Sustaining a Transformative Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy: Grandmothers’ Telling and Singing Tsunami Stories for over 100 Years Saving Lives on Simeulue Island

Stephen A. Sutton, Douglas Paton, Petra Buergelt, Saut Sagala and Ella Meilianda
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Stephen A. Sutton: College of Health and Human Sciences, Charles Darwin University, Darwin 0815, Australia
Douglas Paton: College of Health and Human Sciences, Charles Darwin University, Darwin 0815, Australia
Petra Buergelt: Faculty of Health, School of Health Sciences, University of Canberra, Canberra 2617, Australia
Saut Sagala: School of Architecture, Planning and Policy Development, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Bandung 40132, Indonesia
Ella Meilianda: Tsunami and Disaster Mitigation Research Centre, Syiah Kuala University, Banda Aceh 23232, Indonesia

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 21, 1-20

Abstract: As projections about the number and scale of natural hazard events and their impact on human populations grow, increasing attention is being paid to developing effective means for preparing for and mitigating those impacts. At the same time there is an emerging understanding that gradual and incremental changes in disaster risk reduction (DRR) will not adequately meet the future needs of vulnerable populations. Transformational changes have been identified as a necessary requirement to avoid ongoing large-scale losses of life and property and models have been proposed to recalibrate DRR strategies to achieve transformative changes. One cited example of a transformative change in DRR is that of Simeulue Island. Simeulue Island suffered two tsunamis approximately 100 years apart (1907, 2004) with markedly different impacts. This paper looks in detail at the cognitive and developmental mechanisms Simeulue co-opted to sustain the transformational change throughout the 20th century. Information from interviews and observation identified the role of grandmothers have in the effective communication of risk as well as motivating appropriate action to save lives. The possibility of similarly overlooked, local, and pre-existing community capacities for transformative change in DRR is then discussed.

Keywords: natural hazards; transformation; tsunami; grandmothers; disaster risk reduction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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