ABSTRACT

This chapter explores how assemblages of disability are created within museums by looking more holistically at how disability is represented, embodied, included, or excluded in two museum case studies. It aims to take a post-humanist approach of enquiry where both human and non-human actors come together to create an assemblage within the museum. Two case studies, one from Canada and one from Australia are highlighted with the aim of providing details on how disability is remembered, forgotten, and silenced in explicit and implicit ways and how museum spaces embody power and care. If disability is present in the museum, it is often represented as an 'overcoming' of something challenging, and persons with disabilities often become worshipped as heroes in the museum. The Canadian War Museum is abundant with signifiers of remembering disability, beginning with the ability for all people to enter the museum and navigate freely within it.