2015

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2013

Natural Resources & Environment, 2020

The April 2019 fire that ravaged the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, prompted worldwide reactions of shock and grief. The Notre Dame Cathedral is an iconic structure and important piece of cultural heritage that makes up the historic fabric of Paris, drawing millions of tourists from all over the world to visit. The fire sparked an international interest in what happens to cultural heritage after a disaster. I recall sitting at my desk watching live media footage of the firefighters struggling to contain the blaze that threatened to destroy the centuries-old structure. Like me, much of the world watched their fight to save the cathedral. There was an instantaneous outpouring of support to finance rebuilding efforts as media reported the loss of the cathedral's well-known gothic arches, beams, and spire. Donations poured in to support recovery efforts, and media attention increased regarding the importance of protecting culture heritage. Cultural heritage is particularly vulnerable in disaster situations because of its general inability to adapt, its significant symbolic and informational value, and the low priority position it occupies in disaster law and policy. When disaster strikes and a significant piece of cultural heritage is damaged or lost, people and nations around the world profess their support, leading to worldwide relief efforts and donations. Recovery and rebuilding after a disaster should not be the focus though. To truly protect cultural heritage, preservation cannot be merely an afterthought once a disaster has happened. Overarching national federal law and policy must include provisions recognizing the value of cultural heritage. Many people think of cultural heritage as big, grand, iconic structures, such as the Notre Dame Cathedral or the Statue of Liberty in New York, or famous paintings, such as the Mona Lisa, but cultural heritage encompasses so much more than historic buildings and venerated works of art. In recent decades, there have been major strides in understanding and defining cultural heritage. No longer is it viewed as simply tangible objects sitting in a museum behind glass, old books gathering dust on a shelf, or imposing and majestic architectural feats.

This paper reports on the Archiving and Memorializ-ing Disasters International Workshop, a side event organized for the Third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, held on March 14-18, 2015 in Sendai, Japan. The public workshop consisted of presentations by experts of disaster archives and a panel discussion. The wide-ranging backgrounds of these experts – anthropology, history and engineering – provided for a pioneering and interdisciplinary approach to the fields of disaster archives and memorialization. The aim of this workshop was to reflect on the potential roles of disaster archives and memorialization, with particular reference to the third priority for action – Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience – of the new UN-endorsed Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-30). Presentations covered several projects in digital archiving of disasters and research on memorialization processes of disasters. It was concluded that archiving and memorial-ization can, and should, play a complementary and significant role in disaster risk reduction.

International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2015

Museum Interpretation in Times of Disaster: Museum Education, Exhibition and Public Programs in the New Normal. ASEAN Museum Congress Proceedings, 26 to 28 October 2021. Manila: National Museum of the Philippines and ASEAN Committee on Culture and Heritage. , 2022

This paper first surveys the range of museum responses to the current COVID-19 pandemic, providing some statistics on museum closures, visitations, and furloughs, as well as the dramatic changes we have witnessed in museum access and crowd management, “special events,” in-person vs. telework arrangements, and many other museum functions during the pandemic. Secondly, the paper considers some silver linings to our enforced “pivot to virtual” that museums have experienced, exploring some benefits of the new forms of online interactions that will surely be maintained in the “new normal.” Part 3 examines some past disasters and their effects on museums, both at the Smithsonian and internationally, with special attention to the extreme example of Japan’s March 2011 “Triple Disaster”—the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011 (massive earthquake, tsunami, and consequent nuclear power plant meltdown). The effects of the Triple Disaster on museums is examined, alongside the transformative role of the Ishinomaki City Museum in becoming an effective memorial to the victims.The paper then concludes (Part 4) by looking at other examples of contributions that museums and historic sites are making now to our remembrance and our societal interpretations of disasters and tragedies in the past and present. This paper presents information delivered online on 26 October 2021 as the Keynote lecture for the first panel at the opening of the ASEAN Museum Congress, "Museum Interpretation in Times of Disaster: Museum Education, Exhibition and Public Programs in the New Normal" (Manila: National Museum of the Philippines. 26 to 28 October 2021). Keywords: Museums • museum studies • disaster preparedness • disaster planning • museum management • pandemics • Smithsonian Institution • museum interpretation • public culture

IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 2019

Soon after the devastation brought by Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE), a variety of Japanese agencies and organizations began to build digital archives of the disaster. Seven years onwards, over fifty digital archives collect and release millions of earthquake records. These earthquake disaster digital archive created for the Great East Japan Earthquake have the potential to lead the way for more general measures and countermeasures to reduce the impact of future ‘natural’ disasters. 1 We also believe that the records and knowledge of ‘natural’ disasters must be systematized and shared worldwide. As a first step, this research sheds light on examples and subjects of the digital archive of GEJE and report on basic knowledge that serves for the development of digital archive of ‘natural’ disasters’ in the future.

International Disaster Law Project, with the assistance of dr. Alice Riccardi.