THE SILENT WITNESS PROJECT
The Silent Witness Project is a traveling memorial honoring
the 26 women who were murdered in Minnesota in 1990 in acts of
domestic violence. The exhibit is made of 27 life-size wooden
figures, each representing a woman who once lived, worked, had
neighbors, friends, family before her death.
The exhibit was conceived and produced by an ad hoc group
of artists and writers - we call ourselves Arts Action Against
Domestic Violence -- in collaboration with women's organizations
in Minnesota.
It is available at no charge for display by any group interested
in the campaign against sexual and domestic violence. For information,
contact The Women's Consortium, 550 Rice Street, St. Paul, MN.
55103.
In October, 1998, the first Silent Witness National March
was held in Washington D.C. with participants representing Silent
Witness projects in all 50 states and the island of Guam. The
Silent Witness National Initiative has set a goal of zero deaths
from domestic violence by 2010 and is coordinating efforts all
across the country to reach that goal. For information, contact
Janet Hagberg at 7 S. Sheridan, Minneapolis, MN., 55405. Or check
the Silent Witness National Initiative website at: www.silentwitness.net.
From Chapter 21 of TELLING -- Visibility
The summer of 1990 was terrible for women in Minnesota. Between
June and August of that year, ten women were murdered in acts
of domestic violence. A doctor's wife was shot in the head by
her husband while she held her seven-year-old son by the hand.
A thirty-five-year-old woman had her throat slashed as she arrived
for work at the Hennepin County Government Center where she'd
filed for an order of protection the day before.
That fall, a group of writers and visual artists found their
lunch-time conversations at the Minneapolis College of Art and
Design full of the lingering effect of these murders. They began
to talk, casually, then with deliberation, about doing something.
In early December, I had a morning at home to sit in the weak
sunshine, drinking tea and reading the paper, and there it was
again, headline news. A mother of four had been killed by a former
boyfriend, her body found by her six-year-old son. Downstairs,
sleeping on the couch, her sister had also been murdered. The
wail of these deaths was suddenly audible, and I couldn't stand
it. I couldn't go about my business, couldn't abide the din.
I needed help. I called my friend, Jill, who was involved in
the project.. Did you read about the murders? I need to do something.
Is there something I can do?
A few months later, our group completed work on the project
we called The Silent Witnesses: twenty-six life-size wooden figures
representing the Minnesota women killed in domestic violence
in 1990. The figures were painted fire-engine red-- no features,
just the flat outline of women's bodies, simple as paper-dolls.
The genius of the Witnesses' design is the fact that they take
up space. It's been said that this is art's function, "to
make the invisible visible."
Each of the figures bears a name and the story of that particular
woman's death. This was my part in the project. The information
was gathered by the Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women, a
non-profit service group and the only agency interested enough
in the deaths to be keeping track. Working with the grim document
they compiled, I saw that "keeping track" is a critical
step for change. Without the details, a problem easily remains
hidden.
Their method was simple. They read the papers. They were quick
to caution us that their numbers were certainly low. We added
a twenty-seventh figure, the Uncounted Woman, to represent those
women whose deaths had not been acknowledged. From this list,
another woman and I wrote the stories which were affixed on small
gold shields over the hearts of the Witnesses.
She lived in Little Falls. She died of multiple
blows to the head. She had bruises on her face
and upper body and was identified through
dental records. The man with whom she shared
an apartment was charged with second-degree
murder in her death.
Women Come to the Capitol is an annual event in Minnesota
which gathers advocacy groups together to lobby for women's issues.
In 1991, it was also the occasion for the Silent Witnesses' first
appearance. The red figures of the murdered women stood behind
the speakers, perfectly fulfilling the destiny of their naming.
United States Senator Paul Wellstone addressed the group, accompanied
by his wife, Sheila, who never forgot her first view of the Witnesses.
She later became their powerful representative as she worked
to bring attention to domestic violence in Minnesota. In 1995,
she brought the Silent Witnesses to Washington D.C. for the first
time where they were viewed by legislators debating the 1995
crime bill.
At the end of that February morning, sixty women gathered
to march the figures across the street and into the capitol rotunda.
In the bustle of preparation, a volunteer preparing to carry
a Witness turned to see a young woman at her elbow. Do you mind
if I carry this figure? the woman asked. She was my sister.
In October of 1997, as I was finishing this book, I joined
thousands of people in Washington D.C. for the first national
Silent Witness March. Fueled by the dedication of Janet Hagberg,
an originator of the Minnesota project, the march signified the
spread of the Silent Witness Project to all 50 states in just
seven years. To the lilt and moan of bagpipes, fifteen hundred
Witnesses were marched in a resolute red line from the foot of
the Washington Monument to the steps of the Capitol.
That day in Washington is a new favorite in my life. In the
evening, when the Witnesses stood around the Capitol reflecting
pool, they made a staggering swash of testimony. By their absence
they are present, all the women we've lost. I returned from the
march with an image for the refusal to disappear. We are still
here. Now that you see us, what will you do? Moving from one
to the next to the next to read their stories, I saw how terribly
similar they were and how heartbreaking in their particulars.
So many died in the presence of their children; so many of their
children were present with us in Washington.
