‘Healing’ capsule sealing fosters healthy respect

Nov 25 2011

Members of Newcastle’s Awabakal community, young researchers and representatives of the region’s health services came together this morning for the official sealing of the Hunter Medical Research Institute’s ‘Healing’ time capsule.

The culturally significant ceremony marked the sealing of a beautiful stainless steel flask built by Newcastle-based Griffiths Computerised Engineering.

Special indigenous healing items were placed inside by Aunty Sandra Griffin, watched by her daughter Tammy Parish, along with Immunology research coordinator Sharron Hall, Director of Children’s Services for Hunter New England Health Trish Davidson, retired paediatrician John Stuart and Universityof Newcastle Archivist Gionni DiGravio.

Two of HMRI’s youngest researchers, 20-year-old Ryan Duchatel and 22-year-old Kelsee Shepherd, both offered secret objects on the Institute’s behalf.

Ryan, 20, is a Technical Assistant in Molecular Neurobiology at the University of Newcastle. He was introduced to medical research last year through the program convenor and now supervisor, Dr Paul Tooney, and is now working on The Australian Rural and Mental Health Survey (Part 2) and other projects investigating Schizophrenia Biology and Genetics.

Kelsee is a 22-year-old honours student from the University of Newcastle, working in the Mothers and Babies Research Centre on a project investigating reasons premature babies die and in particular, why boys are more vulnerable than girls.

The Healing capsule will join the Knowledge capsule that was sealed last year, the intention being for them to be reopened 50 years from now.

The Time Capsule concept came from a desire to have more than just a symbolic “turning of the sod” for the HMRI Building that is currently taking shape on a John Hunter Hospital site.

The HMRI Board of 2010/11 wanted the event to mark a point in HMRI’s history and a continuum across time – a beginning and an end to construction and a beginning, but not an end, of the research that will be conducted in this building over the ensuing five decades.

‘Knowing’ and ‘Healing’ were chosen as themes to represent the translation of new Knowledge from medical research that leads to Healing.

“The Healing capsule is our way of paying our respects to the traditional owners of the land on which our building is constructed,” HMRI Director Maree Gleeson said.

“It is a symbol for the living and breathing research conducted in the building that is part of the healing process that results from our research.”

The event was held inside the four-storey building, which is now around four months from completion. It will eventually house 450 researchers.