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Resilience: response, recovery and ethnicity in post-disaster processes
3
Methodology
The research presented here is based on three field visits to Ghizo Island in March 2011, April-June 2012, and March
2013, covering a total of four months. Ethnography, a largely qualitative approach in which the researcher immerses
himself/herself in the research setting, is the overarching approach used in this research. Multi-sited micro-
ethnography was chosen for this research: multi-sited to encompass the differences in post-disaster processes
in culturally diverse groups inhabiting the same island; micro-ethnography because the research had a particular
focus and did not aim at providing an impression of an entire culture. Ethnographic research in this manner was
carried out by spending equal amounts of time in four villages on Ghizo Island: two Melanesian villages, Pailongge
and Saegeraghi, and two predominately Gilbertese villages, Niu Manra and Nusa Baruka (see Figure 2). In addition
to participant observation and informal conversations as part of ethnographic research, focus groups in all villages
were organised in which participants were asked to take part in participatory exercises inspired by Chambers’
(1994) participatory methods. In each village a community profile, historical timeline, village map, impact diagram,
cause-effect diagram, and post-tsunami timeline were created. Based on the data derived from these exercises,
the 22 in-depth interviews with survivors and aid organisations were part of the disaster interventions after the
earthquake and tsunami were carried out in the last set of fieldwork.
Figure 2
Map of Ghizo Island indicating research locations. The Gilbertese villages are indicated in yellow, the Melanesian villages in blue.
Gizo town is indicated as a reference point. Source: adapted from: UNITAR/UNOSAT 2007.
Melanesian and Gilbertese responses in facing the 2007
earthquake and tsunami
Large inter-group differences occurred in the initial reactions of the Gilbertese and Melanesian Solomon Islanders
when it was realised a major natural event was occurring and affecting their communities. The majority of the
Melanesian villagers ran to higher ground immediately after the earthquake or when the first signs of changes in the
sea were observed. This behaviour was shaped by ancestral knowledge on tsunamis and tsunamigenic earthquakes:
this knowledge was partly gained from a commercial movie on a tsunami which was played in Melanesian villages
a few weeks prior to the 2007 tsunami, and by knowledge of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami rapidly spread by two
British tourists who stayed in one of the Melanesian villages.