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Director’s Foreword
Tephra has an established reputation for providing those involved in civil defence emergency
management with thought provoking concepts and ideas that are intended to challenge the status quo
and stimulate developments that contribute to greater resilience in communities.
Earlier editions have looked at community resilience from the research and planning points of
view. The 2012 edition of Tephra will undoubtedly stimulate thoughts and discussion, but is different
from earlier editions. This time it looks at emergency management from the community’s perspective
rather than from the viewpoint of those involved in managing the response or endeavouring to
implement initiatives that enhance risk reduction and readiness.
This edition draws on the experiences of communities impacted by the Christchurch
earthquake and other emergencies from around the world. It is less about the theory and much
more about how communities saw the response to their situation. It is about the experiences of real
communities and community organisations. It illustrates how communities work in practice and how
they are connected geographically, socially and economically to provide people with a sense of place
and belonging. It shows how those outside a community can easily misinterpret community needs and
mechanisms and as a consequence, find that their well intentioned efforts in the response might be met with distain and distrust.
Importantly, the contributions to this edition of Tephra indicate how the official approach to communities in the response
during an emergency, and with initiatives that are intended to generate community resilience before an emergency, can be more
effective if they are based on an understanding of the dynamics that occur in communities. Community action comes in many forms.
The challenge for officials and the community is to embrace that action in a constructive manner.
While largely developed from an emergency management perspective, the concepts and models provided in this edition are
also applicable to the work of other sectors in communities. Irrespective of where the lessons identified in these articles are applied,
developing the resilience of a community depends on understanding the community through two-way contact and engagement,
allowing the community to be involved in planning and decisions that affect it, and assuring the community their initiatives and
involvement will be supported by the authorities.
John Hamilton
Director, Civil Defence Emergency Management
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