Disclosure statement
Kamaljit K Sangha works for the Darwin Centre for Bushfire Research at Charles Darwin University. We acknowledge the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre (BNHCRC) support to fund our project on, Building Resilience of remote Indigenous Communities that included evaluating real costs and benefits of natural disasters, conducting workshops with Indigenous partners and scenario planning exercises with a wide range of stakeholders across the north (emergency management personnel, Indigenous communities, researchers, and various local organisations).
Andrew Edwards works for the Darwin Centre for Bushfire Research at Charles Darwin University. He receives funding from various organisations such as the Bushfire & Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre, to map fires and vegetation and has worked on the development of the Savanna Burning methodology with a very large group of people.
Disaster resilience and recovery conversations are filled with mentions of “community”, but collapsing various groups together this way fails to acknowledge that people experience disasters differently.
For Indigenous peoples whose experiences are shaped by vastly different historical and cultural contexts to non-Indigenous Australians the lack of understanding or cultural safety demonstrated by government agencies and non-government organisations created additional trauma during the Black Summer bushfires.
The final report of the NSW bushfire inquiry found:
In some communities Aboriginal people felt unwelcome at evacuation centres and in some cases support services were reluctant to provide immediate relief… These experiences compounded the trauma they had already experienced as a result of the bush fires.
4. The global community is watching
State and federal governments must commit to net-zero emissions targets. These would signal to industry and communities that there is a diminishing future for fossil fuels and encourage investment in a renewable future.
The fires strikingly remind people that we remain a global climate laggard. This will soon spread to our trade discussions and ability to raise finance for nation-building infrastructure and major projects.
5. Our settlements will need to change
The most vulnerable parts of our cities are in the urban fringes where there is substantial scattered development set in bush. Such homes are going to be increasingly vulnerable. As a result, owners will find insurance harder to secure.
Disclosure statement
Gary John Brierley receives (or received) funding from the Marsden Fund, Australian Research Council, Land and Water Australia (formerly LWRRDC) and various international collaborative grants (NERC in the UK, SPARC in India, Three Brothers funding in China).
Dan C H Hikuroa (Ngāti Maniapoto, Waikato-Tainui, Ngāti Whanaunga, Pākehā) receives funding from Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga and the Marsden Fund. He is affiliated with Pūniu River Care Incorporated (Board member), Chair of Ngā Kaihautu Tikanga Taiao (Māori Statutory Advisory to the Environmental Protection Authority), UNESCO NZ Commissioner for Culture and is a member of the Watercare Environmental Advisory Group.
When disaster strikes, not everyone is affected the same way. A growing body of research shows the experiences of sexually and gender diverse people are frequently very different to those of heterosexual people.
Our research in Australia and New Zealand sought to explore and make visible the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people, among other sexual and gender identities.
People who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex or queer can have quite different experiences but are often incorrectly lumped together as one “community”. In fact, there are multiple communities.
For our research, we wanted to know how disasters affected these people and communities, about their experiences with government and other support agencies and what positive experiences they’d had of resilience, coping and adapting.