���˴�Ƭ

As part of the MNU Seedfund project, Curating Cultural Heritage for the Medical and Health Humanities, collaborators from Queen’s University, Durham University, and Uppsala University, have been fostering cross-campus interest at their institutions in how cultural heritages of medicine and health can stimulate important conversations on reconciliation, indigeneity, health equity, and health justice.

Institutional leads:

• Allison Morehead, Queen’s University
• Fiona Johnstone, Durham University
• Cecilia Rodéhn, Uppsala University

Two of three planned workshops took place in the 2024-25 academic year:

• 23-25 September 2024:Curating Medical Heritage: Reconciliation And Indigeneity
  • Three-day workshop at Uppsala University.  During the workshop participants discussed medical collections from the perspective of indigeneity and reconciliation. At Uppsala University Library we explored what it means to work with the archive of the Swedish Institute for Race Biology and the claims made by the Sámi community on the archives. We explored what Indigenous artistic practices in, and with, collections can do to decolonise the archive and cultural heritage through Katarina Pirak Sikku’s art and artistic practices. At Hagströmer Library at Karolinska Institutet we discussed repatriation of Sámi human remains and how this process is handled. Lastly, visiting the Museum of Medical History participants explored the role that art can play in reconciling with the past.
• 18–20 March 2025: Curating Cultural Heritage For Health Equity And Justice
  • Three-day workshop at Queen’s University. Day 1 focused on the collections of the Museum of Health Care and how the museum situates itself in the community including in partnership with other museums/heritage sites. Day 2 was a Pedagogy showcase, demonstrating how cultural heritage is being used in teaching on health equity and justice. Day 3 focused on carceral and psychiatric heritage, with tours and discussions at Kingston Penitentiary, the Prison for Women (with members of the P4W Memorial Collective), Rockwood Asylum, and Providence Care.

Future plans:

• 15–17 September 2025: Curating Art And Medicine Heritage For Public Engagement
  • Three-day workshop at National Medical Museum of Norway, Munch Museum, and the University of Oslo. This workshop will be centred on the interdisciplinary exhibition, Lifeblood: Edvard Munch, curated by PI Allison Morehead. The exhibition juxtaposes artworks by Edvard Munch with objects from the histories of health and medicine.

Community Members Can Learn More:

• Project website:
• News item, “The Visual and Material Lab Visits Queen’s University,” 31 March 2025:
• Essay: Michaela Clark, “Curating Medical Heritage 1: Reconciliation and Indigeneity,” The Polyphony, 26 March 2025:
• Blog post: Rowena McGowan, “Observations and Lessons from the First Curating Medical Heritage Workshop or How I Spent My Swedish Vacation,” 3 March 2025: