tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/survivors-36343/articlesSurvivors – The Conversation2024-03-10T13:17:48Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2245572024-03-10T13:17:48Z2024-03-10T13:17:48ZGaza war: The displaced survivors of the Oct. 7 attack remain in need of support<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580809/original/file-20240309-29-vprdfs.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6000%2C3997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Evidence of arson during the attack on Kibbutz Be’eri, Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(J. Rozdilsky)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On the morning of Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas orchestrated <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-hamas-rockets-airstrikes-tel-aviv-11fb98655c256d54ecb5329284fc37d2">a series of attacks on Israeli communities</a>. This was the deadliest attack Israel had experienced since the state was established in 1948. An <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/hamass-october-7-attack-visualizing-data#:%7E:text=Hamas's%20October%207%20terrorist%20attack,years%20of%20the%20Second%20Intifada">estimated 1,200 people</a> were killed, hundreds were taken hostage and approximately <a href="https://unwatch.org/report-un-silent-on-israeli-idps/">30,000 displaced</a>.</p>
<p>As an associate professor of disaster and emergency management who studies terrorism, I travelled to Kibbutz Be'eri in February, where I had the opportunity to bear witness to survivors of the atrocity.</p>
<p>As a matter of respect for Israel’s dead, survivors <a href="https://stories.bringthemhomenow.net/">and remaining hostages</a>, a certain moral obligation seems clear: <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/religion/representing-evil-the-moral-paradoxes-of-bearing-witness-to-atro/10098410">atrocity requires representation</a>. Bearing witness means taking on a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276418776366">burden of responsibility</a> to observe and document.</p>
<p>Bearing witness can <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/countries/syria/syria">serve multiple purposes</a>. Attempting to understand the toll of the conflict on survivors of violence and documenting atrocity to call attention to the criminality of terrorism can all be results of bearing witness.</p>
<p>I was embedded in an environment that was still in disaster response mode. Conducting research in communities affected by the attack required delicate manoeuvreing due to the precarious security situation and general unpredictability. </p>
<p>To navigate such challenges, my co-ordination with organizations having intimate local knowledge of ground conditions was of utmost importance. Arrangements for bearing witness were facilitated by the <a href="https://apfmed.org/">American Healthcare Professionals and Friends for Medicine in Israel (APF)</a>, who organized the Israel Solidarity Mission, which I participated in.</p>
<p>I made field observations at Kibbutz Be’eri at a point in time 130 days after the massacre. When <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-hamas">Hamas attacked</a>, the ensuing <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-devastation-of-beeri">devastation at Be'eri</a> resulted in <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/israels-ground-zero-beeri-kibbutz-bloodiest-scenes-hamas/story?id=103936668">112 residents of the kibbutz</a> being murdered.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580788/original/file-20240308-30-6ofgo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="two photographs showing damage caused by weapons and fire to a wall and a window" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580788/original/file-20240308-30-6ofgo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580788/original/file-20240308-30-6ofgo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580788/original/file-20240308-30-6ofgo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580788/original/file-20240308-30-6ofgo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580788/original/file-20240308-30-6ofgo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580788/original/file-20240308-30-6ofgo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580788/original/file-20240308-30-6ofgo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Detail showing damages to structures in Kibbutz Be’eri, Israel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(J. Rozdilsky)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Among those <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/vivian-silver-thought-to-be-taken-captive-from-beeri-confirmed-killed-by-hamas/">killed</a> at Be'eri was <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/vivian-silver-friends-mourn-israel-death-manitoba-1.7027813">Vivian Silver</a>, a prominent Canadian Jewish humanitarian originally from Winnipeg.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-hamas-war-will-the-murder-of-peace-activists-mean-the-end-of-the-peace-movement-215973">Israel-Hamas war: will the murder of peace activists mean the end of the peace movement?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>Physical ruins</h2>
<p>One observation that repeatedly stood out was arson. Observable burn scorch marks surrounding windows of bedrooms and safe rooms were apparent. Exterior walls of dwellings were pockmarked by automatic weapon fire. Interior walls of dwellings were scarred with blast effects from anti-personnel grenades.</p>
<p>The locations and characteristics of physical evidence of ruins, directly corresponded with descriptions of deaths as remembered by survivors and other <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/22/world/europe/beeri-massacre.html">third-party analysis</a> describing the mechanics of how the massacre took place.</p>
<p>Overall, my observations — made on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis in Be'eri — indicated the attackers had no apparent tactical objectives to their <a href="https://doi.org/10.4088/pcc.v01n0302">running amok</a>, other than killing and taking hostages.</p>
<h2>The fate of evacuees</h2>
<p>Intertwined with the sites of atrocity are locations where response is taking place. Hotels serve as shelters for those who cannot yet return. Approximately five months after the Oct. 7 attacks, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-02-27/ty-article-magazine/.premium/what-makes-the-plight-of-israels-displaced-citizens-different/0000018d-ea95-d1e0-a1dd-fbf529ed0000">135,000 Israelis</a> remain displaced. </p>
<p>In meeting with emergency management officials at the city of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Ramat-Gan">Ramat Gan</a>, east of Tel Aviv, I learned that providing emergency social social services to evacuees has become a new responsibility for the city’s disaster workers. In late February, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-02-27/ty-article-magazine/.premium/what-makes-the-plight-of-israels-displaced-citizens-different/0000018d-ea95-d1e0-a1dd-fbf529ed0000">15,100 evacuees</a> still reside in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area.</p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hotels in Ramat Gan continue to temporarily house persons who evacuated cities in southern Israel after the Oct. 7 attacks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(J. Rozdilsky)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For evacuees, their sense of security has been shattered, and their responses to the trauma they witnessed on Oct. 7 stretches their capacity to cope. Whether and how they can return to their homes in the <a href="https://www.inss.org.il/publication/gaza-envelope-communities-case-study-societal-resilience-israel-2006-2016/">Gaza Envelope</a> is a decision fraught with emotion.</p>
<p>The coming months will be a pivotal point for evacuees. The government has <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/government-says-evacuees-from-south-can-return-march-1-or-stay-in-subsidized-hotels-through-july/">announced two options</a>. As of March 1, evacuees may start to return home with the approval of the Israel Defense Forces. Or, if they are not ready to return, they can receive funding to remain in hotels until July 7.</p>
<h2>The suffering of others</h2>
<p>On the five-month anniversary of the attacks, attempting to digest and analyze recent events in Israel remains challenging, given the depth of the tragedy. Relevant questions are raised in <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780312422196/regarding-the-pain-of-others"><em>Regarding the Pain of Others</em></a>, in which American writer <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/dec/29/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries">Susan Sontag</a> asks: “What does it mean to care about the sufferings of others far away?” </p>
<p>After the visceral experience of bearing witness to atrocity by setting two feet on the ground at Be'eri, I am left with more questions than answers concerning what it means to care about far away suffering. After the more mundane experience of witnessing evacuees having an uncertain future living in hotels, I am thinking about how local disaster response actions play into national crises. </p>
<p>For survivors in Israel, the displacement and trauma are ongoing and it will take the time that it takes for their lives to normalize. A timeline cannot be put on the social and psychological repair of their lives. Experiences of survivors and evacuees should inform emergency measures by suggesting the timeline for evacuees to return home should remain as flexible as possible.</p>
<p><em>Edward Snowden, a graduate of the Master’s in Disaster and Emergency Management Program at York University who specializes in mass casualty management, contributed his observations from Israel.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224557/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jack L. Rozdilsky receives support for research communication and public scholarship from York University. He also has received research support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.</span></em></p>Bearing witness to the displaced victims of the Oct. 7 attack on Kibbutz Be'eri carries a burden of responsibility to observe and documentJack L. Rozdilsky, Associate Professor of Disaster and Emergency Management, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2055622023-05-18T05:29:22Z2023-05-18T05:29:22ZGovernment’s family law bill is a big step forward. But it doesn’t do enough to address family violence<p>The Labor government’s <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r7011">Family Law Amendment Bill 2023</a> is making its way quietly through Australia’s federal parliament. It will become one of the most important laws passed this year.</p>
<p>It <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/bill_em/flab2023204/index.html">proposes to</a> overhaul the family law system to make it “safer and simpler for separating families to navigate, and ensure the best interests of children are placed at its centre”. </p>
<p>We should celebrate the fact this bill is passing through parliament. It shows the government has responded to <a href="https://www.anrows.org.au/publication/no-straight-lines-self-represented-litigants-in-family-law-proceedings-involving-allegations-about-family-violence/">insistent calls for change</a> to protect families. </p>
<p>But here’s why it doesn’t go far enough in addressing family violence.</p>
<h2>What’s the bill for?</h2>
<p>The bill will make important changes to the rules that govern parenting arrangements after separation.</p>
<p>It will remove the presumption of “<a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/fla1975114/s61da.html">equal shared parental responsibility</a>”. Under the current law, this presumption means both parents have a role in making major, long-term decisions about their children.</p>
<p>However, it’s often misinterpreted. <a href="https://consultations.ag.gov.au/families-and-marriage/family-law-amendment-bill/consultation/view_respondent?_b_index=240&uuId=931667378">Many people believe</a> it means parents are entitled to equal time with their children, regardless of domestic and family violence or abuse.</p>
<p>This bill will finally make it clear that equal time isn’t always appropriate or safe for families with a history of abuse.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1655807754471342080"}"></div></p>
<h2>The problem of family violence</h2>
<p>The grim reality is that family violence is the norm, not the exception in family law. <a href="https://www.fcfcoa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-11/mr101121_0.pdf">Recent data</a> shows well over half of cases before the family court involve allegations of family violence against children or one parent.</p>
<p>Separation often doesn’t mean an end to the violence, but <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1084682">more harm and control</a>, especially at contact changeover times for children or during the court process.</p>
<p>Helen Politis, a victim-survivor of abuse and veteran of the family law system explains what this meant for her:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The reign of chaos my children and I experienced prior to separation escalated post separation. Even worse was that this damaging behaviour was inadvertently enabled, legitimised, perpetuated and, I fear, normalised for my children.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Victim-survivors face a <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/2123/6255">common belief from family law professionals</a> that children need a relationship with their father, no matter the abuse they have suffered. As Helen explains:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Despite the overwhelming evidence of continued abuse and countless examples of the ways in which my children were being used as pawns, my own lawyers denied my situation. Routinely my desperate pleas to my lawyers were met with dismissive responses such as “it takes two to tango” and “you can’t clap with one hand”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is even worse when the system itself is deliberately used by perpetrators to control and intimidate victim-survivors. Research in <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1748895817728380">Australia</a> and <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/895175/domestic-abuse-private-law-children-cases-literature-review.pdf">the United Kingdom</a> demonstrates this “legal systems abuse” is common in family law. </p>
