Remembering the Earthquake in Christchurch

 

 

Signs of the 2011 earthquake in Christchurch are still abundant and sobering — not least the braced-up and overgrown remains of the Christchurch Cathedral in the center of town (pictured above).

We spent four days in Christchurch in May on our way down to Aotearoa New Zealand  Yearly Meeting sessions in Dunedin, and came away sobered by the stories and sights we encountered.

Of the sights, the most poignant for us were those remembering the 185 who were killed.

The memorial wall on the banks of the Avon River, with names inscribed in multiple languages, highlighted that the tragedy included more than just New Zealanders. Over half of the victims died when the six-story CTV building collapsed. Included among them were 81 staff and foreign students in a language school.

Across from the empty lot where the CTV building once existed, the 185 white chairs monument hauntingly invokes the sense of 185 individuals, all unique, and all dead.

We visited the Quake City museum, which had clips from security cameras showing how the 6.3 quake threw people to the ground as they walked along the sidewalk; how roads and sewage pipes and power lines were split, bent, and broken; and how people helped out others.  We strolled through one “red-zoned” area where the city decided the ground was too unstable to build on again: the houses have been razed, but the trees and shrubs still mark the now useless boundaries of the lots. We also walked through the center of town and saw many buildings still braced to keep them upright – some obviously being renovated, but others clearly abandoned. 

In conversations with our hosts and others, we heard about the immediate and longer-term practical effects of the quake. Neighborhoods that had to do with one or two temporary toilets until the city could provide chemical toilets for each household. People who had to move out to the suburbs because their houses were destroyed. A woman who found out that her neighborhood had been “red-zoned” while listening to the radio in her car weeks later.

Throughout the city, there are occasional reminders of the frustration that people feel about the bureaucracy and length of time involved in rebuilding: a cairn of stones near the cathedral is a protest against the lapsing of environmental protection laws; another person has publicly proclaimed his grievance against the insurance companies with a sign on an abandoned building that reads “Battered, Burnt, Buggered.”

Even though the center of the city is rapidly rebuilding, people we talked to know that it will never be the same. As one person said, “It doesn’t feel like my city anymore. I get lost in the city because all of the landmarks, the buildings I knew, are gone.”

But not everything is bleak. The river still meanders beautifully through the city. The botanical gardens are still magnificent. And the transitional Anglican Cathedral – known as the “cardboard cathedral” because its roof and much of the interior is built of metal braces sheathed in a particularly hard type of cardboard – is quite beautiful.

We enjoyed a candid conversation with one of the priests, who told us that, like Quakers, Anglican congregations in New Zealand are aging and shrinking. He also shared that although the Transitional Cathedral is beautiful and has a world class electronic pipe organ, “it still isn’t like a real organ with the air vibrating with the music.” He did tell us, however, that an electronic pipe organ has at least one bonus: the organist can record the music ahead of time and the organ can replay the music anytime without a human at the keyboard!

 

And lest you think all earthquake stories were sad, I did enjoy the poster on the back of the bathroom door in the Quake City museum: pictures of the creativity of some Christchurch residents when faced with the need to create outhouses (or as they are referred to in NZ, “long drop toilets.”) After all, we know from Dr. Who that a police box can be many things!

Recognizing the poignancy of our experience, as well as acknowledging yet another school shooting back home, we began our sharing on “spiritual experiences” with Christchurch Friends by singing as a duet the 23rd Psalm set to Brother James’ Air.

Our time in Christchurch was not without some amusement when we attended the quarter-finals of the national Pun Contest. The following video gives a taste of the emcee.