Natural disasters create a ‘radical rupture’ (Brejzek & Falkenberg 2014, p. 23), a ‘state of exception’ (Vallance 2015, p. 456) or a ‘temporary autonomous zone’ (Poulton 2016) where we can see the world anew and potentially put the ‘public back into public space’ (Wesener 2017, p. 168). Whilst arts and culture can’t substitute for the basic needs of communities in the recovery phase (Loveridge 2018), they can provide a series of context-specific responses that draw communities together who are experiencing the disruption of a disaster. (Huss et al. 2016, p. 284).
Two crises illuminate the important role that arts and culture play in creating community resilience and aiding trauma recovery; the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010/2011 and the Tohoku Earthquake also in 2011. In both of these cases, vulnerable regions dealing with the great hardships of disasters were aided by a spontaneous and community-driven outpouring of creative activity. These movements should be supported by a government’s cultural policy programs so that a grassroots approach to the post-disaster period can be implemented. This will ensure that the local recovery effort addresses the specific needs of the affected community and that creative practice continues its role in generating greater social cohesion.
Arts and culture in the post-disaster phase
The arts and culture have ‘evolutionary utility’ (Camic 2008, p. 289). They give people a sense of belonging, allowing them to create meaning and develop physical proficiency with important life tasks. (Bidwell 2014, p. 5) Engagement with arts and culture can reforge an individual’s worldview that had been destroyed by a traumatic event. This can lead to a stronger sense of resilience and community reformation. (Huss et al. 2016, p. 286) There are also powerful meaning in cultural rituals, which create an ‘extraordinary space’ that link the past, through the present into the future. (Miichi 2016, p. 158)
Data gathered from other post-disaster zones has shown many benefits to the role of arts and culture in the recovery phase. After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake near San Francisco, without the guidance of government, local communities came together in support networks on the streets to create urban artworks, run art classes and other community activities. This had long-lasting effects, through closer community relationships and larger participation in neighbourhood groups. (Woods 2016, p. 91) Cultural practitioners in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake used performance and street art as creative place-making. This is especially important in a time when there is a great deal of destruction as it can enable a connection from the destroyed past into a possible new future. (Puleo 2014, p. 577) In New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, with the re-establishment forms of music such as jazz and R&B, there has been a greater acknowledgement of the value of arts and culture in economic and tourism recovery. (Amore 2016, p. 4)
Christchurch Earthquakes 2010/2011
New Zealand lies on a major fault line where the Indo-Australian and Pacific tectonic plates meet. Earthquakes are a regular part of life in the country and significant seismic activity has long impacted settlements across the North and South Island. A 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck the Canterbury region on September 4th 2010. Although a major seismic event, no fatalities were recorded, however, the continuing aftershocks led to a weakening of building structures. On February 22nd 2011, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck the CBD and eastern suburbs of Christchurch, causing widespread damage and 168 fatalities. During the initial emergency response to the disaster, the Central Business District (CBD) was designated as a ‘red-zone’ (Wesener 2015, p. 407) where the public was banned from entering for safety purposes. 80 per cent of the building stock in the CBD would have to be demolished (Amore 2016, p. 8), this led to significant disruption to residents, businesses and infrastructure. In many suburbs throughout the city, basic services such as power, water and sewerage were affected as underground pipes and cables were severed. (Brand & Nicholson 2016, p. 161)
Within a few weeks of the shock of the 2011 earthquake, artists and other creative practitioners began a spontaneous artistic and community response to the disruption in the inner city. These works, which were participatory, public and site-responsive came to be known as ‘The Transitional City”. (Bennett, Boidi & Boles 2012) Groups such as Gap Filler, Life in Vacant Spaces, The Social, Rekindle and Greening the Rubble placed artistic interventions into the collapsed, demolished or cleared building lots. These artists and thinkers created projects such as the Dance-o-Mat – an outdoor coin-operated dancefloor space, The Pallet Pavilion – a temporary performance and meeting space made from wooden pallets and various guerrilla urban-gardening projects. (Oliver 2014) Urban artworks such as graffiti, large scale murals, paste-ups and yarnbombing also became commonplace amongst the rubble. (Woods 2016) There were also artist-run spaces like Room Four, Dogpark and ABC gallery, that were started in ad-hoc spaces such as garages. (Oliver 2014) This creative outpouring reconnected residents with the ruptured CBD (Loveridge 2018) and was amplified through festivals such as FESTA (Festival of Transitional Architecture) SCAPE Biennale, LUXCITY and the large scale telling of Canterbury Tales which happened throughout the core of the disrupted city. (Oliver 2014)
These actions were a series of autonomous responses to the many challenges of the disaster – a loss of public space, the psychological shock of losing the centre of the city, as well as the personal toll the quakes had on people’s psyche (Woods 2016, p. 9). It has been this unique creativity that has drawn the attention of the worldwide media (Wesener 2017, p. 167) placing Christchurch as a model for other societies recovering from disasters. It has successfully drawn the community together, enabling healing from the trauma of the earthquakes (Weesjes 2015).