<p>For Helen, the legal system was a core component of family violence:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Being caught in the family law system felt very dangerous. I was in an impossible situation, with no way out and no way of protecting my children.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What needs to be done?</h2>
<p>This bill makes important progress, but there are two main reasons why it doesn’t go far enough. </p>
<p><strong>It must allow histories of violence</strong></p>
<p>First, the bill needs to be stronger in recognising where family violence has occurred. </p>
<p>In the bill, there will be six principles to help judges, lawyers and parents decide what arrangements would be in children’s best interests. The bill includes reference to “safety” as one of these six principles, but at the same time proposes to remove a <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/fla1975114/s60cc.html">reference in the current law</a> to a history of violence in considering the best interests of children. </p>
<p>Simplification of the law shouldn’t come at the cost of harm. As family law expert Zoe Rathus from Griffith University explains: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Talking about safety is talking about the future. Talking about violence is talking about the past – and talking about the past is critical to women and children being able to tell their stories when they have experienced family violence.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There’s significant evidence that many <a href="https://theconversation.com/separated-parents-and-the-family-law-system-what-does-the-evidence-say-62826">victim-survivors’</a> allegations of family violence aren’t believed, and their experiences are <a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/INFORMIT.702873923415841">minimised in the family law system</a>. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/separated-parents-and-the-family-law-system-what-does-the-evidence-say-62826">Separated parents and the family law system: what does the evidence say?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Helen’s own lawyers advised her not to raise her experiences of past family violence in her case, for fear it would be held against her: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I believed that the family law system would provide my children with the safety and support that they rightfully deserved. What I experienced was an incredibly lengthy, frightening and financially depleting process. Family violence is what led me into the family law system, yet despite the irrefutable evidence, it was routinely ignored.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As it stands, this bill reinforces this problem. It suggests we should ignore information and evidence about past violence, and pretend it isn’t relevant to the future safety of victim-survivors or the children at the heart of these arrangements. </p>
<p>To address this, the bill should retain the provision that allows evidence of any family violence to be considered. </p>
<p><strong>It must recognise ‘legal systems abuse’</strong></p>
<p>Second, the bill needs to do more to address <a href="https://dfvbenchbook.aija.org.au/understanding-domestic-and-family-violence/systems-abuse/">legal systems abuse</a>. </p>
<p>A major achievement of this bill is it will introduce a new power for judges to make orders that stop people bringing court proceedings where it would cause harm to the other family members involved.</p>
<p>However, it needs to go further. The bill needs to reflect global evidence and finally recognise “systems abuse” as a form of family violence. </p>
<p>Systems abuse could be explicitly listed as an example of family violence in the <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/fla1975114/s4ab.html">Family Law Act 1975</a>, as recommended by a recent unpublished study by Lucy Foster from Monash University. </p>
<p>We believe the bill could add systems abuse into the existing definition of family violence used in law.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-simple-solution-when-families-meet-the-law-58641">No simple solution when families meet the law</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>It’s important parliament takes this opportunity to get our family laws as strong as possible on the issue of family violence. </p>
<p>We support Helen in her hope for this new law:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Although too late for me and my children… I am hopeful this time we have the courage to step up and deliver a Family Law Act that does not further damage the lives of vulnerable people. Simple changes such as recognising past violence can make all the difference. The proposed changes do not seem to go far enough to address the harms inflicted on vulnerable people before the family law system, overwhelmingly women and children.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p><em>The authors would like to acknowledge Helen Politis, who coauthored this article. Helen is a workplace advisor and advocate. She works with organisations, including 1800 Respect and the Judicial College of Victoria towards ending family violence.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205562/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Becky Batagol provided advice to Zoe Daniels MP on the Family Law Amendment Bill 2023. Helen Politis provided statements and input to the solutions proposed for this story based upon her lived experience of family violence in the family law system. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Mant provided advice to Zoe Daniels MP on the Family Law Amendment Bill 2023.</span></em></p>We should celebrate that this bill is passing through parliament. But there are 2 key concerns.Becky Batagol, Associate Professor of Law, Monash University, Monash UniversityJessica Mant, Lecturer in Law, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1997552023-02-23T13:16:17Z2023-02-23T13:16:17ZWhen there are no words: Talking about wartime trauma in Ukraine<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510789/original/file-20230217-18-v9aq5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C1017%2C682&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ukrainian designer Margarita Chala stands next to shoes symbolizing war crimes committed against Ukrainian civilians at the Old Town Square in Prague in 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ukrainian-designer-margarita-chala-drapped-in-a-ukrainian-news-photo/1247164013?phrase=ukraine&adppopup=true">Michal Cizek/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the first anniversary of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-did-russia-invade-ukraine-178512">Russian invasion of Ukraine</a> approaches, one thing is clear: The destruction the war has wreaked upon Ukrainians over the last 12 months is so catastrophic that the country will be dealing with the humanitarian consequences for the foreseeable future. One of the consequences is trauma. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://ii.umich.edu/ii/people/all/u/uehling.html">an anthropologist</a>, I have long sought ways to describe my interviewees’ narratives in ways that are true to what they experienced. This is particularly challenging after shocking, painful or overwhelming experiences, which are often difficult for survivors to describe in chronological order – or sometimes, to describe at all.</p>
<p>Still, abundant research shows that unverbalized memories are not necessarily lost. Often, they return in the form of flashbacks <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-018-1680-4">and physical sensations</a>. Survivors may find themselves reaching, consciously or unconsciously, for different ways to describe their experiences.</p>
<p>I did extensive <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501768484/everyday-war/#bookTabs=1">ethnographic research</a> in Ukraine between 2015 and 2017, crisscrossing the country to understand <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/48614280">what was happening to civilians</a> after Russian-supported troops began the war in the Donbas region of Ukraine. During my research, many people related their experiences of war in terms of their embodied sensations and material possessions.</p>
<h2>The body knows</h2>
<p>Ukrainians often described their decision to leave areas of active military conflict as a visceral, rather than cerebral, process. A woman I call “Zhenia,” for example, lived through the epic siege <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/02/a-year-of-war-completely-destroyed-the-donetsk-airport/386204/">of the Donetsk airport</a> in 2014. Although her family planned to stay, that changed one night when her husband saw a mortar from a missile strike land down the street from their high-rise apartment while he was standing on their balcony. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511460/original/file-20230221-28-vwt2d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The view of a damaged-looking apartment building from inside another damaged apartment." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511460/original/file-20230221-28-vwt2d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511460/original/file-20230221-28-vwt2d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511460/original/file-20230221-28-vwt2d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511460/original/file-20230221-28-vwt2d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511460/original/file-20230221-28-vwt2d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511460/original/file-20230221-28-vwt2d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511460/original/file-20230221-28-vwt2d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A view from a destroyed window after a shell hit an apartment block building in Donetsk on Dec. 2, 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/view-from-a-destroyed-window-after-a-shell-hit-an-apartment-news-photo/459826320?phrase=2014%20donetsk%20airport&adppopup=true">Eric Feferberg/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But they didn’t need to talk about it. Zhenia remembers thinking that her husband’s skin looked almost green from shock. Then, he threw up in the bathrooom. By the glances they exchanged, she knew it was time to pack their bags. </p>
<p>From her perspective, their bodies “knew” the time had come – it was an embodied form of knowing. She and many other displaced Ukrainians told their stories by referring to physical changes they experienced: tightening in the diaphragm, shortness of breath, an upset stomach, diarrhea, pain in their bones. Young people in good health described their hair going gray and teeth suddenly beginning to fall out. Psychologists might call this “somaticizing”: when mental and emotional distress <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2014.07.011">expresses itself physically</a>.</p>
<p>Anthropologists <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520247451/life-and-words">have long debated how best</a> to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/14634996030033003">communicate about pain and violence</a> in a way that honors survivors’ experiences <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/006996685019001011">without being voyeuristic</a>. In my 2023 book, “<a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501767593/everyday-war/#bookTabs=1">Everyday War</a>,” I address the challenge by giving voice to the embodied language the people I spoke with used, relating their lives to me by talking about their bodies and possessions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511509/original/file-20230221-3844-fzfy9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Framed photos and small decorations sit on a desk next to a houseplant." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511509/original/file-20230221-3844-fzfy9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511509/original/file-20230221-3844-fzfy9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511509/original/file-20230221-3844-fzfy9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511509/original/file-20230221-3844-fzfy9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511509/original/file-20230221-3844-fzfy9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511509/original/file-20230221-3844-fzfy9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511509/original/file-20230221-3844-fzfy9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bits of life, sitting in a nursing home room near Kyiv.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/residents-personal-belongings-in-a-room-on-may-8-2022-at-a-news-photo/1240546289?phrase=ukraine%20possessions&adppopup=true">Alexey Furman via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Surviving the surreal</h2>
<p>Among survivors of horrific experiences, there is also <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/884645650">a tendency to dissociate</a>. Dissociation refers to the sense of detachment from reality that occurs when the ways we typically make sense of our experiences are inadequate to what is happening.</p>
