Education, awareness, activism, change. The four values the “Silent Witness” is built upon.
The Silent Witness display is based off of the initiative to promote education and support with the ultimate goal of ending domestic violence. These are community-based exhibits to showcase the very serious nature of domestic abuse and how it is not prejudice to race, gender, ethnicity, age, etc. The display set up gives voice to those who had theirs taken away from them whether it was from fear, or a psychological hold.
In my “Women Writers Around the World” course we were required to read a text titled “The Revolver” by Emilia Pardo Bazan. After reading this article I was able to learn a lot about just how paralyzing a psychological hold could be on someone. The mere threat of the consequences that one could experience for every move or action taken is enough for someone suffering domestic abuse to refrain from getting help. She described her life as being a “victim of a terror which everyday grew more profound, I remained motionless, not daring to take a step I would always see the steely reflection of the gun barrel.” This lasted four years for her: “four years without a single peaceful moment, when I never took a step without fearing that that step might give rise to tragedy.”
Each move was calculated. It was a game of moves and countermoves, just as many of the displays could attest to as well.
As I stepped foot into the area that displayed the Silent Witness project, I felt overwhelmed. It was if I had just sat in a tub of ice and my whole body was going into shock. Pregnant women, young children, men. All ages, all sizes, all walks of life. Domestic abuse is everywhere. How many people do you pass by on the street on a daily basis who may be victims of abuse? When I continued to experience and remember each fallen victim’s story, I felt as if I was carrying something heavy. These people, although red cut-out silhouettes, had come to life. They became each mother I had seen walk by, each sister, each professor, each student. We need to remember and invest our time and effort into making a change.
Start here, and educate yourself. The “Black Dot” project is something everyone should become familiar with. “The goal is for the black dot to serve as a subtle, yet urgent, message to agencies, relatives, friends, and others that a victim is in need of services to help them escape the abuse.” (Goldberg)
To learn more about the “Black Dot” project please follow this link.
If you still don’t think you can make a difference, or that this affects you, please consider the following scenario: “an unloaded revolver shot me, not in the head, but in the center of my heart, and believe me when I tell you that, in spite of digitalis and baths and all the remedies, the bullet is unsparing…” (Bazan).