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Resilience: response, recovery and ethnicity in post-disaster processes
5
The coping mechanisms inherent to the Melanesian islanders’ culture, reflecting their capacity to deal with the
havoc, were largely absent amongst the Gilbertese Solomon Islanders. Like the Melanesian survivors, they were
afraid to approach the sea after the tsunami. Hence their ocean-based livelihood activities could not provide them
with food. Despite having lived in the Solomon Islands for several decades, gardening was not taken up on a large
scale as it was not seen as part of their culture. The consumption of wild plants by Melanesian Solomon Islanders
had been frowned upon, and it was doubted whether these ‘foods’ were really edible. Knowledge on wild edible plants
and the consumption thereof was largely absent amongst the Gilbertese living on Ghizo. Additionally, practices of
food security which had been re-emphasised amongst Melanesian Solomon Islanders during the 1997 drought had
not been stressed by the Gilbertese Solomon Islanders. The Gilbertese Solomon Islanders had barely been affected
by the drought as they relied on the ocean. They did not perceive themselves to be at risk to natural hazards in the
Solomon Islands, and did not alter any practices to increase their resilience to deal with disaster. Their means of
preparing for disaster consisted largely of drying fish, which had proven to be adequate in Kiribati when cyclones
prevented going out to the ocean. Their dried fish, along with most other possessions, was washed away by the 2007
tsunami and proved to be of no value.
As a result of having almost no gardens, no knowledge on wild foods, and no other locally-relevant means for
acquiring a decent level of food-security, the Gilbertese survivors struggled to cope in a self-reliant manner which
intensified the disastrous effects of the hazards for them. They had to rely on given or found ready-made food, such
as cans of tuna and packets of biscuits. The occasional crops or plants that were found could not always be prepared
for consumption; the Gilbertese did not practice traditional ways of cooking like the Melanesian Solomon Islanders
did. The differences in the ethnically-diverse groups’ abilities to deal with the damage caused by the natural hazards
point to differences in their resilience to these events.
Five years later
Struggling for survival and not being able to cope in a self-reliant manner prompted the awareness amongst the
Gilbertese that they were ill-equipped to deal with disastrous consequences of some of the hazards occurring in
the Solomon Islands. They learned from the differences in experiencing the impacts of the hazards between them
and their Melanesian neighbours. As a result, they made changes in their socio-cultural fabric to increase their
resilience to future disasters.
After the tsunami, both Gilbertese and Melanesian Solomon Islanders moved to higher ground in large numbers,
out of fear for a repetition of the events. For the Gilbertese, this meant that they now had easier access to land
on which they could make gardens. Although land rights are not always secured, Gilbertese started to adopt the
practice of making gardens to increase the diversification in their food-producing livelihood activities (see Figure
4); they had realised that the absence of gardens played a vital role in their lack of ability to cope in a self-reliant
manner with the 2007 earthquake and tsunami. Gilbertese gardens are not as large in size as those of Melanesian
Solomon Islanders, generally displaying a smaller variety of crops, and food is grown for personal use. They are not
used as an income-producing activity, but merely for food-security. Ocean-based livelihood activities are still used
as primary means of food provision, as well as means of income generation.
Figure 4
Left: Impression of a Gilbertese family’s garden in Nusa Baruka in 2012. Right: a Gilbertese woman with child walking to the
garden of one of her Gilbertese neighbours on higher ground Nusa Baruka. In both cases the gardens and homes were created after
moving land inwards out of fear for another tsunami.