Images from Dr Trustrum's book Aceh Revives show the scale of devastation in the worst-hit Indonesian province and the recovery of locals following the devastating Boxing Day tsunami 10 years ago.
Images from Dr Trustrum's book Aceh Revives show the scale of devastation in the worst-hit Indonesian province and the recovery of locals following the devastating Boxing Day tsunami 10 years ago.
The remarkable fightback by Indonesians has inspired a Kiwi’s book writes Jamie Morton
When Dr Noel Trustrum landed in the Indonesian province of Aceh in January 2005, the Kiwi scientist struggled to comprehend what he saw around him.
The 10m high wall of water which had ripped through the area five weeks earlier, killing 170,000 local people, had left the landscape a muddy mess of rubble, scattered personal belongings and broken branches.
Atop the twisted red wreckage of what once had been a vehicle sat the pleasant portrait of a local family, their fate unknown.
"I was overwhelmed by the full force of the sights, sounds, and smells," Dr Trustrum recalled.
"It felt unreal, to the point that I found myself becoming desensitised to the reality of the situation."
With the 10-year anniversary of what became known as the Boxing Day Tsunami just weeks away, the natural hazards researcher at GNS Science has paid tribute to the province's remarkable fightback with a new book.
It includes dozens of pictures he captured during visits over the last decade, and recounts the experiences of survivors through their own stories and poems.
Dr Trustrum had been familiar with Indonesia long before the 9.1 megathrust undersea earthquake struck, having advised there on land use and erosion control in the late 1980s.
He returned as part of a huge multi-national humanitarian relief effort to find a "war zone" and the skies above filled with aircraft.
Image 1 of 12: GNS Science researcher Dr Noel Trustrum has written a new book, Aceh Revives, recounting the recovery of the people of Aceh, Indonesia, following the devastating Boxing Day tsunami 10 years ago.
"It was absolute devastation," he told the Weekend Herald.
"Because everything was so raw, you didn't want to step into people's faces at the time."
He and his research team gradually began collecting the heartbreaking stories of survivors left homeless, jobless and in desperate search of missing loved ones.
One seaside resident interviewed this year had taken off on a motorbike towards the city centre not long after the quake hit, unaware his family and home would soon be consumed by the ensuing tsunami.
"Like a lot of survivors, he had to live in the immediate aftermath, and spent a lot of time looking for family, while borrowing bits of money and helping with the clean up."
When Dr Trustrum returned to Aceh in February this year, the man had rebuilt his life, started a new family and now dedicated his time to urging communities to be prepared for disaster.
The bravery of the local people had left a "lasting impression", he said. The scale of the rebuild and rehabilitation was difficult to imagine.
He hoped his book, titled Aceh Revives, would help ensure the lessons learned by the people of Aceh were passed on here.
