Chapter 16
Inclusive Resilience: Incorporating
the Indigenous into the Picture
of Resilient Reconstruction
Diocel Harold M. Aquino, Suzanne Wilkinson, Gary M. Raftery,
and Sandeeka Mannakkara
Abstract Traditional structures are among the cultural treasures that stand as testament to the ingenuity of people who have come before us. In this chapter, we look
at the case of Navala, the sole remaining village in Fiji that has managed to preserve
their indigenous housing structures, called bure. In 2016, Fiji was struck by TC
Winston, a Category 5 cyclone that severely damaged over 30,000 houses in the
country, among these, a number of bure houses in Navala. Post-Winston recovery
saw the construction of contemporary houses in lieu of the traditional ones. Herein,
we unpack the policy-related barriers towards reconstructing the Fijian traditional
housing structure and propose measures on how these structures can be incorporated
into the post-disaster reconstruction framework. Three key things were found to cause
the predominance of contemporary housing structures over the bure in the reconstruction phase: perspectives of key stakeholders on resilient housing, recognition of
indigenous materials and methods in the code, and the inflexibility of government
programmes and policies as regard to informal practices. Ultimately, empowering
indigenous institutions to construct their traditional housing enhances the ability to
achieve a timely and efficient recovery through the complementation of modern and
traditional knowledge and contributions.
Keywords Reconstruction · Traditional housing · Indigenous knowledge · Fiji ·
TC winston
D. H. M. Aquino (B) · G. M. Raftery · S. Mannakkara
The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
e-mail: aquino.harold@gmail.com
D. H. M. Aquino
University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
S. Wilkinson
Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
R. Djalante et al. (eds.), Integrated Research on Disaster Risks, Disaster Risk Reduction,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55563-4_16
297
Inclusive Resilience: Incorporating
the Indigenous into the Picture
of Resilient Reconstruction
Diocel Harold M. Aquino, Suzanne Wilkinson, Gary M. Raftery,
and Sandeeka Mannakkara
Abstract Traditional structures are among the cultural treasures that stand as testament to the ingenuity of people who have come before us. In this chapter, we look
at the case of Navala, the sole remaining village in Fiji that has managed to preserve
their indigenous housing structures, called bure. In 2016, Fiji was struck by TC
Winston, a Category 5 cyclone that severely damaged over 30,000 houses in the
country, among these, a number of bure houses in Navala. Post-Winston recovery
saw the construction of contemporary houses in lieu of the traditional ones. Herein,
we unpack the policy-related barriers towards reconstructing the Fijian traditional
housing structure and propose measures on how these structures can be incorporated
into the post-disaster reconstruction framework. Three key things were found to cause
the predominance of contemporary housing structures over the bure in the reconstruction phase: perspectives of key stakeholders on resilient housing, recognition of
indigenous materials and methods in the code, and the inflexibility of government
programmes and policies as regard to informal practices. Ultimately, empowering
indigenous institutions to construct their traditional housing enhances the ability to
achieve a timely and efficient recovery through the complementation of modern and
traditional knowledge and contributions.
Keywords Reconstruction · Traditional housing · Indigenous knowledge · Fiji ·
TC winston
D. H. M. Aquino (B) · G. M. Raftery · S. Mannakkara
The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
e-mail: aquino.harold@gmail.com
D. H. M. Aquino
University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
S. Wilkinson
Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
R. Djalante et al. (eds.), Integrated Research on Disaster Risks, Disaster Risk Reduction,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55563-4_16
297