Timed around the two-year anniversary of the 2022 disasters that impacted the Northern Rivers so heavily, the two-day event gave over 250 front-line disaster response and recovery workers and volunteers a chance to pause, refuel, share their knowledge and experiences, connect, and plan.
Most of the 60 presenters were local and included young people, people with different abilities, indigenous recovery workers, police, community volunteers, evacuation centre managers, mental health workers. They took their place beside national experts and shared their disaster experiences.
Hosted by Resilient Lismore, the DRT Summit showcased the undervalued role that communities and local community services play in disasters. It was particularly heartening to see so many government and emergency service managers at the Summit, listening and learning.
The Summit was the first of its kind to be held in a regional area and the first to focus so heavily on local and regional knowledge. The magnitude of the 2022 disasters, coupled with the cumulative impacts of fires and previous droughts and floods, has made the Northern Rivers a region to
which others look for expertise and knowledge.
“The lessons learnt in our region are unfortunately becoming everyone’s lessons to learn.”
That we are living and working together to recover from this climate disaster on Bundjalung Country, and pay our deepest respects to Elders past and present.
