> [!NOTE]+ Meta > Reference:: Maidment, J., Tudor, R., Campbell, A., & Whittaker, K. (2015). Use of domestic craft for meaning-making post-disaster. _Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online_, _10_(2), 144–152. https://doi.org/10.1080/1177083X.2015.1047457 > Date:: 2015 > Tags:: #warp #NewZealand > WeftLinks:: [[Disaster relief value of craft]] > Claim:: [[Claim - Craft helps recovery from trauma]] > [!SUMMARY] Summary > Crafting helped people recover from the Christchurch earthquake. ### Highlights > This article reports on research conducted after the Christchurch 2010–2011 earthquakes aimed at capturing how people have used crafting as a means of connecting with others and aiding recovery. Using participant voices from five focus group and nine individual interviews, findings from this research show how Cantabrians used the activity of crafting to bring people together, generating a form of healing and recovery. Incorporating symbolism, expressions of compassion and restoring broken materials within their crafting helped participants generate strong and positive responses to a traumatic series of events. > These included making quilts for the Japanese language students who survived and were hospitalised after the building they were in collapsed (Todd [Citation2011](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1177083X.2015.1047457#)); stitching hearts in the street and handing them to passersby (Evans 2012); and covering a large steel container used for protecting the roadside from rockfall in crocheted squares (The Press [Citation2011](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1177083X.2015.1047457#)). >We interviewed two women who began the ‘Lyttelton Hearts’ project immediately after the 22 February earthquake. With nowhere to congregate in Lyttelton, all meeting places and cafés damaged, Bettina and Sue-Ellen sat on the footpath and hand-made hearts that they gave to people passing by. Evans B 2012. The shaken heart stories: earthquake stories from the heart of Lyttelton [Audio files]. [https://quakestudies.canterbury.ac.nz/store/collection/443](https://quakestudies.canterbury.ac.nz/store/collection/443) [[Attachments/5d4a8e7da95da896a95bd9e4bcd28440_MD5.jpeg|Open: Pasted image 20240913163201.png]] ![[Attachments/5d4a8e7da95da896a95bd9e4bcd28440_MD5.jpeg]] [Needleworkers add colour to Sumner container | Stuff](https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchurch-earthquake-2011/6865022/Needleworkers-add-colour-to-Sumner-container)