Medical Museum

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E kui mā, e koro mā, e huihui nei, tēnei aku mihi māhana ki a koutou.  Kia ora tātou katoa.  Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, warm greetings to you all.

I specifically acknowledge: Dr Jonathan Sprague, Chair of the Northland Medical Museum Trust and Dr John Swinney, Museum Founder and Curator; Margie Matthews and Stewart Bowden QSM,  Chair and Director of the Whāngarei Museum and Heritage Trust respectively; Tony Norman, Chair of Northland Health District Health Board; Phil Halse, Deputy Mayor of Whāngarei—tēnā koutou katoa.

Thank you for inviting me and Janine here for the opening of the Medical Museum.   Before I officially open the new museum, I want to comment on the important role museums like this play.

It almost goes without saying that our world is changing faster than ever before.  New communication technology is delivering new ideas and gigabytes of images, videos, photos, news and information, in incomprehensible quantities.   Much of this information is unfiltered, and it is often difficult to assess the reliability of the source.

Museums play a pivotal role in gathering, sorting and interpreting this deluge of information into a form that is both reliable and which can be easily understood.  No-where is that growth of knowledge more apparent than in the area of human health and well-being, where medical advances continue to outpace our ability to understand them. 

Modern medicine as we know it is a relatively young science.  For example, it is only 85 years since the discovery of first antibiotic penicillin, and 60 years since the structure of DNA was discovered and just 13 years since the human genome was mapped.  And it was only in the 1970s that modern CT and MRI scanners, for example, that have revolutionised the abilities of doctors to make diagnoses for cancer and other diseases, were invented.

The Medical Museum here in Whangarei opens a window into an earlier time in our medical history before the advances in technology and diagnoses that we now regard as commonplace.  From its origin in anaesthetist Dr John Swinney’s collection of hospital heritage pieces, the Medical Museum has grown to be New Zealand’s largest and most public medical museum. 

This new facility, which incorporates its former home, Cook’s Cottage as a cottage hospital, illustrates the past so we can better understand the present.  Like all museums, it is a guardian of a fascinating part of our history and heritage, preserving, and recording Northland’s rich medical history, so new generations can learn from the stories of those who have gone before us.

It is a neat educational resource, that allows both young and old to get up close to medical equipment that can usually only be viewed in books or on television and on the internet.  The perceptions you gain from seeing something second-hand is often completely different to the one you get when you see it with your own eyes.

And I can think of nowhere more appropriate for the Medical Museum than here at Kiwi North, Whāngarei’s heritage park.  It is a place where visitors can also tour the Whāngarei Museum and the Kiwi House or walk around the 25ha heritage park with its collection of Victorian colonial buildings, its bushwalks and picnic areas.

This project is the fruition of much work by many people and organisations from the Northland Medical Museum Trust, the Whāngarei Museum and Heritage Park Trust, the Whāngarei District Council, Northland Health and the wider community. 

There are many who have gifted their time, skills and energy to this project and the on-going operation of the Museum, and I thank you for your service.  I want to particularly note the contribution of founder Dr John Swinney.  Your passion and commitment for preserving Northland’s medical history has inspired and motivated others to join your cause.  Thank you.

And so, on that note of thanks, it gives great pleasure to declare the Medical Museum officially open. Kia ora huihui tātou katoa.