH WORKER: Hopefully, it would send a strong and positive message but also have an understanding and an awareness of how ignorance does hurt.

SUZANNE PARRY, HISTORIAN: There are many families in the north of Australia who have that as part of their family history - the disruption and the loss caused by leprosy. We do have lessons to learn from history and there are parts of history that it would do us well not to forget.

7.30 NT