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EMA

Kiwirrkurra Flood Documentary Project on NITV

by Robbo on February 16, 2010

A while ago I wrote about the Kiwirrkurra Flood Documentary Project

For those lucky enough to receive NITV (National Indigenous TV) it will be on Saturday evening 20th Feb 8pm AEST.

kiwirrkurra-flood

In March 2001, the isolated community of Kiwirrkurra, located 1200 km to the east of Port Headland and 750 km west of Alice Springs, was inundated with floodwaters. The floodwaters caused essential services to fail, putting people’s health and safety at risk.

All 170 residents were evacuated, first to the neighbouring community of Kintore, then on to the Alice Springs Norforce Army base. Later the community were transferred to Morapoi in the Goldfields of Western Australia, before returning to their lands and community eighteen months later.

The resultant cultural and community disruption was profound, and there are important lessons for emergency managers and coordinating agencies in working with Indigenous communities to be learned from their experiences.

Tagged as: disaster planning, EMA, emergency, FESA, fire, kiwirrkurra, policy

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Worrying for Kiwirrkurra

by Robbo on October 13, 2009

in Indigenous,public health,Remote health,Remote Living

Kiwirrkurra suffered tremendous floods in March 2001. I wrote about the significant social dislocation and harm to the community members after they were evacuated. Remember this is a mob whose last inhabitants only walked in from a traditional way of life in 1984.

Since then the disaster planners have made regular trips to Kiwirrkurra and other remote communities to understand how best to assist should a natural disaster strike. There were important lessons to be learnt and to assist with this and to disseminate the lessons learnt a flood documentary was to be produced.

This documentary is now available. It can be ordered on DVD
or watch the 7 YouTube videos below.

Look closely to see how far and often they were relocated. Thousands of kilometres.