The Language of Resilience

Maha Sukkar, a senior constable from Victoria Police, opened this session speaking in Arabic, giving people directions and making people feeling uncomfortable and uncertainty, because they did not understand what she was saying. She brilliantly illustrated the point that language, in situations of high stress is important. Penny Egan-Vine spoke about the issues that face […]

Intimate Partner Violence

The plenary session after lunch, focused on the deep scourge of violence in the household. The scene was was set by Sharon, a long term Marysville resident, who talked about trauma. She spoke about her ex husband, who was a project firefighter, who was trapped in Marysville, and acquired a traumatic incident, which one couldn’t […]

Gendered expectations and consequences of disaster

This was a fascinating session of researchers and practitioners, looking at the the gender dimensions of disaster. Bob Pease spoke again about masculinity. We need to move beyond a socio-biologic model or sex role theory. Men need to experience vulnerability more, as they think they are invulnerable. Deb Parkinson outlined the extraordinary research that she […]

Privileged irresponsibility

Bob Pease from Deakin and the University of Tasmania gave a strident, clear and passionate about the privileged irresponsibility relating to global warming, and the environment, structured violence that it brings. He brought a clear criticism of the term and concept of resilience, suggesting as a concept it is not connected at all to political […]

National Gender and Emergency Guidelines

The National Gender and Emergency Guidelines were launched by Maureen Fordham. She commented that they are not long, they are practical, and a great starting point to guide gender inclusiveness. It focuses on principles and actions for consideration. They can be found here: http://www.genderanddisaster.com.au/info-hub/national-gem-guidelines/

Inclusiveness in disaster risk reduction

JC Gaillard, a charismatic french academic from Auckland, wanted us to sing karaoke. The room shifted nervously. He played a song which was a karaoke simple love song and then the actual video, which was from the soundtrack from a disaster movie. He reflected that the video portrayed all the behaviours that we know don’t […]

Day 2: Diversity In Disaster-Using Words Wisely

On a brilliant Melbourne Autumn morning, day two started at the MCG. A plenary panel with various media people. Looking forward to this perspective. Dennis Mueller, from the University of Melbourne, Sacha Rundle from the ABC, Tom Doig, from Monash University, Nick McKenzie from ABC and Fairfax, and Anna Parle, from the Dept of Premier […]