Indonesian victim calls for help in multiple languages: Acehnese, Islamic prayer language - Arabic, and English. Banda Aceh was multicultural.
Galle, Sri Lanka. Southbound Coastal Train #50 carrying over 1,500 paid passengers and an unknown number of unpaid passengers.
Khao Lak, Thailand. Tsunami phenomena unable to be captured by camera. Giant whirlpool sweeps up cars, people, animals, and houses.
People gather at Tsunami Memorial in countries impacted. The Tsunami generated the “World’s Largest Humanitarian Response in History” including 58 countries.
The world came together to meet this crisis. Cultural understanding took place, and bonds of humanity were forged. I was impressed by the resiliency of the people who suffered great loss.”
WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, December 24, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Children Speak: Tsunami releases a 30 sec PSA for NATIONAL REMEMBRANCE of the 2004 Tsunami AIR Date: December 26th - 20th Anniversary. — Arlene R. Atherton
The 1st Anniversary the George W. H. Bush '41 Presidential Library selected Children Speak: Tsunami to represent America's memorial of the lives lost. Arlene Atherton a Cultural Anthropologist, during relief work collected drawings in February and March of 2005 in the three hardest hit countries: Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. The countries vary in the size of the wave, and damage to villages or cities. The children drew trapped ships that washed ashore, and sea-life left on the beach as the 1st wave receded. Through the children's eyes, the viewer witnesses the onset of the wave to the shore, descending without warning. The immediacy of the Tsunami was fresh in the children's mind, depicting the details of their trauma. They will never forget witnessing friends and neighbors' desperate calls for help, seeing people clinging to uprooted trees and logs to stay afloat, people on rooftops and climbing palm trees, people floating on top of cars washed down the street, the sight of victims bleeding, and the dead floating in the water. Their report demonstrates carefully drawn surroundings, with an aerial viewpoint out of reach of the Tsunami wave.
At 07:58:53 local time in Indonesia, a major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.2–9.3 struck, with an epicenter off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. A massive tsunami with waves up to 100 feet (30 meters) devastated the communities along the surrounding coasts of the Indian Ocean. Approximately 230,000 people were killed, with 2,233 from overseas, in 14 countries.
The 30 sec MEDIA
The drawings by the children survivors offer eyewitness reports and provides a SOFT remembrance. This emotive choice contrasts with the HARD images of documentary photography of ruined buildings and beaches. The children draw the trauma of the Tsunami wave: victims bleeding, people crying and shouting, and terror at the scale of the disaster. No camera could capture that or it would be certain death.
Images from the Children Speak: Tsunami collection - www.childrenspeaktsunami.net
The drawings honor the dead.
BROADCAST: 30 sec clip: CST-PSA_121724.mp4, https://we.tl/t-Nv93UEfJSR
The Children Speak: Tsunami collection include a 51-minute video prepared for the Presidential Library, juxtaposing the Children's Drawings with documentary photography of the destruction. Viewers experience the sight of fragments of houses, cars, mosques, and stray objects like dolls, clothing broken glass, and prayer books. Atherton also created mourning ceremonies for each country. What was previously private for a family, was now pubic held enmass due to the number of the dead. (See www.childrenspeaktsunmai.net)
20th Anniversary Memorial
Each year on December 26th Tsunami countries hold memorials. Sri Lanka holds a REMEMBRANCE ride for the South bound train overwhelmed by the Tsunami wave. Indonesia visitors view the names of the victims at the Tsunami Museum in Banda Aceh. In Thailand's Khao Lak, 80% of the families lost a family member. Residents hold memorials at the beach with votive candles in the sand. France, the home of UNESCO, offers a memorial: "Tsunami Remembrance and Resilience". Australia remembers their citizens lost, reciting their name by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Honorable Peggy Wong. Countries all over the world are holding OBSERVANCES of the the disaster.
Current Memorial Status in America
No one is covering the HUMAN ELEMENT - the terror, trauma, and despair.
The Memorial coverage is a repeat of early journalist footage of destruction.
America has NO NATIONAL MEMORIAL OBSERVANCE planned.
Children Speak: Tsunami releases this 30 sec clip as a PSA to be run on the Anniversary date December 26th during commercial breaks on Newscasts.
Photographs of the drawings are also available. Print Media LINK: 6”x 4” Photos.jpeg https://we.tl/t-2JUKgyGrQd
Children Speak: Tsunami was created to allow the children who survived this tremendous disaster a voice. Their drawings signify the scope and scale of the Tsunami wave on their shores. Their accuracy in reporting the fine details of their trauma gives a reality to a child's testimony of current events. These drawings offer visual evidence of the USGA description of the formation, and descent of a tsunami wave. Children Speak: Tsunami is an Educational Organization.
Arlene R. Atherton, www.childrenspeaktsunami.net
Cultural Anthropologist, Art Historian. Photographer, Columbia University ’01, Cultural Diplomacy. (Exhibited drawings and photography at Asia Society, New York; Asia Society, Washington, DC; and the George W. H. Bush Presidential Library.)
Arlene R Atherton
Children Speak: Tsunami
+1 202-699-9045
aarleneratherton@gmail.com
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