<p><a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/09/1127691">War crimes</a> exemplify humanity at its worst, and ordinary words <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102215-100232">often feel insufficient</a> to describe what people witness. It is not uncommon for individuals who have survived war and conflict to describe feeling detached from reality and other people. Many experience the world in which they are living as unreal, dreamlike and distorted.</p>
<p>In Ukraine, people I spoke with who had been affected by the war painted a world so uncannily altered by violence that it felt as they were living in a science fiction drama: The previously familiar became very strange.</p>
<p>A woman who had been displaced from Donetsk, “Yuliya,” told me she left after an otherworldly quality seemed to overtake her city. She compared her time in the city to a science fiction movie she had seen about the Soviet Union, in which high-tech sonic waves were used to subdue the population. Others <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501767593/everyday-war/#bookTabs=1">described the Russian occupiers</a> as bestial, monstrous and “zombies.” “Valya,” for example, described the mercenaries who entered her town as an “animal horde” because their activities were so indiscriminate.</p>
<p>Researchers in other countries where people are suffering from widespread trauma show survivors using similar language. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2005.00232.x">In South Africa</a>, people talked about human inhumanity to others in terms of “zombification.” </p>
<p>In “<a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501767593/everyday-war/#bookTabs=1">Everyday War</a>,” I use Yuliya’s term, “sci-fi,” because so many people described having to make sense of what seemed like life on another planet. Here again, Ukraine is not unique. For example, in accounts of the civil war in Sierra Leone, <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/190850795">recovering child soldiers</a> report seeing not water but blood flowing from the tap.</p>
<h2>The power of objects</h2>
<p>A third way people spoke of traumatic experiences was in terms of objects. A single mother of five girls, “Fiona,” fled Luhansk when the Russians stationed near her rural home began going on shooting sprees during their safety patrols in 2014. She began selling household items to generate funds for bus tickets to a safer location. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511541/original/file-20230221-14-bka8pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young woman and her young daughter look out the window from a walkway aboard a train." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511541/original/file-20230221-14-bka8pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511541/original/file-20230221-14-bka8pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511541/original/file-20230221-14-bka8pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511541/original/file-20230221-14-bka8pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511541/original/file-20230221-14-bka8pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511541/original/file-20230221-14-bka8pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511541/original/file-20230221-14-bka8pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Ukrainian mother and daughter from Kharkiv travel toward Slovakia as they flee the war on March 9, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-unnamed-ukrainian-mother-and-her-daughter-from-kharkiv-news-photo/1239054970?phrase=daughter%20train%20ukraine&adppopup=true">Robert Nemeti/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fiona’s description of these items was very detailed and took up most of our conversation. At first, I was perplexed as to why she wanted to go over the make, year and model of items like toasters and washing machines. She was more eager to talk about these appliances, it seemed, than her experiences or her children.</p>
<p>Eventually, I understood that these everyday objects, now sold, were icons of the life they had lost. Describing appliances was a way for Fiona to communicate about her family and its migration, easier than trying to discuss heavy emotional experiences head-on.</p>
<p>Another man who had fled his home, who I call “Leonid,” told me what he most longed for was the collection of matchbook cars he had to leave behind. The picture he displayed on his phone showed the cars lined up, still in their packaging, on a shelf in his home.</p>
<p>A humanitarian worker counseled him to overcome his sense of despair by purchasing new ones. What Leonid was saying, however, was more complex. As he was fleeing, he had also photographed innumerable real cars that were crushed by tanks, shredded by mortars, or incinerated by fire. Our conversation made clear that he longed for the toy cars because they represented everything the real cars in his actual world were not: safe, whole and protected. Talking about the toy cars was a way to describe – in condensed form – a whole set of powerful emotions.</p>
<p>When the war ends, Ukrainians may return to the places they had to flee, but both their inner and their outer worlds have changed. This means anyone intent on understanding will need flexible ways to listen. For anthropologists, it is vital to listen to not only what people say, but how they say it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199755/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Greta Uehling received funding for her research from the Fulbright Foundation</span></em></p>Trauma can affect how people remember and describe experiences. Many survivors express their pain through objects and physical symptoms, an anthropologist explains.Greta Uehling, Lecturer, Program in International and Comparative Studies, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1981222023-02-20T16:14:02Z2023-02-20T16:14:02ZHow transformative justice can address abuse in Canadian sport<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510929/original/file-20230217-14-cqe26a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C42%2C5590%2C3690&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Only when the full extent of the wrongdoing has been identified can real progress be made.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In January 2023, dozens of scholars (ourselves included) signed an <a href="https://www.scholarsagainstabuse.com/">open letter</a> to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calling for an independent judicial inquiry into widespread allegations of abuse in the nation’s sporting organizations. </p>
<p>Our movement, Scholars Against Abuse in Canadian Sport, encompasses experts on law, education, sociology, criminology, history, psychology, and numerous other disciplines, collectively tackling the issue of abuse in sport.</p>
<p>We have all drawn the same conclusion — Canada desperately requires an independent judicial inquiry. Such an inquiry, as legal scholar <a href="https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/gilbert-canadians-deserve-a-judicial-inquiry-into-abuse-in-sports">Daphne Gilbert</a> recently explained, can “support ongoing efforts, while creating a space to unpack the crisis and propose ideas to fix it.”</p>
<p>Judicial inquiries can take many forms, but as Justice <a href="https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2014/bcp-pco/CP32-56-1990-1-eng.pdf">Charles Dubin</a> — who led the 1990 inquiry into drugs and banned practices in sport — explained, inquiries “seek a way of correcting errors of the past so that they will not recur.”</p>
<p>A judicial inquiry is an important first step to overhauling Canada’s abusive sporting culture, laying the foundation for broader, <a href="https://www.sace.ca/learn/restorative-and-transformative-justice/">transformative justice</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510446/original/file-20230216-26-2nc9av.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People walk past a door with the Hockey Canada symbol. A red and black maple leaf with a hockey player." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510446/original/file-20230216-26-2nc9av.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510446/original/file-20230216-26-2nc9av.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510446/original/file-20230216-26-2nc9av.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510446/original/file-20230216-26-2nc9av.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510446/original/file-20230216-26-2nc9av.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510446/original/file-20230216-26-2nc9av.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510446/original/file-20230216-26-2nc9av.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hockey Canada and other sporting bodies have been rocked by sexual abuse allegations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Transformative justice pursues systemic change, by situating survivors and abusers within social structures, past and present. By addressing the root causes of violence, we can reimagine systems to allow for more supportive, safe and accountable communities. This can, and should, include sport. </p>
<p>Only when the full extent of the wrongdoing has been identified can real progress be made.</p>
<h2>Why calls for restorative justice are problematic</h2>
<p>A different approach, however, is being floated as the only solution: <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-instead-of-another-judicial-inquiry-we-should-use-restorative-justice/">restorative justice</a>. Conceptually, restorative justice encompasses a range of related practices and ideas for addressing specific instances of harms enacted against an individual or community. </p>
<p>At the core of most definitions of restorative justice is voluntarism. As legal scholar <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/C/bo70058417.html">Annalise Acorn explains</a>, survivors and abusers meet, of their own free will, for “a reconciliation of meaningful — even strict — accountability for wrongdoing with compassion for both victim and perpetrator.” </p>
<p>Restorative justice can provide an alternative to the more retributive and carceral aspects of the criminal justice system. Some members of marginalized communities, such as Black and Indigenous Peoples, who are <a href="https://www.canadianlawyermag.com/practice-areas/criminal/black-and-indigenous-prisoners-continue-to-suffer-from-poor-correctional-outcomes-report/371402">overpoliced and disproportionately incarcerated</a>, may have a valid mistrust of the criminal justice system, and prefer a community-based restorative approach. </p>
<p>Although some survivors may benefit from restorative justice, limitations of restorative justice processes suggest that they must not be the <em>only</em> action taken to address and dismantle serious and systemic abuse in Canadian sport.</p>
<p>Restorative justice often relies on the assumption that there was a past ideal environment to begin with that can be restored. It also seeks to restore interpersonal relationships, rather than effect broad, systemic change. It is a reactive tool that cannot fix the institutional failings and culture of violence that generated and normalized harm in the first place. </p>
<p>Two decades ago, justice reformer <a href="https://canadianscholars.ca/book/stories-of-transformative-justice/">Ruth Morris</a> argued, “restorative justice does not go far enough. It still accepts the idea that one event now defines all that matters of right and wrong — it leaves out the past, and the social causes of all events.” </p>
<p>Restorative justice can also be problematic because it can recreate a cycle of abuse, in which an abuser seeks reconciliation, only to then continue the violence. Although restorative justice processes do not necessarily require forgiveness, survivors can feel pressure to forgive perpetrators. </p>
<p>This is problematic as forgiveness asks survivors to relinquish their justified negative feelings towards the abuser, implying that the survivor has moved on, and suggesting that “<a href="https://www.vox.com/22979070/restorative-justice-forgiveness-limits-promise">society has permission to do so as well</a>.”</p>
<p>Some survivors may not want to engage in restorative justice, for a number of reasons. For example, they might understandably not want to have any further communication with their abuser. Furthermore, perpetrators may not be sincerely remorseful. Whether or not individual athletes decide to engage in restorative justice, it is clear that such measures cannot redesign an entire system. </p>
<p>An inquiry would afford survivors an opportunity to use their voices to speak truth to power within a platform that can result in meaningful, structural change. Only after the stories have been told and the facts found can measures be taken that directly ameliorate the wrongs committed. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510931/original/file-20230217-374-5ni8j3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman with blonde hair speaking in parliament." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510931/original/file-20230217-374-5ni8j3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510931/original/file-20230217-374-5ni8j3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510931/original/file-20230217-374-5ni8j3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510931/original/file-20230217-374-5ni8j3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510931/original/file-20230217-374-5ni8j3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510931/original/file-20230217-374-5ni8j3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510931/original/file-20230217-374-5ni8j3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Federal sport minister Pascale St-Onge has said there is no coherence in Canada’s safe sport system.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Listening to survivors</h2>
