Date: |
2 May 2024 |
Time: |
7:00PM |
Location: |
|
Entry: |
Title
From Quail Island to Makogai: Leprosy sufferers and their treatment in New Zealand and the Pacific, 1906–1940Presented by
Ben KingsburyAbstract
In 1906 Quail Island, in Lyttelton Harbour, became the site of New Zealand’s leprosy colony after the discovery of a leprosy sufferer in Christchurch. Over the next twenty years the colony grew in size, with patients arriving from around the country. This presented a number of challenges to the Health Department, from medical care to financial resourcing to the management of public opinion. In 1925 these problems were conveniently exported, with New Zealand’s leprosy sufferers being packed up and put on a boat for the Fijian island colony of Makogai. This talk compares the experiences of the patients (and their caregivers) on Quail Island and Makogai, during a time when there was no effective treatment for this much-feared disease.
Biographical details
Benjamin Kingsbury is the author of The Dark Island: Leprosy in New Zealand and the Quail Island Colony (Bridget Williams Books, 2019). He has taught history at Victoria University of Wellington, and currently works as a historian for Te Arawhiti, the Office for Māori Crown Relations.
Title
The Story of InsulinPresented by
Tim CundyAbstract
The Story of Insulin discusses the early history of its discovery including the tumultuous years in Toronto 1920-22 culminating in the researchers being awarded the Nobel Prize in 1923. With industry involvement, insulin production was rapidly brought to the rest of the world (to Australia and New Zealand in 1922), but the prolonged survival of people with diabetes brought a whole range of unanticipated problems and complications. Finally, the economics of insulin and the its availability outside wealthier nations will be discussed.
Biographical details
Tim Cundy is an Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of Auckland. He trained in diabetes and endocrinology in London and Oxford and came to Aotearoa New Zealand in 1988. He retired in 2022 after 47 years’ practice in clinical and academic medicine. Diabetes in pregnancy and diabetic kidney disease were major areas of interest and research.