First Nations share life on a fault line with Tairāwhiti Emergency Management Group

First Nations representatives of Washington State meet their Kiwi visitors, including Tairawhiti Emergency Management Group manager Ben Green and members from the Joint Centre for Disaster Research (JCDR) from Palmerston North, in Washington State, USA.

There may be an entire Pacific Ocean between the East Coast and Seattle but Tairāwhiti Emergency Management Group manager Ben Green says there are plenty of similarities.

“We are separated by hemispheres, but we face the same challenges of a shared hazard,” Green said in a council statement.

“That challenge is the catastrophic risk posed by earthquakes and tsunami waves.

“Washington State is close to the Cascadia fault line, whereas we have the Hikurangi offshore fault line.”

Green was part of a five-strong delegation who visited Washington state, with the trip sponsored by the Joint Centre for Disaster Research (JCDR) in Palmerston North, which included their experts and members of the Te Rūnanganui o Ngāti Porou Taiao team.

“I was appreciative of the invitation to be part of the delegation attending with Ngāti Porou,” Green said.

Green also met with indigenous First Nation tribes on the coast of Washington State.

“The tribes are in the vicinity of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, much like we have risk exposure along the Tairāwhiti coastline.”

The group visited Shoalwater Bay, Quinault and Makah First Nation tribes and also toured the 30-metre-high Auntie Lee Vertical Evacuation Tower in Tokeland.

Green said the trip had many highlights.

“The cultural exchanges and hospitality with the tribes was amazing, as was the hosting we experienced with the emergency sector,” he said.

“The mix of academia, iwi, taiao [environment] and my role as an operational emergency manager was complimentary yet underscores the requirement to be integrated within these spheres.

“There was a lot of knowledge-sharing and networking which will be beneficial for application back into readiness and reduction workstreams.”

It was a real coming together of science, matauranga (knowledge) and operations, Green said.

“The science defines the hazard, underscored by fact and research. Matauranga is embedded knowledge that has been handed down from learned observation of the hazard. The third component is operational, which brings together all three.

“It was interesting to observe another nation’s emergency preparedness.

“We have different problems, but I take a lot of comfort from the work we are doing here. No one is doing it on their own, and the Indian tribes aren’t either.

“There is still collaboration between state and federal agencies that plan alongside them.

“We operate in the same context and this is where the regional leadership needs to come from multiple groups working together.”

The state was similar to Tairāwhiti, with remote, sparsely populated communities, many of which were on the coast.

This 30-metre vertical evacuation tower in Tokeland, Washington State was among the sites visited by Tairāwhiti Emergency Management Group manager Ben Green on his trip to see how Americans deal with natural emergencies.

“Naturally, the greatest and most significant risk is your built-up population areas,” said Green.

Seattle City has 750,000 residents, while the Tairāwhiti region has 52,000 people spread over 42 communities with 38,000 people living in Gisborne City.

“Seattle’s power is hydro-electric and their water pipeline is also a significant distance into the hills.”

Having looked at the water supply in Washington State, Green felt having capability embedded in Tairāwhiti with multiple desalination units in strategic locations was a significant capability that could be activated.

The joint partnership between Ngāti Porou Taiao and the JCDR has been established to improve disaster preparedness and resilience in communities within the Ngāti Porou takiwa (boundary).

It is hoped the trip, which was hosted by the Washington State Emergency Management team and included a day in their Emergency Operations Centre, has formed the beginning of a strong relationship between Tairāwhiti Emergency Management, Ngāti Porou and the Native American tribes – especially given the similarities between Tairāwhiti and Washington State.