BOOKS BACK BETTER CRISTINA

Sanders

Getting Books To Children After The Cyclone Gabriel Floods

It’s been nearly twelve weeks, and the land that Cyclone Gabrielle visited is still a disaster zone of mud, slash and debris, though some of it has been bulldozed into piles to allow access to buildings for the clearing to begin.

A drive past Hukarere Girls’ College in Eskdale reveals piles of silt two stories high and a wrecked building slapped with a Civil Defence Emergency sign behind. You cannot drive past many of the ruined schools in the region. The roads have been washed away and bridges not yet rebuilt.

We’ve all seen the pictures of turgid water lapping the roofs of houses, of people precariously lifted by helicopter, and trees poking out through second storey windows.

I went with a group of volunteers to clear a property in the aptly named “Swamp Road” in Ōmahu, where the Tutaekuri River had jumped its banks and gone overland to join that other river of destruction, the Ngaruroro. The river had thrown a thick quilt of silt over everything. Orchards were flattened, the tips of fence posts just sticking out of the mud to mark where fields of crops once grew. The onion farm along the road had been lifted by the force of the water and 70,000 onions spewed through the properties. We spent a day picking onions out of trees before they started to rot and attract the rats, and we cleared truckload after truckload while bulldozers excavated the silt from the houses.

Stuff estimates that over 10,000 people were displaced by the cyclone across the motu. There are no statistics to confirm how many bookshelves were ruined, how many books were buried in silt or water damaged, but those of us in the heaviest hit areas know the effect of fierce water running through a house, and just how long a household takes to sort and dry. Books don’t survive a flood. The maps that show the extent of the flooding also mark the new book-free zone.

So, what does this mean for readers? What does it mean for children in the hard-hit areas who have lost so much? And to the point, how can we help children who have been traumatised by these events engage in the world again and find the consolation that comes from escapism in books?

Immediately after the initial impact had passed and our staunch heroes with their utes and diggers had rolled in to start the physical mahi, Hawkes Bay author Mary-anne Scott gathered a group of local book-people to discuss how we could help young readers who had lost all access to books. Within days, the group teamed up with Wardini Books, SLANZA (School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa) and Booksellers Aotearoa NZ to create the “Books Back Better” project.

This campaign was formed to focus specifically on school libraries as the best way of getting appropriate books out to young readers quickly. Boxes of randomly donated books are not always useful. We considered that kura/school, kohanga reo and kindy librarians were best placed to understand the reading needs of their communities, and decided on Book Tokens as the ideal vehicle to ensure money went to the right place and for the right purpose.

Amanda Jarden, who heads the English Department at Hukerere Girls College, said they have spent hundreds of dollars in the past year sourcing specific books relevant for their students and are grateful for the opportunity to replace this curated collection.

There has been a wonderfully positive response to the fundraising call for donations through the SLANZA website. All donations will be used to purchase Booksellers Tokens which will be distributed to kura/schools, kindergartens or Kōhanga Reo in Aotearoa New Zealand affected by Cyclone Gabrielle which fit the project criteria via an application process. These tokens will enable the affected kura/schools to purchase new books from local booksellers to replace those that were damaged. If there is enough money raised, ‘books back better’ is the aim, a better collection of stories and ideas to engage their readers. Booksellers Aotearoa are supplying the tokens at a 20 percent discount off face value. All details are on the SLANZA website.

Individuals and organisations are encouraged donate to Books Back Better at www.slanza.org.nz/donate

Cristina Sanders