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SPC Applied Geoscience and Technology Division (SOPAC)
Kim Hagen
Introduction
On 2 April, 2007 the Solomon Islands were hit by an 8.1 Magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami. The tsunami,
in particular, wrought extensive damage amongst communities inhabiting the western part of the country, and was
responsible for 50 of the 52 casualties. Ghizo Island was one of the islands hit the hardest. The Gilbertese ethnic
minority living on Ghizo suffered from the disastrous impacts of the hazards; a disproportionally high number of
Gilbertese people died and those who survived faced large difficulties in trying to cope with the immediate aftermath
of the earthquake and tsunami. One of the main findings of research carried out on Ghizo in 2011, 2012, and 2013
was that, as a result of learning from these experiences, the Gilbertese survivors made changes in their socio-
cultural fabric to make themselves more resilient to future disasters.
This paper presents an account of how differences in ethnic communities’ responses to hazards faced shaped
differences in their trajectories of recovery. To aid the understanding of the findings presented, the context of
research and methodology used are briefly described below. It is followed by an account of the differences in
responses between the Melanesian ethnic majority and the Gilbertese ethnic minority, and the implications these
differences had for the longer-term socio-cultural recovery of the Gilbertese survivors. The final section presents
the conclusion along with recommendations for research and developing effective disaster risk reduction strategies.
Context of research
The Solomon Islands is a nation comprising 992 islands. The majority of its 0.5 million people (Solomon Islands
National Statistics Office, Ministry of Finance & Treasury 2009) is Melanesian, although, approximately 1.2 per cent
of the population is Micronesian. On Ghizo Island however, an island measuring 11 by 5 kilometres with a population
of c. 7000 people, the Micronesian population is much higher. Most of Ghizo’s Micronesian people are originally from
Kiribati’s Gilbert Islands, and had been relocated to the Solomon Islands between the late 1950s and 1971 (Campbell
et al. 2007, Cochrane 1970), which, like Kiribati, was a British Protectorate at the time. Although not all Gilbertese
migrants were relocated to Ghizo directly, many moved to Ghizo after initially settling on other islands in the western
part of the Solomon Islands. Ghizo is one of the Solomon Islands’ most desired places to live, as it is home to Gizo
town. The main hospital and largest produce-market of the western part of the country are located there, as well as
an airport with daily flights to the country’s capital, Honiara.
RESILIENCE: RESPONSE, RECOVERY AND ETHNICITY IN
POST-DISASTER PROCESSES
SPC SOPAC DATA RELEASE REPORT (PR182)
September 2013