Helping a Samoa village best cope with natural disasters

Transcript

A pilot project to help the Samoan village of Sa'anapu cope better with natural disasters is now an exhibition.

The village was badly affected by a tsunami in 2009 and Cyclone Evan in late 2012.

Moera Tuilaepa-Taylor went along.

The exhibition, Shifting Paradigm, seeks to explore memories of the coastal village after the impact of natural disasters and climate change and the resulting shifts in the physical, cultural and psychological aspects of the village environment and people.  Sa'anapu is made up of two parts, the inland part of the village, and the coastal part, where people first settled.  And like many coastal villages in Samoa, Sa'anapu faces coastal erosion problems, as chief Tofi Tafili Popese Leaana explains.

SAA TOFI:  "The first building on the south side of the island was the hospital, now another concrete part of the hospital is now in the sea. And some of the families have lost areas around their land to the sea - we have lost 100 metres of the land due to erosion."

Architectural firm Bonnifait+Giesen worked closely with Sa'anapu people assessing their needs.  One stage of the project suggested the pre-school and the women's committee fale needed to be relocated further inland.  Architect Cecile Bonnifait says the women's committee fale could also be an emergency centre during disasters, among other things.

SAA CECILE:  "And we thought a market would be a good idea with also a workshop for local craftsman because there is a tradition  of craft and weaving."

The project has the support of the Samoa government.  The chief executive of the Samoan National Disaster Management Office in Apia, Muliagatele Filomena Nelson, says the project is unique.  

SAA NELSON:  "It's part of Sa'anapu's response to or adaptation to to the impacts of climate change."

Muliagatele says the project is going back to the traditional way of building Samoa fales.

SAA HOUSE:  "Cause we always feel that the Samoan fales more resilient, much stronger than the European style and it's not just because it's open, we can get it from our backyard with our native trees, we can use that to build the house."

Muliagatele believes the Sa'anapu project could be replicated in other villages as 70 percent of the population in Samoa lives along the coast.  The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in New Zealand, NIWA, assessed the potential impact of a tsunami on Sa'anapu, by investigating historical events, and estimating the frequency of natural disasters.  NIWA principal scientist, Geoffroy Lamarche, believes the success of the project has been the engagement of the people of Sa'anapu.  Dr Lamarche says the next stage is to secure more funding.

SAA NIWA:  "The aim of this exhibition is to raise peoples awareness of what we can do.  Look, what we can do an amount on social science, anthropology and architect can all work together for something fantastic and to help us, you need to fund the project."

Funding for the early stages has been a joint effort between NIWA, Bonnifait+Giesen and the Pacific Fund of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  The exhibition finishes this Sunday at Pataka art and museum in Porirua.