{"id":39996,"date":"2022-02-22T06:30:16","date_gmt":"2022-02-21T17:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=39996"},"modified":"2022-02-20T19:26:22","modified_gmt":"2022-02-20T06:26:22","slug":"celebrating-the-new-eleven-years-on-from-22nd-february-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2022\/02\/22\/celebrating-the-new-eleven-years-on-from-22nd-february-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating The New: Eleven Years On from 22nd February, 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Last year was the tenth anniversary of the February 22nd earthquake which took 185 lives and did so much damage to my home city of Christchurch and its wider environs.<\/p>\n

Accordingly, I did a retrospective post looking back over the decade:<\/p>\n

Faultline: My Decade From February 22nd, 2011<\/a><\/h3>\n

My chief emotion, when writing the post, was sadness and a profound awareness of the decade’s physical and emotional geography of loss.<\/p>\n

Yet despite my sorrow I also felt greatly honoured, because the Prime Minister chose to conclude her speech for the National Remembrance Service with lines from The Sparrows<\/em>, which is one of my earthquake poems:<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister’s February 22nd Remembrance Speech and “The Sparrows”<\/a><\/h3>\n
\"\"

“I meant it to be a poem about sparrows”<\/em>; artist Claire Beynon<\/p><\/div>\n

In many ways, the retrospective, together with the recognition inherent in use of The Sparrows<\/em>, marked a turning point. I am still aware of the gaps and the damaged areas that are still with us, but increasingly I find myself noticing and celebrating the new Christchurch taking shape all around us.<\/p>\n

This includes both restorations, such as the Edmonds Band Rotunda and the Dandelion fountains outside the 1970s Town Hall (also restored), as well as structures that are completely new, such as the Te Pae convention centre.<\/p>\n

So to mark today, the eleventh anniversary of the February 22nd earthquake, I have taken some photos to share here. I note that they’re fairly random, being things I’ve spotted when out and about on other business. When it comes to carefully curated photo essays I shall have to refer you to the experts. \ud83d\ude00
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Edmonds’ Band Rotunda — Restored to its former glory<\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Dandelion fountains & restored Town Hall<\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

New footbridge over the River Avon, central city<\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Te Pae convention centre (from Victoria Square)<\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Poetry along the new riverside walk<\/p><\/div>\n

This quote is from work by my friend Frankie McMillan, who is one of New Zealand’s leading short fiction writers and poets, from the book, There Are No Horses In Heaven<\/em>. It’s located close by the new footbridge and reads:\"\"<\/p>\n

“Outside I touched earth, called upon it as witness<\/em><\/span>
\nI too am learning to heal myself.”<\/em><\/span>
\n~ Frankie McMillan<\/a>
\nfrom: 1925 Henry Souttar Does the Unthinkable, <\/em>2012<\/span><\/p>\n

I really like the quote and the way it captures a sense of restoration, healing, and renewal. And somehow means more because the words are written by a friend. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Last but not least, and speaking of footbridges, the photo immediately below is the famous “twisted” bridge, also on the Avon River but several miles east of the city centre. It was located in what is called the “Residential Red Zone”: suburbs so irreparably damaged they were cleared of housing and the residents relocated.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The final photo is the new, replacement footbridge, currently being constructed, which will rejoin the two sides of the river for pedestrians and cyclists using what is now (effectively) a “green zone.” Perhaps fittingly, I took the photo on New Year’s Day.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year was the tenth anniversary of the February 22nd earthquake which took 185 lives and did so much damage to my home city of Christchurch and its wider environs. Accordingly, I did a retrospective post looking back over the decade: Faultline: My Decade From February 22nd, 2011 My chief emotion, when writing the post, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-earthquakereports","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39996"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40028,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39996\/revisions\/40028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}