Beyond the ‘Transitional City’, it is worth noting the response from the existing cultural organisations in the city. Arts companies were greatly impacted by the earthquakes with almost all of the nationally funded companies either losing their office, rehearsal or presentation spaces due to damage. Some organisations such as Christchurch Art Gallery and The Physics Room adapted programs to appear in offsite programs such as hoardings on temporary cyclone fencing or shipping container galleries (Oliver 2014). The heritage performance venues and companies such as the Theatre Royal, Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, Christchurch Arts Centre and The Court Theatre were all shut down due to damage to their theatres. Some of them moved to other areas of the city, whilst some had to wait out the repairs. (Loveridge 2018, p. 278) The disruption to these organisations has meant their approach to art-making has had to change. Some have adapted quickly, whilst others with more bureaucratic structures and expensive modes of production have been slower to respond to the crisis. (Antara, Finsterwalder & Shone 2011, p. 72)
From a government policy perspective, the sense of urgency to support these organisations was evident, but the balance in supporting an ecology of cultural practitioners in the city was difficult (Oliver 2014). Creative New Zealand (CNZ), the national body for the arts, funded the heritage companies with a focus on supporting relocations to other buildings or restoration works. The Court Theatre and Christchurch Symphony Orchestra (CSO) received the largest outlays of funding in the post-earthquake period, meanwhile, the organisations that made up ‘the transitional city’ projects received uneven support. (Loveridge 2018, p. 280)
At the city level the Christchurch City Council, created the Transitional Projects Fund with quick response grants that were focused on public and participatory projects which enlivened the CBD. (Wesener 2015, p. 412) The Council was more supportive than the national government’s Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) which did not take a consultative approach to the recovery. The Council’s original Draft Central City Plan was developed from a consultation process that included 100,000 suggestions from citizens. However, it was sidelined for a document known as The Blueprint, which had no community buy-in and was a top-down design by CERA. (Brand & Nicholson 2016, p. 165) Although there were overwhelming creative and community energies that were present in the city, none of this was present in The Blueprint.
Arts and culture, which had overwhelmingly contributed to a new vision for Christchurch, had been dismissed in the urban planning document. The proposed ‘cultural precinct’ was designed to hold three large organisations – the CSO, the Court Theatre and the Music Centre. (Oliver 2014) Yet, almost ten years on, there has been no building on the site of the cultural precinct (Gates 2019), meanwhile, The Transitional City and its projects continue. The differences between the ‘bottom-up’ grassroots creativity and the ‘top-down’ technocratic approach have been a key tension throughout the rebuild phase. As Brand and Nicholson state: The transitional city projects have provided a powerful reminder that the urban form of any city is only a vehicle for the life and interaction of its citizens. (Brand & Nicholson 2016, p. 174)
Tohoku Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Disaster (2011)
The ‘triple disaster’ (Kaneko 2019, p. 106; Woo 2019, p. 55) of the Tohoku earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster on the east coast of Japan in 2011 led to widespread devastation of the natural environment and the built urban infrastructure. In scenes that played out on international television nightly, the impact of these events has been multi-faceted and the challenges faced by society have been manifold. Across the Tohoku region, 15,894 people were killed and 500,000 people were left homeless. (Japan 2016) The three most affected prefectures of the Tohoku region were Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima at the northern end of Honshu island, facing towards the epicentre of the main quake and tsunami.