<p>Since Parliament’s <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/canadian-sports-abuse-study-motion-standing-committee-1.6635877">Standing Committee on the Status of Women</a> stepped in to provide space for survivors to be heard, calls for a judicial inquiry by the sport and academic communities have been clear. However, to date, the Government of Canada has been slow to act.</p>
<p>Retired soccer player <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/FEWO/meeting-43/evidence#Int-11968976">Ciara McCormack</a>’s testimony at the Standing Committee was unequivocal:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Systemic change means shining a light into the financial relationships that preserve power and uncovering and dismantling these relationships and systems that protect Canadian sport institutions at the expense of athletes’ lives…Only a judicial inquiry into abuse in Canadian sport, with a broad scope, will shine a necessary light on the harm of the past while rebuilding trust for a better future.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>On the same day as McCormack’s testimony, boxer <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/FEWO/meeting-43/evidence#Int-11968893">Myriam Da Silva Rondeau</a> also urged the government to assemble an inquiry. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“There can be no rebuilding unless a judicial inquiry is conducted by a third party in order to hold the people who perpetuate abuses and the current sport culture in Canada to account.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Retired cyclist <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/FEWO/meeting-44/evidence#Int-11975370">Geneviève Jeanson</a> echoed their remarks. As did former Team Canada soccer captain <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/FEWO/meeting-48/evidence#Int-12025772">Andrea Neil</a>: “Nothing can change until we turn the lights on and reckon with where we are.”</p>
<p>Abuse depends upon the silencing of those impacted. Failing to listen to survivors can be retraumatizing and can minimize their agency.</p>
<p>An inquiry will uncover those responsible for failing the athletes and prevent them from escaping accountability for wrongdoings.</p>
<p>This is a key moment as conversations about the need for safer sport have captured public attention. We must ensure that survivors’ voices are centered in decisions on how to move forward. </p>
<p>Relying solely on restorative justice would fumble a vital opportunity to repair a broken system. An independent judicial inquiry that allows for sustainable, transformative justice, must be part of the solution.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198122/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>By addressing the root causes of violence, we can reimagine systems to allow for more supportive, safe and accountable sport communities.Shannon Giannitsopoulou, Doctorate of Education candidate, University of TorontoMacIntosh Ross, Assistant Professor, Kinesiology, Western UniversityMartine Dennie, Assistant Professor, University of ManitobaNicole O'Byrne, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of New BrunswickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1955772022-12-11T19:06:00Z2022-12-11T19:06:00ZBoxing empowered me to express my trauma – now, I help other abuse survivors do the same, combining it with creative writing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499488/original/file-20221207-10588-41dnqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=442%2C11%2C3391%2C2144&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ella Sowinska</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The first time I got punched in the face in a training session I cried afterwards in my car.</p>
<p>It wasn’t so much that it hurt: it was the shock. I froze, but I was encouraged to punch back. Boxing brought up buried emotion deep inside of me. As much as it didn’t seem very tough to shed tears, the process felt part of my healing journey.</p>
<p>I started <a href="https://theconversation.com/boxing-can-the-sport-really-help-turn-young-men-away-from-violent-crime-114881">boxing</a> in my mid-thirties. I was angry and I knew it was directly related to my childhood sexual abuse and trauma. Secretly I felt drawn to boxing, its visceral nature. The prospect of hitting someone in the face and maybe even knocking them out excited me. </p>
<p>Little did I know that within a few months of signing up to a boxing gym, I would be training for my first fight. I went on an 18-month beginner’s journey into the world of master’s boxing, an amateur division for those aged 35 and older.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499205/original/file-20221206-26-1i0jaw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499205/original/file-20221206-26-1i0jaw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499205/original/file-20221206-26-1i0jaw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499205/original/file-20221206-26-1i0jaw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499205/original/file-20221206-26-1i0jaw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499205/original/file-20221206-26-1i0jaw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499205/original/file-20221206-26-1i0jaw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499205/original/file-20221206-26-1i0jaw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Donna Lyon says boxing became part of her journey of healing from childhood sexual abuse and trauma.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ella Sowinska</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fighting as a metaphor</h2>
<p>My first fight was my most memorable. I fought a woman in her fifties who had a gold tooth. She was tough with a mean look in her eye and I loved every bit of the experience. The brilliance of naivety! It was a split decision, but the final point went to her. I lost, but I didn’t care. I felt elated. The feeling was short-lived, as I fought another three times and lost.</p>
<p>The more I took fighting into the competitive space, the more disempowered I became. Lack of experience was a key factor, but performance anxiety overtook me. I practised mindfulness (a difficult task for someone who had experienced dissociation her whole life). I tried to visualise winning and work with my inner children to quell the fear and voices, but to no avail. I dissociated in the ring.</p>
<p>As I lost fights, the chant of negative voices became louder within me. The unconscious beliefs I had – about being a failure, a loser and worthless – started to overtake me. I kept powering on, fighting hard to battle through the negativity. Fighting became a metaphor for recovering from my abuse.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499210/original/file-20221206-13-8o2ip2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499210/original/file-20221206-13-8o2ip2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499210/original/file-20221206-13-8o2ip2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499210/original/file-20221206-13-8o2ip2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499210/original/file-20221206-13-8o2ip2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499210/original/file-20221206-13-8o2ip2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499210/original/file-20221206-13-8o2ip2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499210/original/file-20221206-13-8o2ip2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fighting became a metaphor for recovering from abuse.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ella Sowinska</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The training motivated me; I trained five times a week. I started running to increase my cardio. I got a trainer and we spoke daily about my routine and mental health. I remember driving to a sparring session with him one day. He said, “You are the most difficult person I have ever trained.” I looked confused. He went on; “Most people when they get hit, punch straight back. When you get hit, you just freeze.” </p>
<p>I responded that it was instinctual. I would dissociate. Boxing triggered the feeling of the loss of control and anxiety associated with my past trauma. But I kept returning to it, determined to crack the code to release me from my bind and break through to the other side. Yet my trauma continued to undermine my boxing. </p>
<p>I struggled to think logically and stay calm, let alone be present. I loved how boxing challenged me to try to overcome these fears, but the self-criticism, judgement, disappointment and confusion connected to trying to win became harder to reconcile. </p>
<p>After my final loss, I ended up having a win, in a small interclub fight. The stakes weren’t as high as the other fights and I didn’t even know it was a win/lose fight. I took home a medal and it felt bittersweet. At least I could say I won one, I guess.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-half-of-australians-will-experience-trauma-most-before-they-turn-17-we-need-to-talk-about-it-159801">More than half of Australians will experience trauma, most before they turn 17. We need to talk about it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Boxing as a recovery tool</h2>
<p>I loved being a fighter, even if I wasn’t very good at it. I have mostly been determined to fight my way through life and work through things, rather than running from them. </p>
<p>After a period of reflection, I knew that what I enjoyed about boxing hadn’t changed. Hitting a bag hard, training, sweating, focusing on my body and breath, movement and speed; toying with being relaxed and calm, yet sharp and on point. Boxing is a delicate interplay between the physical and the mental. It is both art and skill. It is these elements that have kept me coming back to this sport.</p>
<p>Although my fighting career was over, I began to wonder if there were other women like me; survivors, who could use boxing as a recovery tool, a mode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-use-therapeutic-writing-for-empowerment-without-revisiting-trauma-158373">empowerment</a> to express their trauma. I wanted to not only box with survivors – I wanted to hear their stories and share my experiences of trauma. </p>
<p>My background is as an educator, a filmmaker, and an arts practitioner, so the juxtaposition of writing and boxing, although contradictory, felt right to me. I wanted to know what would happen if you put a bunch of survivors in a gym to firstly <a href="https://theconversation.com/lit-therapy-in-the-classroom-writing-about-trauma-can-be-valuable-if-done-right-145379">write about their trauma</a> and then learn the basics of boxing to channel the feelings. </p>
<p>And so, in 2018, I set up <a href="https://www.leftwritehook.com/">Left/Write//Hook</a>, which I ran independently. In 2019, I became a level one boxing coach. In 2020, I took the project into the research space at University of Melbourne, where I lecture in producing for film and television.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KWeYx6hNEjs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Left/Write//Hook processes trauma through a combination of boxing and writing.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Left/Write//Hook is not about becoming a writer, or a fighter. I believe survivors need to give their trauma expression. I believe survivors are already fighters. </p>
<p>I knew what it was like to fight through shame, negative thinking, addiction, toxic beliefs – and even for the will to <em>want</em> to survive and live life. I knew that other survivors felt the same. Journal writing had helped me in the past, but I found it hard to do. </p>
<p>I felt sleepy after I wrote, as though expressing the trauma and then just leaving it there on paper was only one part of the process. I needed to give the words emotion, the memories a purpose. I needed to move the trauma through my mind, then into and out of my body.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-body-keeps-the-score-how-a-bestselling-book-helps-us-understand-trauma-but-inflates-the-definition-of-it-184735">The Body Keeps the Score: how a bestselling book helps us understand trauma – but inflates the definition of it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A virus had been with us all along</h2>
<p>In 2020, I spent two weeks with a group of survivors of childhood <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-real-to-them-so-adults-should-listen-what-children-want-you-to-know-to-help-them-feel-safe-113834">sexual abuse</a> and trauma, sitting in a boxing gym writing about our experiences. After the first hour of writing, I taught them how to box and get angry with the boxing bag. </p>
<p>The workshops were meant to go for eight weeks, but by the end of the second week, Covid pushed everyone online. Little did I know we would be spending most of that year together writing and boxing in our bedrooms and lounge rooms. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499209/original/file-20221206-429-e8tpo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499209/original/file-20221206-429-e8tpo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499209/original/file-20221206-429-e8tpo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499209/original/file-20221206-429-e8tpo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499209/original/file-20221206-429-e8tpo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499209/original/file-20221206-429-e8tpo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499209/original/file-20221206-429-e8tpo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499209/original/file-20221206-429-e8tpo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Donna Lyon taught the participants in Left Right Hook to ‘get angry with the boxing bag’ after writing about their experiences of trauma.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ella Sowinska</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the threat of the virus had reduced our capacity to physically interact, we reflected that a virus had been there with us all along. Inside our homes, in our nightmares, underneath our sheet covers, disintegrating our relationships – with our bodies and minds. </p>
