Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness is an interactive exhibition that examines concepts of health and medicine among contemporary American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawai’ians and features interviews with more than one hundred tribal leaders, healers, physicians, educators, and others.

The traveling exhibition, created by the National Library of Medicine with the American Library Association, will be displayed at the University of Notre Dame's Hesburgh Library through October 26. Notre Dame is one of only two Indiana stops during a four-year nationwide tour.

The exhibition and its related programs and lectures are free and open to the public. Click here for exhibit hours and information about guided tours. 

Health, illness, and cultural life form a unique and interconnected relationship in the lives of Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians. Though their beliefs and practices vary—Native peoples are far from a single, homogeneous group—shared values and experiences have helped reinforce the importance of community, spirit, and the land for countless generations.

In this exhibition you will hear native voices speak of the responsibilities of the individual, the interconnectedness of communities, and of reverence for nature, tradition, and the Great Spirit. You will also hear about the challenges and opportunities of balancing traditional medicine ways with Western medicine. Native concepts of health and illness have sustained diverse peoples since ancient times. Explore this exhibition and learn how revival and pride in native ideas among a new generation can help sustain them in the twenty-first century.