Mary Jane Logan McCallum

Mary Jane Logan McCallum, The Manitoba Indigenous Tuberculosis History Project.

The CHA Public History Prize committee received many high-quality submissions deserving of recognition. The jury is honoured to recognize the Indigenous Tuberculosis History Project as the winner of this year’s prize. Many aspects of this project make it a model of public and engaged history: its ethical grounding; its extensive archival research; and its commitment to outreach and engagement with stakeholders, communities, and the public in many formats over several years. Former Indigenous patients, their families, and communities helped to shape the project’s methodology and outcomes, and the team created a research guide and online photo database to help families locate missing relatives and photos of their loved ones. Tuberculosis—both the disease and Canadian policies around treating it—continues to have lasting impacts on so many Indigenous families. The project has received extensive media coverage and has helped to educate the larger public about the history of inequities and racial segregation in tuberculosis health care.