<p>We wrote to prompts, designed to connect us to our trauma and provide context and perhaps relief to our shared experiences. Many of us had never spoken about our trauma beyond our therapist’s office. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lit-therapy-in-the-classroom-writing-about-trauma-can-be-valuable-if-done-right-145379">'Lit therapy' in the classroom: writing about trauma can be valuable, if done right</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Breaking the silence</h2>
<p>I set up the workshop to break the silence of sexual abuse that I had been carrying since I was little. By the end of 2020, we had written an incredible body of work and decided to co-curate an anthology. Our writings had begun to offer an insight into the narratives we told ourselves, the lies that we believed – gently offering an alternative narrative, in the hope that it would one day become thicker. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499211/original/file-20221206-1581-wz1k2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499211/original/file-20221206-1581-wz1k2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499211/original/file-20221206-1581-wz1k2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499211/original/file-20221206-1581-wz1k2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499211/original/file-20221206-1581-wz1k2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499211/original/file-20221206-1581-wz1k2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499211/original/file-20221206-1581-wz1k2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499211/original/file-20221206-1581-wz1k2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption"></span>
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<p>When we heard each other’s stories of shame, disgust, fear and self-loathing, we related and felt empathy. We didn’t see each other the way we described ourselves. We saw each other as tough and brave, fierce and beautiful. And if we saw each other that way, then maybe we could learn to see ourselves in the same way.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Left-Write-Hook-Survivor-Creative/dp/1615995803">Left Write Hook: Survivor Stories from a Creative Arts Boxing and Writing Project</a> collects our writings over three rounds of workshops held in 2020. It tells a story of a group of women and gender-diverse adults who are profoundly grappling with the long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse and trauma. They tell the story of friendship, belonging, connection, disconnection – but most importantly, of solidarity.</p>
<p>During the process of creating Left/Write//Hook (and related projects, including research, that have grown from it), each survivor has been given as much personal agency as possible at each moment. Some of us have gone on to publish journal articles together. We are making a documentary film about the project and we just launched this book together. </p>
<p>This agency ensures the survivor’s voice is always amplified. We are not subjects to be researched on or about – rather, with and by. We are experts of our own narratives, and in reclaiming and reauthoring our lives.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article is excerpted and extended from the book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Left-Write-Hook-Survivor-Creative/dp/1615995803">Left/Write//Hook: Survivor Stories from a Creative Arts Boxing and Writing Project</a>, edited by Donna Lyon.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195577/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donna Lyon is the founder of Left Write Hook and is the producer of the Left Write Hook documentary film. She received seed funding from the University of Melbourne Faculty of Fine Arts and Music Creativity and Wellbeing Research Institute for the workshop and a Faculty of Fine Arts and Music Research Grant for the design and cover of the book. </span></em></p>Fighting became a metaphor for Donna Lyon to recover from her childhood abuse. When her boxing career finished, she wondered if boxing – combined with creative writing – could help others like her.Donna Lyon, Lecturer-Master of Producing, Film and Television. Associate Director Teaching and Learning, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1915122022-10-11T19:04:50Z2022-10-11T19:04:50Z20 years after the Bali bombings, survivors are still processing a unique kind of grief<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488037/original/file-20221004-16-vc1ykq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4000%2C2994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bali bombings commemorative mural at Bondi Beach, Sydney.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Droogie</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Today marks the 20th anniversary of the <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/202-people-died-in-the-2002-bali-bombings-this-is-who-they-were/ow30ib8sw">2002 Bali bombings</a>, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians – our <a href="https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/bali-bombings">largest</a> single loss of life from an act of terror.</p>
<p>But we hear less about the wider group of close family members and friends of people who died. </p>
<p>Twenty years on, these people are facing life without their loved ones and dealing with the way they were taken away.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/some-survivors-will-find-peace-and-healing-in-bali-2002-but-others-may-find-the-series-triggering-189538">Some survivors will find peace and healing in Bali 2002 – but others may find the series triggering</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Grief after terrorism is different</h2>
<p>Grief specialists describe grieving like a form of <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2006-20231-005">storytelling</a>, a process by which we make sense of the loss and what the change means for our lives. </p>
<p>A key part is to connect the news of their passing with the many memories and routines that involved them. This “sorting” process can take months or years but is one way we move to a new story while also staying connected to them.</p>
<p>Losing a loved one in traumatic circumstances can interfere with these processes and lead to persistent or <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07481187.2010.496686">prolonged grief</a> that does not ease over time.</p>
<p>Deaths that are sudden, violent and affect close relationships fall into this category. Reminders of the death can trigger traumatic memories for those left behind.</p>
<p>Terrorism has the further dimension of being both calculated and quite random in its impacts. It leaves survivors struggling to make sense of why this horror affected them.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/remembering-the-bali-bombings-ten-years-on-10040">Remembering the Bali bombings ten years on</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.mja.com.au/system/files/issues/198_05_180313/ste11480_fm.pdf">Our interviews</a> with Bali survivors eight years after the attacks found those physically injured or experiencing prolonged grief had the highest levels of distress.</p>
<p>Early steps in bereavement generally involve accepting the reality of the loss, partly by allowing yourself to experience the pain of the loss and being able to draw new connections and meaning. </p>
<p>However, after someone is harmed through violence, loved ones can avoid thinking about the loss. This can limit their ability to separate the life lost from how they died.</p>
<p>Over time, the two may “fuse” together, where thoughts about loved ones raise distress about what they experienced. So close family and friends can <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/complicated-grief/symptoms-causes/syc-20360374">avoid reminiscing</a> and the usual processing of grief.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/theres-not-always-closure-in-the-never-ending-story-of-grief-3096">There's not always 'closure' in the never-ending story of grief</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Can anniversaries trigger distress?</h2>
<p>The 20th anniversary is similar to other commemorations Bali survivors have worked through in the past two decades. </p>
<p>Many have learned to control or reduce their emotional triggers and are more likely to reflect upon and celebrate their loved ones than dwell upon the terrorism event itself.</p>
<p>At the same time, traumatic grief can last for decades, and most people do not receive effective treatment. </p>
<p>These people remain vulnerable to such triggers, particularly news that is unexpected or presents graphic detail.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1573177025149673472"}"></div></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-it-wrong-to-make-a-film-about-the-port-arthur-massacre-a-trauma-experts-perspective-151277">Is it wrong to make a film about the Port Arthur massacre? A trauma expert's perspective</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How best to support survivors psychologically?</h2>
<p>Strong support networks and having people to confide in are critical to recovery. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.mja.com.au/system/files/issues/199_11_161213/ste10540_fm.pdf">Our study found</a> married or partnered participants had the lowest levels of distress. Support that was non-judgmental and allowed “time and space” was also most valued, whether or not that came from a partner. </p>
<p>One family member told us what was important was:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>People being there for you, where you are that day, and not telling you what to do or how to feel.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For others, working with authorities early on to get clear details of what happened brought some understanding and comfort. One person who lost several friends told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>For me, it was being able to know the circumstances of their death.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Psychological “talk” therapies such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-cognitive-behaviour-therapy-37351">cognitive behavioural therapy</a> are effective in <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMcp1315618">up to 69% of cases</a> of prolonged grief. </p>
<p>A key approach involves deliberate exposure to distressing thoughts and images related to their loved one’s death but in a safe and structured environment. This allows distress and trigger reactions to be reduced in a controlled way. Ultimately, this can support people to accept the loss. </p>
<p>One study participant told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I believe you should try and accept it, which is very hard, but if you don’t it is very difficult to get over it.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Memorial sites are important too</h2>
<p>Memorial sites also have an important role. These are a focal point for support networks and rituals, helping to create new memories of their loved ones, based in the present.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488030/original/file-20221004-23-4r2yo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chloe Byron mural Frangipani Girl" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488030/original/file-20221004-23-4r2yo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488030/original/file-20221004-23-4r2yo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488030/original/file-20221004-23-4r2yo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488030/original/file-20221004-23-4r2yo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488030/original/file-20221004-23-4r2yo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488030/original/file-20221004-23-4r2yo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488030/original/file-20221004-23-4r2yo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Frangipani Girl’ Chloe Byron died in Bali at the age of 15.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://bondigraffiti.com/current-artwork/bali-memorial-frangipani-girl/">Droogie/Peter Carette</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The mural “Frangipani Girl” is a <a href="https://www.aquabumps.com/2008/10/20/yesterday/">well-known example</a> at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.</p>
<p>The mural is a celebration of the life of Chloe Byron, who died in Bali at the age of 15. </p>
<p>It also represents the journey through grief and renewal her father Dave has undertaken. <a href="https://karenswain.com/david-byron/">He said</a> in a podcast interview:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Every day I’ve got a choice between a happy memory of Chloe over the memory of her tragic death […] it’s the choice between a great day and a terrible one. </p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p><em>If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14. You can also <a href="https://www.beyondblue.org.au/get-support/talk-to-a-counsellor">talk to a counsellor</a> 24/7 at Beyond Blue.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191512/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Garry Stevens received funding from the Australian Research Council </span></em></p>Losing a loved one in traumatic circumstances can lead to persistent grief that does not ease over time.Garry Stevens, Director of Humanitarian and Development Studies, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1895382022-09-22T20:16:30Z2022-09-22T20:16:30ZSome survivors will find peace and healing in Bali 2002 – but others may find the series triggering<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485506/original/file-20220920-20-fmh48f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5559%2C3692&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stan</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Around 11pm on October 12 2002, the first of three separate bombs detonated when a suicide bomber entered Paddy’s Bar in Kuta, Bali.</p>
