The Issues

Hurricane Katrina was an enormous human tragedy—still unfolding one year later. It was also a wake-up call about inequality, environmental degradation, and the vulnerability of even the wealthiest nations to “natural” disasters. For Canadians, Katrina affords a window of opportunity for thinking about how social policies today may be instrumental in “designing” the disasters of our future.

Wind and water rearranged the human and social landscape along the Gulf Coast to reveal the fracture lines of American society around race and ethnicity, social class, age, ability and gender. Mainstream media focused on African Americans trapped in a flooding city, though a great many other people and places were also hard-hit. Central American migrant workers, Vietnamese shrimpers, and Native Americans were often “out of the loop” at the time and remain so today.

The bayou folk who have lived off the land for generations up and down the Gulf Coast, including the Atakapa people, are not recovering rapidly from Hurricane Katrina. Residents for over 200 years, but not a federally recognized tribe, the Atakapa community was, and remains, invisible to FEMA and most other relief agencies. Now numbering only in the hundreds, their livelihoods and culture have long been endangered. Hazard mitigation projects intended to save (other) people has undermined the local economy, and they suffer today in the “post-disaster disaster” of reconstruction. Women most of all are left out of community consultations about long-term recovery conducted by planners, officials and outside experts.

What social, political and environmental conditions and policies produced this social disaster? What sustains a people with so much to lose through this crisis? How are their children and elders coping? Most importantly, what can be done now to change course and reverse the effects of decisions taken decades ago by outside “experts?”

With women in strong leadership roles, the people of the Grand Bayou are speaking out about the place that feeds their people and keeps their spirit and culture alive.

The symposium offers the campus and community a compelling and provocative view of major disaster preparedness concerns - from the inside out, and bottom up - in the voices of survivors.

Among the topics to be considered are hazard mitigation, emergency preparedness, risk communication, emergency response, evacuation and shelter, economic recovery, reconstruction, and environmental restoration from a social justice and sustainability perspective. The significance of gender, social class and culture will be addressed with particular attention to rebuilding and mitigating future losses.

Additionally, the speakers will consider issues raised by their collaboration in an innovative participatory action research project in place before Hurricane Katrina. The project is designed to bring community members and researchers together to effect changes enhancing survival and resilience in this area so highly vulnerable to environmental degradation and social marginalization.

The Activities

· Presentation for faculty and staff, Tuesday, October 17 (12:30-1:40), Ceremonial Room

· Class lecture, Introduction to Disaster Studies, Wednesday, October 18, 1:40-2:30, Brodie Science Theatre A. Students from across campus can be accommodated in this lecture hall, e.g. from ADES, RDI, rural development studies, sociology, anthropology, gender and women’s studies, religion, environmental studies, geography, native studies, First Nations and Aboriginal counseling, health studies, and international students.

· Public lecture for campus and community, Wednesday, October 18 , 7:00-8:30 p.m., Brodie Science Theatre A with light refreshments provided.

· Short classroom presentations and/or individual meetings to be arranged by interested faculty on Tuesday, October 17 (late afternoon).

Community activities on Tuesday afternoon may include informal discussion with high school students interested in related issues, First Nations communities at risk of disasters in the province, rural women who have experienced such “creeping” disasters as drought, emergency managers, and faith-based organizations and community organizations involved in disaster response and recovery.

All are welcome. For more information, please contact:

Elaine Enarson
Applied Disaster and Emergency Studies,
Brandon University, Brodie Science G39
Brandon, Manitoba, R7A 6A9.
Tel: 204.571.8575; Fax: 204.571.8588, enarsone@brandonu.ca.

We thank the Science Faculty, Faculty of Arts Liberal Arts Speaker Series and the Gender and Women’s Studies Program for making this symposium possible.