“There must be a commitment to do with, not to or for. To ask, not to tell. To seek to understand, not to assume or judge. To negotiate, not consult. And to partner, not just engage.” These are the words of Jason Ardler, a Yuin man and co-Founder and Director of Thirriwirri. Jason spoke at a recent webinar on community leadership and disaster resilience, co-hosted by the Paul Ramsay Foundation and Monash Sustainable Development Institute as part of our partnership program, Fire to Flourish. His comments encapsulate the notion of ‘community-led’ and give valuable clues about how community leadership and action might be made central in disaster resilience.
Locally-led approaches are emphasised by state and Federal agencies with responsibilities for disaster recovery and resilience building, recognising the need for responses that are tailored to the needs and priorities of local communities. As the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements stated, “while natural disasters on a national scale are likely to become more common, all disasters large and small require a local response”.
Disaster recovery and resilience in practice
Although there is emerging support for community-led disaster recovery and resilience, there is still much to learn about what it means in practice and how it should be enabled. Three community leaders offered their insights and ideas at the Fire to Flourish webinar.
We start with their reflections on the concept of resilience.
Zena Armstrong, President of the Cobargo Community Bushfire Recovery Fund, argued that the resilience of rural and regional Australians should be unquestioned – it is demonstrated time and time again. Zena said, “people living in country areas all across Australia feel that they’ve been dealing with so many issues over so many years that their resilience is undisputed.”
The people have navigated compounding disasters in fires, floods and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet a disaster event is but one moment in a community’s history and ongoing development. Indeed, rural and regional communities in Australia are typically on the receiving end of decades of systemic policy failures and under-investment in infrastructure, jobs, housing, health and education.
Jason shared his thoughts on the concept of resilience being understood as the capacity to recover or ‘bounce back’ from difficulty, particularly for Indigenous Australians. As he described, “so when bush fire devastates Aboriginal communities, what are they bouncing back to? Social exclusion, economic disadvantage, inter-generational trauma? Yes, Aboriginal people have survived, but survival isn’t enough… disaster recovery in Aboriginal communities needs to be used as an opportunity to re-imagine the future, to aspire to something more.”
Zena and Jason’s comments challenge us to consider how a community’s journey of recovery can be shaped to not only address the impacts of disaster, but also build foundations that help people to flourish over the long-term. We refer to this as ‘transformative resilience’.
While it is well accepted in the emergency management sector that a community’s capacity to cope with and adapt to natural hazards is critical for mitigating disaster impacts and supporting swift recovery, they alone do not adequately address the needs of communities experiencing ongoing hardship, adversity or marginalisation. We argue that focus should also be given to their transformative capacity: being able to drive proactive, creative and systemic change, helping to address root causes of vulnerability and disadvantage.
Community self-determination
Central to a community’s transformative capacity is being able to self-determine disaster recovery journeys. This means having the knowledge, skills, capabilities, resources and confidence to exert agency and leadership in planning and decision-making processes, as well as driving community-led action.
In reflecting on Cobargo’s recovery process following the 2019/20 bush fires, Zena commented on the value of service providers and supportive others in “walk[ing] beside us, not to try and dictate to us what they think we need”.
As Jason described, at its core, a community-led approach is about empowerment: “Empowerment is really about local communities having the agency to [have] real say over real alternatives. It means building capability and confidence to set and pursue their own aspirations and it means having genuine relationships and partnerships that are beneficial and support their efforts to achieve their aspirations.”
Empowerment also means creating diverse and inclusive spaces so that no one is left behind as a community recovers from disaster and builds longer-term transformative resilience.
Amber Kelleher, a youth representative with Save The Children, highlighted that the needs and aspirations of young people need particular attention: “Young people are just as likely to go through a natural disaster, but having less life experience can make it a little more difficult to navigate and process.”
In Amber’s community, it was critical that young people had structured opportunities to come together in the aftermath of the 2019/20 bush fires, with a focus on sharing experiences and collective healing. As Amber described, “having an opportunity and medium to come together with people that have experienced the same thing” was really helpful. She recommended “creating environments where people are invited to share, without being expected to”.
Australia’s resilience will be strengthened by young and Indigenous people, and the many other cohorts that make up the vibrant diversity of our communities, leading and contributing to disaster recovery and resilience building processes.
Climate projections indicate more frequent, severe and compounding disaster events across Australia. Community leadership and action is urgently needed to manage our disaster risk through mitigation, preparation, response and recovery.
As Jason, Zena and Amber articulated, communities can flourish in the face of disaster risk and impact when they are supported to connect, share stories, strengthen capacities, and, through genuine partnerships, lead self-determined journeys towards their envisioned thriving future.
Fire to Flourish is a 5 year trans-disciplinary program working at the intersection of disaster resilience and community development. In partnership with communities affected by the 2019/20 Australian bush fire season, Fire to Flourish aims to support communities to lead their own recovery, co-create foundations for long-term resilience and well-being, and disrupt cycles of entrenched disadvantage.
For more on transformative resilience and opportunities for advancing community-led approaches, see An Agenda for Change: Community-Led Disaster Resilience. The full recording of the Fire to Flourish webinar can be watched here.
Fire to Flourish and Monash University Disaster Resilience Initiative are hosting a national forum on community-led resilience on November 11. Register here.
Fire to Flourish is a partnership between Monash University, the Paul Ramsay Foundation and The Australian Centre for Social Innovation. Cornerstone funding is provided by Paul Ramsay Foundation and Metal Manufactures Pty Ltd, with additional funding from the Lowy Foundation.