In the aftermath of the disaster, creative and community projects began to emerge all along the coast. Some of these projects were kickstarted by locals wanting to reassert themselves through ‘cultural self-narration’ (Wiesinger 2018, p. 7). Many community-focused ‘start-ups’ were led by creative professionals from the major cities, commuting to take part in the rebuild or relocating to live in the affected prefectures. (Klien 2016, p. 40) Organisations such as 3.11 Arts Action, Art Support Tohoku and Arts Aid Tohoku were created throughout this period and were an inter-relation of locals and outsiders. These types of actions have led to a vibrant and successful rebuilding phase that has been grassroots, place-responsive and culturally-led. (Woo 2019, p. 56)
In Iwate Prefecture where 6000 people died and 88,000 were displaced. Within 5 days of the disaster, a major Tokyo based gallery 3331 Arts Chiyoda held a meeting to understand what the role of artists might be within the disaster zone (Woo 2019, p. 59). The WAWA project was created as a multi-form social project that engaged architects, artists and designers to work on the issues of the Iwate community such as temporary house design and other functional aspects of life. Artists also worked with locals to create documentation through photography, video and sculpture of the devastation to preserve or memorialise the townships. (Figueroa 2016, p. 62) Folk performing arts that include kenbai (sword dances) toramai (tiger dances) and shishiodori (lion and deer dances) were also revived. These forms are centuries old and were performed in local townships by the 1000 performing arts groups in the prefecture before 2011. (Miichi 2016, p. 143) Scholar Ken Miichi suggests that these ritual focused forms ‘draw communities together and cultivate communal solidarity.’ (Miichi 2016, p. 142)
In Miyagi prefecture, the worst-hit city was Ishinomaki, with 3000 dead and 10,000 more moved out of the city due to uninhabitable structures and infrastructural loss. (Mano & Noda 2020, p. 175) Out of this tragedy and chaos was formed one of the most responsive and collaborative organisations to be created in the post-Tohoku disaster period. Ishinomaki 2.0 was formed by about 10 core members who were a mixture of people from the town and people from Tokyo and other urban centres. The mix of skill bases and local knowledge has enabled an agile organisation which has been responsible for starting a bar, a hostel, a community IT hub, food stalls, a community newspaper and a flea market. There have also been events such as ‘Stand Up Week’ with concerts, film nights and sub-cultural excursions. (Klien 2016, p. 45) Beyond Ishinomaki 2.0, creative activities such as a contemporary art gallery and an arts festival formed. (Mano & Noda 2020, p. 177) In the years following the initial ‘response’ phase there began to be buy-in from NGO’s, town authorities and national business (like Yahoo or banks)– the main street of Itopia-dori housed 20 shopfront spaces for community focused-project. (Mano & Noda 2020, p. 179)
South of Miyagi in Fukushima Prefecture, a nuclear explosion and fallout occurred at the Daiichi nuclear power plant, due to the damaging effects of both the earthquake and tsunami. An exclusion zone was established to limit the exposure to radiation in the area, this led to the displacement of locals, closure of businesses and stigma from outsiders. (Wiesinger 2018) These particularities have not enabled the sort of socially-engaged practices that have been the focus of the creative recovery activity in Iwate and Miyagi. Instead, photography, theatre and manga artists have been independently creating work about the nuclear disaster. Historically, the Japanese people have created work to move them through such difficult periods, woodblock prints from the 1850s show a community dealing with the Great Onsai earthquake of 1855. After the Kanto earthquake and tsunami of 1923, ‘modern drama’ was born and after the atomic bomb strikes in world war 2, underground theatre and butoh were formed. (Poulton 2016) It should not be understated the deep generational consciousness of these disasters, especially the nuclear connection between World War Two and Fukushima. (Figueroa 2016, p. 59) The healing power of art and culture in the case of Fukushima has not just been centred on the prefecture but, has been about a national attempt at understanding the trauma of the event.
