Voices From Canterbury
As public servants, our role in New Zealand’s economic and social recovery from Covid-19 presents many challenges but also many opportunities. How effectively we respond will, at least in some part, be determined by how well we learn from the experiences of the past.
In the latest issue of our Journal, we talk to people with different roles in the Canterbury region, about the lessons they have learnt about responding to crisis and trauma that could help to shape our future responses.
The article is brimming with wonderful insights and well worth a read. A few thoughts to whet your appetite:
- “Working together is much more efficient, but it’s also quite comforting — nobody’s got all the answers and we have a much better chance of getting the right outcome together.” - Ben Clark, Department of Corrections
- “We need to be really cautious of taking a paternalistic approach — it creeps in unconsciously in approaches that imply some programs or agency is going to look after our communities, when the truth is that communities look after themselves.” — Jim Palmer, Waimakariri District Council
- There’s no way forward without the environment being part of that. We’ve been given quite an amazing opportunity to reconsider the contribution we’re making to its destruction” - Gabrielle Huria, Ngai Tuahuiri hapu.
You can read the full article below.