Author(s): Deb Donnell

Canterbury & Christchurch

In April 2007 Deb Donnell decided to visit the cafes in the centre of Christchurch and write during her lunch hours. She recorded her day to day experiences and interactions with people and businesses in the CBD community, or used the locations as triggers to evoke memories from over the years. Deb continued doing this, as well as taking photographs of where she was writing, up until the time of the February 2011 earthquake. She wasn't sure why until she emerged, dazed and frightened, from her parents' High Street jewellery store, where she worked. On seeing the devastation around her, she realised that all she had written about was now becoming lost history. Cafe Reflections: Christchurch City gives a moving and personal account of Christchurch's Central Business District community between 1975 and 2011, and shares the challenges that small business owners faced after being exiled from their livelihoods after the CBD was closed down by the 22 February 2011 earthquake.