The role of government in the response to these disasters has been complicated, the initial rescue phase of the disaster was deemed by the public to be badly handled, with lack of information and cover-ups about the severity of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima (Figueroa 2016, p. 59). However, some of the later government initiatives related to the relief of the Tohoku region were focused on ‘arts-driven resiliency’. (Garavaglia 2019, p. 41) These efforts connected non-profit organisations (NPOs), local organisations and government agencies to promote arts and culture in supporting social connection during the survival and recovery phases. (Mano & Noda 2020)
The Tohoku triple disaster had wide-ranging impacts on the coastline of the region, disrupting lives and infrastructure. In the immediate aftermath, creative projects and organisations were formed, bringing together multi-disciplinary teams to inject cultural life back into the devastated areas. These projects had a positive outcome on social cohesion, sense of identity and mental wellbeing of those citizens who remained in the towns and cities hit by the Tohoku disaster.
Challenges for cultural policy in the post-disaster landscape
These cases studies highlight the way in which the public begins the recovery phase through autonomous creative projects, based on the needs of their respective communities. This is accompanied by an outpouring of goodwill and social connection in the communities affected. Further research would need to be conducted to understand why art and culture emerges so strongly from crises in this manner. Christchurch art writer Andrew Wood suggests that art:“is used to being shunted to the margins of mainstream society, which means it is fragile and suffered badly in the quake, but it is also resilient, entrepreneurial and adaptive, being one of the first things to spring back to kickstart the healing.” (Woods 2016, p. 64)
As the recovery and rebuild continues, tensions begin to form between the community and government agencies. How the rebuild process is handled by governments will determine the type of community that is created and the degree to which a community recovers from the trauma of the crisis. In Christchurch, a divergence formed between the local and national governments on the focus of the rebuild. The national government chose an economic and employment narrative over a focus on creative placemaking and social cohesion. The strongly democratic ‘transitional’ movement was left to the wayside as CERA ‘downsized the stakeholder base’ and sidelined community advisory groups on the Blueprint. (Amore, Hall & Jenkins 2017, p. 619) Criticisms of the Blueprint document stated that it was designed for tourists rather than locals (Kensinger 2019, p. 84) and that market forces were determining the rebuild of the city centre. (Amore, Hall & Jenkins 2017, p. 619) CERA and the national government were perceived to be riding off the back of the ‘transitional’ rebranding of the city, but then cynically denied it any input in the Blueprint document. This was a lost opportunity to radically rethink urban planning, which would make the city ‘messier’ and ‘more alive’ (Brejzek & Falkenberg 2014, p. 25).
The undermining of the creative energy that arises from disasters can be the result of neoliberalist agendas. In Christchurch, the top-down decision-making process was triggered by a market-led rebuilding agenda with (Amore, Hall & Jenkins 2017) the Blueprint process serving the wants of local developers over the needs of the community of Christchurch. (Kensinger 2019, p. 88) This sidelining of community engagement frameworks led to a distrust in government and the rebuild process, which in turn, led to a lack of ownership and a rejection of the grassroots, cultural framework which had been proven so successful in bringing the city together. (Vallance 2015, p. 458)
In Tohoku, members of what Richard Florida termed the ‘Creative Class’ (Florida 2002) poured into the region, to assist during the recovery and rebuild process. These individuals were rejecting their capitalist lives that were present in the city, instead, they sought out ‘post-growth incentives’ such as a flexible work/life balance. (Klien 2016, p. 50) These creatives found a ‘space of experimentation …an open town brimming with creativity’ (Klien 2016, p. 58) and many saw these townships as their second homes, some even staying on after the rebuild phase was winding down. This led to greater opportunities for local young people, an injection of talent into the workforce and open communication amongst residents. The lessons that can be learnt through these examples are; that it is not only preferable for a post-disaster society to feel ownership over the rebuild, but it can lead to concrete advancements in overcoming trauma through social cohesion.