<p>Another bomb detonated shortly after outside the Sari nightclub, before a final explosion in front of the US consulate.</p>
<p>Stan’s new series, Bali 2002, takes a look at these attacks and their aftermath. The physical and emotional traumas play out with desperation and intensity.</p>
<p>The series also shows how our humanity comes out to shine in desperate and violent times. It shows friends helping friends, people helping strangers, doctors on holiday rushing to the hospital to lend a hand and the Australian Federal Police’s directive to help everyone – and not only prioritise Australians.</p>
<p>While the series creators should be lauded for their close consultations with attack survivors in making the series, this dramatisation highlights the very public nature of terrorism. This public nature can have highly personal impacts.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2392">my research</a> into the events of this night and their aftermath, I have spoken to many people who were there or lost someone in the attack. </p>
<p>Some survivors will find solace in this sharing of their stories; others will struggle with the public commemoration. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1qvr4xlBJ90?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Sharing stories</h2>
<p>Some people affected by terrorism find telling their story can be harmful to their health and wellbeing. It locks them into a time and place of pain and suffering.</p>
<p>For others, telling their stories and of loved one’s experiences, lives and deaths is an important part of their healing processes.</p>
<p>Kev Paltridge lost his son Corey in the Bali bombings. He told me closure is “bullshit” and he still has “shit bad days”.</p>
<p>But he also said every time he tells his story, it helps him.</p>
<p>Kev doesn’t shy away from the darker side of his healing pathway – the three years of excessive drinking, his continued suffering and grief for Corey – because he knows there are some who were there who are still drinking and haven’t found an alternative pathway yet. </p>
<p>He hopes his story will help others as much as it helps him.</p>
<p>Journalist Nick Way was at the site of the Sari Club bombing hours after it occurred. He later worked as one of the producers on the documentary Cry Bali. During this process, working closely with survivors and their families, he told me “I learnt that very often, expressing feelings is part of the healing journey.” </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-site-of-the-bali-bombings-has-been-a-vacant-lot-for-16-years-its-time-to-build-a-proper-memorial-116725">The site of the Bali bombings has been a vacant lot for 16 years. It's time to build a proper memorial</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Before and after</h2>
<p>When a terror attack occurs, the <a href="https://dartcenter.org/global/en/how-to-make-difference-for-survivors">media can create</a> a sense of a “victim” identity, which divides a person’s life into one before and after terror, as if they came into being at that moment.</p>
<p>Bali 2002 buys into this division. It gives scant time to our survivors before the event, and these characters feel shallow.</p>
<p>The series also struggles in finding the right balance between the stories of the terrorists and the survivors. Too much focus is given to the individuals who undertook these attacks. More important are the stories of the victims, survivors, family members and first responders.</p>
<p>For some survivors I have spoken to, the trailer alone has triggered traumatic responses. Their capacity to watch the series is doubtful. </p>
<p>The series weaves together a dramatisation of the events alongside real footage. This raw footage adds realism, but the use of this footage is not signposted, and it could be triggering even to survivors who might feel up to watching a dramatised version of events.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CKewu-w28vU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Endurance</h2>
<p>Bali 2002 is being released in advance of the 20th anniversary of the attacks.</p>
<p>In my research, I found recognising and remembering these events on fewer, more “significant” anniversaries we disavow the experience of living with terror after the experience of an event. </p>
<p>All the survivors I have spoken with endure every day. Kev told me he speaks to his son “every morning without fail”. </p>
<p>This endurance must be acknowledged and recognised. </p>
<p>The stories of their survival could have been stories of vengeance and hate and promoting more violence. </p>
<p>Instead, I have overwhelmingly found these stories are about hope and responsibility. </p>
<p>Nick told me he thinks “about building a new future for the people who feel oppressed and disadvantaged so that they might be [less] open to radicalisation”.</p>
<p>These are not saccharine stories about closure or forgiveness or forgetting. They are about living with and promoting an awareness of the effects that these attacks have upon everyday individual lives.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/remembering-the-bali-bombings-ten-years-on-10040">Remembering the Bali bombings ten years on</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Lasting impacts</h2>
<p>Every person I have talked with is still deeply affected by their experience.</p>
<p>Bali 2002 takes us from the weeks before the bombing to the 2005 death of the bomb maker, Husin. Viewers with little connection to the event will more than likely come away without an understanding of how survivors, their family members and first responders are still impacted two decades on. </p>
<p>A terrorism bombing is a moment where one is made powerless. They are subject to the will of the terrorist. It is so far outside the normal daily experiences it can cause a deep identity shift.</p>
<p>My research shows survivors of terrorism, their family members and first responders must find a way to fold the experience into their ongoing lives. </p>
<p>Sometimes they walk the tightrope gracefully and are well-balanced, at other times they can’t find their footing and are swaying dangerously over the abyss.</p>
<p>I hope some will find peace and healing in the airing of Bali 2002 and the sharing of these stories, but this won’t be true for all.</p>
<p><em>Bali 2002 is streaming on Stan from September 25.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-it-wrong-to-make-a-film-about-the-port-arthur-massacre-a-trauma-experts-perspective-151277">Is it wrong to make a film about the Port Arthur massacre? A trauma expert's perspective</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189538/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carmen Jacques would like to thank Kev Partridge, Nick Way, Gill Hicks and Andrew Wallace for their contributions to, and collaborations in, this research. </span></em></p>In my research into the Bali bombings and their aftermath, I have spoken to many people who were there or lost someone in the attack.Carmen Jacques, Research Officer, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1854642022-07-12T13:44:00Z2022-07-12T13:44:00ZCanada’s reckoning with colonialism and education must include Indian Day Schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472849/original/file-20220706-10369-x3gutm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C2991%2C1994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A woman who attended an Indian Day School joins her daughter as they look at the Orange shirts, shoes, flowers and messages on display outside the B.C. legislature in June 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/canada-s-reckoning-with-colonialism-and-education-must-include-indian-day-schools" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Sparked by the locating of hundreds of possible <a href="https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/tkemlups-te-secwepemc-nation-gathers-to-mark-detection-of-unmarked-graves/">unmarked graves at former Indian Residential Schools across the country</a>, there has been a public reckoning with the ongoing legacies of the residential school system. </p>
<p>Many Canadians are finally coming to terms with the truth that the Canadian government, in co-operation with Christian churches, ran a genocidal school system intended to “<a href="https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/the_residential_school_system">kill the Indian in the child</a>” for more than a century. </p>
<p>What most people don’t realize, however, is that Canada’s system of “Indian education” was not limited to residential schools. It also included a <a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/indigenous/learning-about-indian-day-schools">vast network of nearly 700 federally funded and church-run Indian Day Schools</a>, which were attended by an estimated 200,000 Indigenous people between 1870 and 2000.</p>
<p>Despite making up a large part of Canada’s system of Indian education, day schools were excluded from the <a href="https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1100100015576/1571581687074">Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement</a>. A different class action for day schools closes <a href="https://indiandayschools.com/en/">on July 13, 2022</a>, and so far over <a href="https://indiandayschools.com/en/updates/">150,000</a> people have been included. </p>
<p>In recognition of the brave Survivors who have been fighting for justice and sharing their stories, we argue that Canada’s reckoning with colonialism and education must also include Indian Day Schools. If Canada is serious about putting truth before reconciliation, then the history and ongoing legacies of all kinds of colonial schooling need to be acknowledged and addressed. </p>
<h2>The history</h2>
<p>Day school and residential school systems need to be understood as interrelated and overlapping parts of Canada’s assimilationist education project. </p>
<p>In the mid-to-late <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/first-nations-call-on-province-to-investigate-day-schools-1.6194271">1700s and early 1800s, Christian missionaries started schools for Indigenous people</a> — most without financial support from government — in an effort to gain converts and control. </p>
<p>By the 1870s, the federal government had officially partnered with churches and offered to pay more for schooling as a way of gaining greater influence and authority over Indigenous Peoples. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A map of Indian Day Schools across Canada" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472396/original/file-20220704-14-wxeyfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472396/original/file-20220704-14-wxeyfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472396/original/file-20220704-14-wxeyfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472396/original/file-20220704-14-wxeyfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472396/original/file-20220704-14-wxeyfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472396/original/file-20220704-14-wxeyfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472396/original/file-20220704-14-wxeyfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Each dot represents the location of a day school.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(indiandayschools.org)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The new system of Indian education, overseen by the Department of Indian Affairs, had two distinct prongs: day schools, which were often located on reserves where children could return home at the end of the day, and boarding or “residential” schools, where children resided at schools far away from their communities — sometimes children attended both, at different times, during their school years. </p>
<p>The two kinds of schools shared the same goal: to solve the so-called “Indian problem” by <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/lessons-in-legitimacy">undercutting and delegitimizing Indigenous ways of life to better facilitate settler capitalism and Canadian nation-building</a>.</p>
<p>The day school system lasted <a href="https://theconversation.com/indian-day-school-survivors-are-seeking-truth-and-justice-146655">until 2000 with the Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist and, later, United churches</a> overseeing daily operations of the schools in various parts of the country. </p>
<p>Like at Indian Residential Schools, news stories have also reported <a href="https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/federal-day-schools-indigenous-students-deaths-canada">deaths</a>, <a href="https://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/local-peterborough/news/2022/04/11/historian-shares-how-curve-lake-indian-day-school-abused-experimented-on-indigenous-students.html">experiments</a> and <a href="https://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/local-peterborough/news/2022/04/11/stolen-tears-curve-lake-indian-day-school-survivor-shares-his-story-of-being-abused-in-his-own-community.html">abuse</a> at day schools that have had lasting impacts. </p>
<h2>The reckoning</h2>
<p>For more than a decade, day school Survivors have been fighting for truth and justice. Since the settlement was reached <a href="https://indiandayschools.com/en/updates/page/3/">in 2019</a>, both of the original settlements’ founders <a href="https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/legacy-of-garry-mclean-lives-on-in-day-school-wellness-fund/">Garry Mclean</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/raymond-mason-residential-school-survivor-passes-away-1.6392120">Raymond Mason</a>, have passed away. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.mcleandayschoolssettlementcorporation.ca">Mclean Day School Settlement Corporation</a> was established with a $200 million legacy fund that emerged from the settlement with the federal government and is intended to support “language & culture, healing & wellness, commemoration and truth telling.” The settlement process has had mixed results so far. </p>
