Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Christchurch Earthquake aftermath. Prime Minister John Key does the meet and greet where families are taking refuge at Twiggers Restaurant at Addington Raceway".
Damage seen around a residential property, where a section of the wall has separated from the building. Fencing and tape have been placed around the section, and a notice on the fence says "Danger. Do not enter".
My passion is anything and everything to do with archaeology. So when I was given the opportunity to be an intern at Underground Overground Archaeology Ltd., I jumped at this chance of a lifetime! My name is Jessica Hofacher and … Continue reading →
Training and working as an archaeologist can be an interesting experience, not just because of the work we do, but thanks to the preconceptions and opinions of the people around us. Like so many other professions, archaeology is an extremely … Continue reading →
A new survey shows New Zealand insurers are worried the industry's reputation could be ruined if it does not deal well with the huge number of claims from the Christchurch earthquakes.
Nick Rogers, project director, Canterbury Land Assessment for Tonkin & Taylor. Tonkin & Taylor is the environmental and engineering consultancy doing the Canterbury land damage assessment work for EQC and the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority.
The Minister for Earthquake Recovery, Gerry Brownlee, has been accused in the High Court in Christchurch of abusing his powers and doing deals which allowed councils and Christchurch Airport to get their own way over zoning decisions.
The company that has the main contract for repairing houses in Christchurch, Fletcher Earthquake Recovery, is assuring taxpayers it's doing everything it can to avoid any fraudulent behaviour.
It is unlikely engineers involved in the most serious building collapse of the Christchurch earthquake will face any external action, with the profession's administrators telling the Government there's nothing more they can do.
Peter Marshall is managing director of architectural firm Warren and Mahoney, part of the team selected to carry out the task of the redesign of Christchurch after the earthquakes. (This version of the audio does not include music)
Christchurch homeowners are taking the Earthquake Commission to court for not doing enough to fix their homes, and a move by Crimean MPs to join Russia has been declared illegal by the European Union and the US.
How do you help children cope with a life-threatening incident? And what if you’re stressed yourself? Katy Gosset looks at the far reaching emotional effects of the Canterbury earthquakes.
The act of showing off wealth and status through material is a concept that has been happening throughout human history. This does not necessarily mean that the person had the wealth and status they were portraying, instead some people just … Continue reading →
This restaurant used to do bookings for large groups only and you all had to pick and wear funny hats from hooks around the walls.
An image used an email signature celebrating Matariki 2015. It reads, "Celebrate Matariki by doing more of the little things that make a big difference.
Located on the edge of two tectonic plates, New Zealand has numerous fault lines and seismic risk across the whole country. The way this risk is communicated affects whether people prepare effectively or at all. Research has shown that perceptions of risk are affected by slight changes in wording, and that probabilities commonly reported by experts and media are often interpreted subjectively based on context. In the context of volcanoes, research has found that given a certain probability of a volcano in a specific time window, people perceive risk as higher in later time intervals within that window. The present study examines this pattern with regard to earthquakes and aftershocks in the New Zealand context. Participants in both Wellington (N = 102) and Christchurch (N = 98) were presented an expert statement of earthquake risk within a given time window in Wellington and aftershock risk in Christchurch, and asked to rate their perception of risk in specific intervals across the time window. For a Wellington earthquake, participants perceived risk as incrementally higher toward the end of the 50 year time window whereas for a Christchurch aftershock, risk perception increased slightly for the first three intervals of the 12 month time window. Likelihood of preparing was constant over the time windows, with Wellington citizens rating themselves more likely than Christchurch citizens to prepare for either an earthquake or aftershock, irrespective of current level of preparedness. These findings suggest that people view earthquakes as more likely later toward the end of a given time window and that they view aftershocks very differently to scientific predictions.
The last few years have seen the emergence of a range of Digital Humanities projects concerned with archiving material related to traumatic events and disasters. The 9/11 Digital Archive, The Hurricane Memory Bank and the CEISMIC Canterbury Earthquakes Digital Archive are a few such projects committed to collecting, curating and making available disaster-related images, stories and media for the purposes of commemoration, teaching and research. In this paper Paul Millar 1. examines the value of such projects in preserving post-disaster memories, 2. explores some differences between passive and active digital memory projects, and 3. asks whether even the most determinedly open and inclusive digital memory project can preserve its values when issues of race, class, gender, politics and economics impact upon its activities.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "A sign on the protective fence around the Arts Centre, Hereford Street. The sign reads, 'Danger, unsafe site, do not enter'".
After a couple of weeks off from the blog, we thought it’d be a good idea to give you a run-down of what we learnt at French Farm. These are preliminary observations only, and could well change as we do … Continue reading →
Most of the work I do as a buildings archaeologist focuses on the humble 19th century cottage. These types of buildings, their construction methods and materials have become well trod territory in post-earthquake Christchurch, meaning we now have a fair … Continue reading →
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Ben Friel (12), left, and Sam O'Hara (13) are doing the short bays bike ride to raise funds for Child Cancer and the Earthquake Appeal".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Ben Friel (12), left, and Sam O'Hara (13) are doing the short bays bike ride to raise funds for Child Cancer and the Earthquake Appeal".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "From left: Simon Barnett, Paul Ellis, Jason Gunn and Jason Kerrison at Hagley Park doing a site recce for the Band Together concert at Labour weekend".
Lately I have been doing quite a bit of Job Safety Analysis paperwork (because safety in the workplace is number one priority, folks), and that got me thinking about how the people of early Christchurch might have managed their own … Continue reading →
“The degree of civilisation in a society can be judged by entering its prisons” – Fyodor Dostoevsky One of the challenges faced by any new colony is what to do with the non-conformists, renegades, and criminals. The ideal, of course, … Continue reading →
A photograph of a graffiti-style mural promoting careers in the New Zealand Police. The mural depicts a police officer pulling a woman from the rubble, and is captioned, "You too can do something extraordinary. Become a cop".
Signs on the front window of the Union Centre Building on Armagh Street. The three signs read, "Danger, live wires", "Restricted Use", and "Danger, your building has a yellow placard, do not enter".
An All Right? infographic designed for use as a web banner. The infographic asks a question beginning with 'What could you do', and gives three ideas for improving personal wellbeing.
An All Right? infographic designed for use as a web banner. The infographic asks a question beginning with 'What could you do', and gives three ideas for improving personal wellbeing.
An All Right? infographic designed for use as a web banner. The infographic asks a question beginning with 'What could you do', and gives three ideas for improving personal wellbeing.