EQC’s story to be told
CEISMIC is pleased to announce that the story of the Earthquake Commission’s (EQC) response to the Canterbury Earthquakes will be preserved in the archive. Last week, EQC Chief Executive Ian Simpson and GM Comms Suzanne Carter presented 25 gigabytes of video and photographs to the CEISMIC team during a visit to the CEISMIC office.
Ian Simpson presents a hard drive of EQC material to Professor Paul Millar, while Dr Rod Carr looks on
The material focuses on the daily work of EQC staff, including detailed land assessments, claims management, and evaluations of building strength and damage. According to Ian Simpson, EQC decided to focus on their staff in this first batch of material as, “it is easy to talk about systems and processes but what [EQC] really want to showcase is our people and their values.”
Digital Content Analyst Rosalee Jenkin and Ian Simpson look over some of the material on the hard drive
UC Vice-Chancellor Dr Rod Carr and CEISMIC Director Professor Paul Millar also visited the office to witness the handover of the material. Carr and Millar agreed that this collaboration with EQC represents a milestone for CEISMIC, not only because the experiences of a significant party in the Canterbury rebuild will be documented, but also because the collection strengthens our position as world leaders in the collection of material about the social impacts of a disaster. As Millar said, “Here at UC we want to share what we are learning about risk, resilience and renewal with the world. We want students coming to Christchurch to know how challenging and exciting it is to be part of history and see an entire city being rebuilt.”
The CEISMIC team pose for an official photo with Ian Simpson, Professor Paul Millar and Dr Rod Carr
CEISMIC hopes to make the EQC collection available to the public by mid-2016, and that even more material will be added to the collection over the coming years.