<p>Journalist Ka’nhehsí:io Deer found that Survivors have been <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/federal-day-school-settlement-deadline-1.6466640">revictimized by the process</a> and that 85 per cent of the claims that were settled occurred at Level 1 (the lowest amount available, $10,000). </p>
<p>While over <a href="https://indiandayschools.com/en/updates/">150,000 survivors</a> submitted an application, others <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/indian-day-school-settlement-extension-request-1.6433146">repeatedly</a> asked for <a href="https://www.sootoday.com/local-news/anishinabek-nation-calls-on-feds-to-extend-day-school-settlement-5511056">more time</a> to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/indian-day-school-compensation-claim-deadline-approaching-1.6495399">tell their stories</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An archive photo of students outside of a day school" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472397/original/file-20220704-16-te7dvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472397/original/file-20220704-16-te7dvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472397/original/file-20220704-16-te7dvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472397/original/file-20220704-16-te7dvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472397/original/file-20220704-16-te7dvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472397/original/file-20220704-16-te7dvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472397/original/file-20220704-16-te7dvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children at Indian Day School in Trout Lake, Ont.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Department of Indian and Northern Affairs/Library and Archives Canada, C-068924)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The recent federal budget saw the government <a href="https://budget.gc.ca/2022/report-rapport/chap7-en.html#2022-1">earmark $25 million between 2023 and 2025 for Library and Archives of Canada</a> to “support the digitization of millions of documents relating to the federal Indian Day School System, which will ensure survivors and all Canadians have meaningful access to them.” </p>
<p>This funding is important, but it will come too late to help Survivors <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2021/08/30/certain-indian-day-school-records-off-limits-to-public-while-province-conducts-investigation.html">with the class action</a>.</p>
<p>Digitization efforts are important because they can generate more awareness and education about the day school system. This is significant because, unlike the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), there will be no national inquiry or final report.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/national-day-for-truth-and-reconciliation-universities-and-schools-must-acknowledge-how-colonial-education-has-reproduced-anti-indigenous-racism-123315">National Day for Truth & Reconciliation: Universities and schools must acknowledge how colonial education has reproduced anti-Indigenous racism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Murray Sinclair, chair of the TRC, often says that <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/truth-and-reconciliation-chair-urges-canada-to-adopt-un-declaration-on-indigenous-peoples-1.3096225">education got us into this mess so education must get us out</a>. </p>
<p>As part of this process then, people must learn more about the history and legacies of residential schools and day schools (and public schools too) and understand their relationship to Canada’s colonial project. </p>
<p>We encourage readers to check out <a href="https://www.indiandayschools.org">www.indiandayschools.org</a> to find the Indian Day School closest to them and <a href="https://sway.office.com/HTP4bXRfg5ED0KeB?ref=Link">read more about this history</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185464/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Carleton receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jackson Pind received funding from the Social Sciences Humanities Research Council of Canada and currently receives funding from National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. </span></em></p>People must learn more about the history and legacies of residential schools and day schools and understand their relationship to Canada’s colonial project.Sean Carleton, Assistant Professor, Departments of History and Indigenous Studies, University of ManitobaJackson Pind, Assistant Professor, Indigenous Methodologies, Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1851982022-07-05T19:58:31Z2022-07-05T19:58:31Z‘Quite irreparable damage’: child family violence survivors on how court silenced and retraumatised them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471511/original/file-20220629-15-8eow4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4330%2C2968&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nobody spoke to Donna* or her sister in the lead up to the family court decision that ordered the children to spend time alone with their father, who was violent. Donna was eight.</p>
<p>Later, after the children told the court’s Independent Children’s Lawyer their father had been “drinking a lot” when he was with them and made “threats to kill”, the judge appointed a supervisor to ensure the children would be physically “safe” from any further violence that might occur. Donna explains, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] so, they thought it was safe, but it wasn’t […] we were just terrified of him. Really, really scared …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Donna, now in her 30s, says the court’s disregard generated emotional harm that was “more traumatic” than the serious family violence leading up to court:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] when you come from a situation of family violence as a child, your mother is your place of safety - generally - and when mum [is] removed […] you know, those times I was made to spend time with him without her was terrifying. And that was probably more traumatic than the years and years of trauma leading up to that.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>After about two years of court-enforced contact, Donna’s father physically assaulted the court-appointed supervisor in front of Donna and her sister, and the judge agreed to lift the orders.</p>
<p>But the psychological damage would resurface later in Donna’s adult life:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] when I was 20, 21, I think […] I started to have flashbacks, and that’s when I realised that I needed to get some help because I couldn’t sleep because I just kept having flashbacks.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I spoke to Donna as part of a <a href="https://www.whitlam.org/publications/they-thought-it-was-safe">project</a> for the Whitlam Institute within Western Sydney University.</p>
<p>Based on the research for my book <a href="https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/broken">Broken: Children, Parents and Family Courts</a>, the project combines a podcast and policy paper with 12 recommendations designed to create a family law environment able to learn from children’s experience – one based in children’s rights. </p>
<iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1273432588&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true"></iframe>
<div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-571199545" title="Whitlam Institute" target="_blank">Whitlam Institute</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-571199545/securing-childrens-safety-and-rights-in-australias-family-law-system" title="They thought it was safe: Securing children's safety and rights in Australia's Family Law system" target="_blank">They thought it was safe: Securing children’s safety and rights in Australia’s Family Law system</a></div>
<h2>What the research found</h2>
<p>In Australia, it’s a criminal offence to identify a party to a family law proceeding, including adults who went to court when they were children. </p>
<p>This means survivors of family violence who were subject to Federal Circuit or Family Court orders when they were children are unable to speak – online or in the media – unless they mount an expensive legal action seeking the court’s permission. If they are successful, they can only speak on the terms the court imposes. </p>
<p>As a consequence, <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/wa/FCWA/2016/6.html?context=1;query=Harley%20Cuzens%20%20;mask_path=">successful applications</a> usually involve cases where the media is willing to pay the legal costs.</p>
<p>Quite simply, the court cannot see the impact of its decisions on children’s lives. It is unable to learn from its mistakes. It has no mechanism through which children’s experiences can be used to inform structural change. And children are forced to live with the consequences.</p>
<p>During the writing of <a href="https://www.whitlam.org/publications/they-thought-it-was-safe">this report</a>, I traced the cases of seven adults whose families went to court when they were children. All were child survivors of family violence, and two were survivors of child sexual abuse. The length of litigation varied from two to ten years, including one participant who reported she didn’t have a memory from her childhood that didn’t include the family courts. </p>
<p>While each survivor had different experiences, they raised common themes. They told me they felt powerless, distressed at being disbelieved, ignored or “kept in the dark”. They said they felt traumatised by the way in which legal actors executed the court’s orders.</p>
<p>They told me about the long-term social, emotional and financial impacts of litigation on their families. They explained this trauma resurfaced in their adult lives.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"993639192302239744"}"></div></p>
<p>The cases of the people I spoke to were litigated between 1990 and 2010. Similar themes emerged in the <a href="https://aifs.gov.au/publications/children-and-young-people-separated-families-family-law-system-experiences">Australian Institute of Family Studies 2018 report</a>, based on interviews with children between the ages of ten and 17 about legal matters that were mostly finalised between 2016 and 2017. </p>
<p>What I found suggests the issues raised by older survivors are also being raised by younger survivors. This suggests the silencing of children is deeply embedded in the adversarial practices of the courts, in the ideologies of the legal profession and in institutional culture.</p>
<p>Nikos*, in his 20s, spent seven years of his childhood in the Federal Circuit and Family Courts. He never got to speak to the Independent Children’s Lawyer: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] what I wanted, and what I thought would be better for me was completely irrelevant to the courts.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ten years after litigation has ended, Nikos can still name the lawyer who refused to speak to him as a child. He said a central problem was that the court’s adversarial system created a forum through which family conflict could be escalated and extended.</p>
<p>Anna*, in her 30s, also says the court made everybody “fight all the time”. She says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I honestly think that even though my dad was extremely violent, family court made it so much worse.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Anna explains:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Because mum was very angry and very inconsistent with me. But I think she would not have been like that if family court was not happening. If the court had just said in the first place, ‘Look, your dad’s really dangerous, don’t see him,’ she would have been a lot more settled and not under the same financial pressure. So, I think that we would have had a much better upbringing.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As the decade-long litigation escalated, Anna’s relationship with her mother became increasingly “difficult”: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I thought afterwards that probably the most unaddressed issue is how badly family court affected the relationship between my mum and I. [My mother] wasn’t the main perpetrator of family violence, and she did try to protect us from it, but because she couldn’t when the court ordered her to send us to dad’s house, it really has caused quite irreparable damage.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The litigation in Anna’s case lasted until she was 14. When the court handed down its final decision, she ran away from home.</p>
<p>The problem, Donna explains, is that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Your fate is in the hands of these strangers […] I actually used to, you know, envision myself as a child just walking in there and screaming at them and telling them the truth, you know, and telling them that he is really dangerous. But, you know, not being heard. So what’s the point?</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>12 recommendations</h2>
<p>My <a href="https://www.flipsnack.com/whitlam/they-thought-it-was-safe-but-it-wasn-t/full-view.html">report</a> makes 12 recommendations, including that:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>there must be a less hostile context in which to hear legal matters which affect children</p></li>
<li><p>family law decision-making processes must be anchored in <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child">children’s rights</a></p></li>
