Fire memories: gathering stories about the fire impacts and responses to build resilience
A/Prof Karine Dupre from Griffith University, AFRAN member and member of the recently founded AFRAN Bushfire and Natural Hazard Community, is leading the Bushfire Stories Project.
The 2019-2020 bushfires were devastating. Not only did they burn forests, farms, buildings to a greatest extent ever recounted, but they also took the life of 34 people and more than a billion of animals (CDP, 2020). In Queensland specifically, more than half of the Gondwana world heritage rainforests were burned, including the iconic Binna Burra Lodge. Our multidisciplinary research project is contributing to bushfire recovery and resilience and is jointly funded under the Commonwealth/State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements 2020.
The project aims to build community resilience to disasters by gathering and sharing first-hand experiences of the community responses to the 2019-2020 bushfires that impacted natural heritage sites. Storytelling pavilions will be built on two impacted sites to collect and share memories, increasing awareness, fostering discussion and building collective learning.
The first pavilion will be erected in Binna Burra in November 2020.