The Librarians

This morning I was speeding by train across the volcanic western plains heading towards Ararat, my Mum’s hometown 2 ½ hours west of Melbourne, to talk at a Red Cross membership conference about preparedness. I like travelling by train, as it lets me do some work, stare out the window and contemplate, and be exposed […]

I see red

Today I was grilled by some fantastic year 6 students at Essendon North Primary School on a whole range of topics relating to disaster preparedness. The kids were well prepared and had thought deeply about their questions. Their questions reflected a maturity that I don’t see in some adults, who fail to grasp what we […]

In the Supermarket

Over the weekend we were in Marysville for Emily’s project. We caught up with Tony Thompson, the terrific chair of the Marysville and Triangle Community Recovery Committee (amongst other things he does). Emily interviewed Tony for her project, and he was very generous of his time (having spent a day up at the Lake Mountain […]

Ca Va?

I’ve just come across this cool website. All Right. http://www.allright.org.nz It’s another Christchurch initiative. (I love New Zealanders and their innovation) and is focussed on helping Cantabrians with the mental health issues relating to the Earthquake. They utilise a wellbeing approach that was developed by the New Economics Foundation in the UK. “Economics? “I hear […]

An Update on Emily’s Marysville Project

Just a little update on Emily’s Marysville project. She is in full swing now, as part of her Year 6 Geography Unit . She’s doing her impact assessment, got in touch with local leaders, has booked a stall at the market (August 2), created a roster, made a piggy bank, and creating her communications. The […]

After the quakes

On my morning walk with the dog (his second for the morning, so he was feeling a bit tired) I listened to an amazing podcast from Radio National’s 360 Documentaries, After the Quakes on Christchurch, nearly three years after the first quake, that one of our great volunteers Catherine Young put me onto. This is […]

When the Generals Talk

We have this great tension over leadership in recovery management. On paper, our principles (which people don’t realise have been around since the late eighties) tell us that it should be community led, which is in line with a participatory approaches to governance, and the role of government is to facilitate. So that’s the theory, […]

Objects and Memory

Objects and Memory “There are events that transform ordinary things into irreplaceable carriers of identity, emotion and memory. These objects help us find our way forward.” Laid low by a cold, I finally managed to have a look at a film that I ordered some time ago. Jonathan Fein and Brian Danitz’s Objects and Memory […]

I like Traffic Lights

When I was in Christchurch last August, I had time to do an early morning walk around the city. The CBD was still cordoned off, and some buildings looked like a warzone, others looked like they were just waiting for the building manager to open up for the morning, from the outside looking undamaged. Then […]

Emily Steps Up

After bringing home the peppermint crisp from the Marysville Patisserie for Emily, we had one of our family dinner table discussions about the bushfires, what happened afterwards, and what is happening now in Marysville. I talked to the girls about how spending money in Marysville like I did helped the people there earn money. Dinner […]