Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our guests to Agam regency!
We've had this opportunity to be invited to Indonesia
to meet the cultural side of
civil defense emergency management here with the locals,
and it's been fantastic!
The local villages, the civil defense emergency management local guys,
they just wanted to show us everything they had.
We've come here because this is an area
that has experienced more than their fair share of natural disasters.
Volcanic eruption, flash flood, earthquake or tsunami.
These people have got well organized
because of the constant worry of being in vulnerable places.
We've sat with many groups
who talked about how they prepare for the event of a disaster,
how they react and work together,
and also how they overcome the effects
of any natural disaster that has happened.
We're here in Tiku with the female wahine
who are very reliant on the shore for the fish.
They preserve the fish because it goes off here quite quickly,
so it's laid out on long mats for a certain amount of time.
they use this product and help them to be independent,
to bring in income.
In preparing themselves, they also promote their livelihoods,
so the different foods that they grow, that they preserve,
and that they prepare and take to market
are the very same foods that they have
in the event of a disaster
The main threat here is tsunami, earthquake.
Their civil defense is quite advanced,
they all have a household plan.
They record when little shakes are happening
and they know how far inland they need to go,
they've already timed to everything.
Their families, their children within the schools,
they're all educated. They live it daily.
One of the villages up in the volcanic region
spoke to us about how their resilience group
also practices coming together
with their musical instruments.
It makes it more attractive for the younger generations,
and they don't just talk about preparing themselves,
they get together and actually have fun.
They have a particular drum.
And they play that drum in each village
as they go on down the volcano
to alert the nearby villages
that they have received a forewarning
that there's going to be an eruption.
This is an example of a mother, she's 46,
her husband died ten years ago.
She has about an acre of land here that she farms.
She was given goat and now she's bred the goat
and is able to make product with the goat milk.
She was given some cows,
and about ten chickens.
And she used what she was given to start her enterprise,
and now she's operating on her own.
The key point for her is she's now resilient
in the way that if disaster strikes again here
she's still able to maintain her lifestyle
from her own land, and in traditional ways
that she upholds today.
One of the things that have impressed myself
and the girls from Te Tai Rāwhiti was the support.
The scientific side, the government support side,
marrying that all together with
the tangata whenua and the communities.
And information they have,
they quickly channel all the way down,
just to make sure everybody's ready.
It's really lifted their disaster awareness.
And it showed, it really showed,
it was very impressive
The interface between science and mātauranga Māori
is very very important.
we need to be able to have access
to the skill and expertise
around the geology and what's happening with our lands.
We need to make sure we've got the tools
and the experts that can guide us
with planning for the future.
We hope that what we take back, we can share
not only with our communities but with the whole of Aotearoa.
Nō reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.