Indigenous healings through disasters: Examples from China and Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

Recent disasters have focused attention on the need to prepare for frightening but regular events such as earthquakes, tsunami, volcanic activity, storms, floods, and landslides. Although scientific models can provide ‘macro vistas’ of disasters and estimate future trends and consequences of development, they are ineffective in predicting the actual local impacts of any disaster. The traditional knowledge of Indigenous Peoples has a potentially important value for the response to future disasters, including climate disaster. With often graphic footage repeating seemingly endlessly in our living rooms and through our ‘smart devices’, people could be forgiven for seeing nothing but risk and danger in the environment with consequent financial and emotional costs. This presentation provides an important counter to the tendency for despair in the face of disaster by focusing on Indigenous communities and their knowledge of environmental hazards and the socio-cultural practices for alleviating stress and maintaining wellbeing in post-disaster landscapes. Two case studies are presented. The first is from the city of Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand, and examines the response and recovery of Māori in the city to the earthquakes of 2010-11. The second case study is from eastern Himalayan/north-west of Yunnan in China and looks at the disaster of climate change impacting on the agro-pastoralist livelihood and life of local Tibetan villagers.