Another proven way to engender social cohesion is through supporting cultural diversity (Huss et al. 2016, p. 285) As Woo eloquently states concerning Tohoku: ‘The relations established through collaborative creativity are thus believed to thrive while establishing a more positive, egalitarian, democratic and non-hierarchical model of society.’ (Woo 2019, p. 56)
It has also been said that disasters uncover the hidden power dynamics in a city. (Woods 2016, p. 257) Colonial or hegemonic structures can reassert themselves in the face of new social movements forming. (Figueroa 2016, p. 59) In Christchurch, new possibilities were arising from the ‘transitional’ movement, a multi-ethnic and multi-generational conversation around how the city could remake itself from its stereotype as being ‘more English than England’. (Woods 2016, p. 54) The critique from the establishment was that the rebuild projects were ’messy’ and ‘shanty-style’ in their aesthetic and limited in their longevity. (Wesener 2015, p. 417) There were also tensions surrounding Maori input into rebuild projects (although enshrined in national law). The local Iwi, Ngai Tahu was shut out from serious input. (Kensinger 2019, p. 189) Also, the one ‘anchor project’ in the rebuild that Ngai Tahu had been consulted on – Te Puna Ahurea Cultural Centre still has not been built, 10 years on from the earthquakes. In terms of social cohesion, this is a lost opportunity to create unity in the city, as the areas beyond the CBD that were the most affected by earthquake damage were the Eastern suburbs, which are home to majority Maori and Pasifika peoples. (Kensinger 2019, p. 64) Comparisons with the almost immediate campaign to repair the colonial era Christchurch cathedral illuminates the inability for local leaders to let go of ‘leftover colonial edifices’ (Brejzek & Falkenberg 2014, p. 23) and possibly chart a new and diverse course for the city.
As the Samoan playwright Victor Rodger wrote in his play ‘Aftershocks: Struggle and Dust in C-Town’; “…Crackers getting their panties in a bunch about a cathedral when some people still can’t shit in their own houses?” (Mazer et al. 2013, p. 72)
Whilst these creative forces were sidelined in Christchurch, the Tohoku example also reveals another challenge – the co-opting of arts and culture into nationalist rhetoric. Naomi Klein in her book Shock Doctrine suggests that ‘disaster capitalism’ can provide governments with an ability to further their aims at the expense of the people affected (Klein 2007). The magnitude of the 2011 Japanese disasters meant this was truly a national tragedy, that extended beyond the scale of the Tohoku coastline. The death toll, the destruction of the landscape and the damage to infrastructure captured global media attention. In meeting this extraordinary challenge, the creative and collectivist response by certain sectors of the Japanese society suggested a new vision for the country – democratic, creative and caring. (Woo 2019, p. 67). Ironically, it was this positive mobilisation that enabled the central government to co-opt this solidarity into a cultural nationalist message. Wartime rhetoric was referenced through their messaging to citizens (Wiesinger 2018, p. 122; Woo 2019, p. 57), with jingoistic sloganeering and evocation of Japanese cultural stereotypes of passivity, yet perseverance under hardship. (Dinitto 2014, p. 343) Artists and creatives doing the work of social inclusion found themselves instrumentalised in this nationalist agenda or silenced when trying to make a critique of government policy in regards to the disaster. (Geilhorn 2016, p. 177)
Governmental cultural policy in the post-disaster timeframe needs an enlightened viewpoint to safeguard its vulnerable citizenry from over-reach.
Conclusion
Arts and culture have served a role as an ‘evolutionary utility’ in the history of humanity. It plays a crucial function in social cohesion, a holder of knowledge and as a creative placemaker. The research shows that after a natural disaster, creative practitioners begin working within days of the disasters, building projects that are grassroots, site-specific and situation-responsive. These interventions are powerful and needed in the disrupted space of the post-disaster timeframe.
The chaos of disasters challenge governments to make large logistical decisions quickly, and there is an obvious priority for basic needs to be met. The questions for government and their policy objectives lie in where to place their limited resources. Supporting grassroots cultural actors to respond to a crisis will enable a more responsive, rebuilding phase - they are agile and can engender a sense of community ownership over the process. The challenge for governments is to not weaponise cultural policy in the service of nationalist, capitalist or hegemonic agendas.
Arts and culture can play a powerful role in the post-disaster period. It can support trauma recovery, it can remind us of what is essential in our lives and help to tell stories that make sense of the fractured world around us. Whilst government can’t do all of the work on their own, they can act as a connection point between all the various stakeholders and approaches of the post-disaster landscape. Catalysing grassroots creativity will allow the community to forge a new sense of place, to create a ‘Transitional City’ or a ‘City 2.0’. It will mean the difference ‘between bouncing back’ and ‘bouncing forward’. (Vallance 2015, p. 456)
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