<li><p>adults who went to court when they were children should not be silenced.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>They’re designed to create a simpler and more affordable family law system that reduces harm to children and young people. </p>
<p>This requires the court to provide a child safe environment in which it’s possible for children and young people to speak freely about their safety concerns and be taken seriously.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>*Names have been changed and transcripts redacted to remove identifying details as required by law.</em></p>
<p><em>If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 or 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732. In an emergency call 000.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185198/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This policy project has been funded by the Whitlam Institute within Western Sydney University. This story is part of The Conversation's Breaking the Cycle series, which is about escaping cycles of disadvantage. It is supported by a philanthropic grant from the Paul Ramsay Foundation.</span></em></p>In a new report, child family violence survivors describe how family court worsened their trauma and profoundly affected their well-being even into adult life.Camilla Nelson, Associate Professor in Media, University of Notre Dame AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1839062022-05-31T12:14:10Z2022-05-31T12:14:10ZThe lasting consequences of school shootings on the students who survive them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465842/original/file-20220528-15-8irag1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C61%2C3129%2C2014&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A girl grieves for a friend killed in the Uvalde shooting.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/gabriella-uriegas-a-soccer-teammate-of-tess-mata-who-died-news-photo/1240926123?adppopup=true">Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the U.S. reels from another school shooting, much of the public discussion has centered on the lives lost: 19 children and two adults. Indeed, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/25/us/shooting-robb-elementary-uvalde">massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde</a>, Texas is the second deadliest such incident on record, after the shooting at <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/06/07/us/connecticut-shootings-fast-facts/index.html">Sandy Hook Elementary School</a> in 2012.</p>
<p>Since the Columbine massacre in 1999 in which <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/1990s/columbine-high-school-shootings">two teenagers killed a dozen students and one teacher</a>, at least 185 children, educators and others have been killed by gun violence at American schools, according to figures compiled by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/local/school-shootings-database/">The Washington Post</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465852/original/file-20220529-11-wjwtj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Young children are seen being led out of a classroom window and sprinting away from a school while police officers point where they should be going." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465852/original/file-20220529-11-wjwtj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465852/original/file-20220529-11-wjwtj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465852/original/file-20220529-11-wjwtj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465852/original/file-20220529-11-wjwtj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465852/original/file-20220529-11-wjwtj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465852/original/file-20220529-11-wjwtj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465852/original/file-20220529-11-wjwtj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Terrified children run to safety at the Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-05-27/dramatic-just-released-photos-show-students-fleeing-from-the-texas-school-shooting">Pete Luna/Uvalde Leader-News</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But this death toll captures only one part of the immense cost of gun violence in American schools. <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/%7Emrossin/">We</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-_F-QrUAAAAJ&hl=en">have</a> <a href="https://www.ipr.northwestern.edu/who-we-are/faculty-experts/schwandt.html">studied</a> <a href="https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/economics/faculty/mc47484">the long-term</a> <a href="https://economics.northwestern.edu/people/directory/molly-schnell.html">effects</a> of school shootings on the health, education and economic futures of those who survive such incidents. Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.200080411">research shows</a> that despite often escaping without physical harm, the hundreds of thousands of children and educators who survive these tragedies carry scars that affect their lives for many years to come. </p>
<h2>Deterioration in mental health</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2000804117">a 2020 study</a>, we analyzed 44 school shootings that took place in the U.S. between 2008 and 2013 to assess the impact the incidents had on students’ mental health. Using a unique data set documenting antidepressant prescriptions in the surrounding areas, we found that antidepressant use among youth near schools that experienced shootings increased by over 20% following the event.</p>
<p><iframe id="mxjGf" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/mxjGf/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>This increased usage of antidepressants persisted for over three years after the shooting, indicating that the deterioration in mental health among local adolescents was not temporary.</p>
<p>The effects were more pronounced when the school shootings included fatalities, suggesting that events like the massacre in Uvalde are likely to result in long-lasting health effects on survivors that extend beyond the physical injuries some have received.</p>
<h2>Educational and economic trajectories</h2>
<p>But the mental health impacts of mass school shootings tell only part of the story. While deadly massacres like the one in Uvalde receive widespread media and public attention, many more acts of gun violence at schools are less fatal and less highly publicized. Indeed, figures from <a href="https://www.chds.us/c/">the Center for Homeland Defense and Security</a> show that <a href="https://www.chds.us/ssdb/view-chart/?chartid=8">in 2021 alone there were 240 incidents</a> in which a gun was either brandished or used in a school.</p>
<p>Of all shootings that took place at U.S. schools in 2018 and 2019, nearly <a href="https://www.chds.us/ssdb/view-chart/?chartid=8">three-quarters had no fatalities</a>. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have an impact.</p>
<p>To assess their effects, we studied <a href="https://doi.org/10.3386/w28311">fatal and non-fatal school shootings in Texas</a> – taking a wider lens and considering acts of gun violence that frequently take place at schools but are unlikely to make national news.</p>
<p>Between 1995 and 2016, 33 Texas public schools experienced a shooting on school grounds during school hours – some schools had more than one.</p>
<p>Using detailed educational and labor market data, we compared the trajectories of students at schools that experienced shootings with those of students at schools that were similar in terms of institutional and student characteristics, such as demographic makeup and percentage of students from low-income backgrounds. But the comparison group of schools did not have a shotting over our study period.</p>
<p>We found that students who had been exposed to a shooting at school were more likely to be chronically absent and to be held back a grade in the two years after the event. </p>
<p><iframe id="eX3ja" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/eX3ja/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>They were also significantly less likely to graduate high school, go to or graduate from college. The impacts extended into their early adult life. In their mid 20s, they were less likely to be employed and had lower earnings than their peers who had not been exposed to a shooting at school.</p>
<p>Eighteen of the 33 shootings we included in the study resulted in no fatalities, and no shootings resulted in more than one death. Yet, the negative impacts on people’s lives were profound. Our results reveal that each student exposed to a shooting could expect to earn US$115,550 less over the course of their lifetime.</p>
<h2>Living with the consequences</h2>
<p>The tragedy of the lives lost to gun violence in America’s schools cannot be overstated. But the data indicate that even those who escape these horrific events alive and without physical injuries are also victims. </p>
<p>These adverse impacts are observed in students exposed to mass shootings, but also the more routine acts of gun violence in schools that rarely make the news. With an average of nearly <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w28311/w28311.pdf">50,000 American students</a> experiencing an act of gun violence at their school annually in recent years, our findings suggest that the aggregate costs of school gun violence in terms of lost lifetime earnings is nearly $5.8 billion. The full costs in terms of detriment to the mental health of tens of thousands of young people is harder to quantify.</p>
<p>So as we mourn the 21 lives lost in Uvalde, we must not forget about the hundreds of other students who were at the school that day. These students will be forced to live with the consequences of what happened for decades to come.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183906/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maya Rossin-Slater receives funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under award number R01HD102378, as well as the National Science Foundation CAREER award No. 1752203.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bokyung Kim receives funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under award number R01HD102378.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hannes Schwandt receives funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under award number R01HD102378.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marika Cabral receives funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under award number R01HD102378.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Molly Schnell receives funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under award number R01HD102378.</span></em></p>Research shows that school shootings can lead to years of health, educational and economic detriment for students who survive the attack.Maya Rossin-Slater, Associate Professor of Health Policy, Stanford UniversityBokyung Kim, PhD candidate in economics, The University of Texas at AustinHannes Schwandt, Assistant Professor of Human Development and Social Policy, Northwestern UniversityMarika Cabral, Associate Professor of Economics, The University of Texas at AustinMolly Schnell, Assistant Professor of Economics, Northwestern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1837782022-05-26T15:04:01Z2022-05-26T15:04:01Z‘Every child matters’: One year after the unmarked graves of 215 Indigenous children were found in Kamloops<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465143/original/file-20220524-12-uq7plw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C0%2C5579%2C3834&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People march in Ottawa during a rally to demand an independent investigation into Canada's crimes against Indigenous Peoples, including those at Indian Residential Schools on July 31, 2021. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: This article contains details that some readers may find distressing</em></p>
<p>“<a href="https://nctr.ca/education/every-child-matters/">Every child matters” has become a rallying cry</a>, adorning banners, orange shirts, decals and memorials to the Indigenous children who died at or went missing from Indian Residential Schools and similar institutions. </p>
<p>Indigenous communities have used these words to recognize the thousands of Indigenous children <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/06/native-children-didnt-lose-their-lives-at-residential-schools-their-lives-were-stolen">who were taken</a>, never to return. </p>
<p>Despite this truth being something communities knew for decades, it took the use of scientific methods to locate potential unmarked graves of children buried near the former Kamloops Indian Residential School to garner the attention of non-Indigenous people, both in Canada and globally. </p>
<p>On May 27, 2021, <a href="https://tkemlups.ca/remains-of-children-of-kamloops-residential-school-discovered/">Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc announced that they had located 215 potential unmarked graves of children</a> — that number <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57325653">reverberated around the world</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/unmarked-graves-of-215-indigenous-children-were-found-in-kamloops-a-year-ago-whats-happened-since-podcast-182728">Unmarked graves of 215 Indigenous children were found in Kamloops a year ago: What's happened since? — Podcast</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In the first rush of media coverage and public outrage, governments were quick to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/residential-schools-support-funding-1.6136352">commit millions of dollars worth of funding</a> for communities to undertake searches around the sites of former Indian Residential Schools. </p>
<p>Memorials of <a href="https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/memorial-for-indigenous-children-lost-and-buried-at-former-residential-schools-grows-on-parliament-hill-1.5485367">stuffed animals and children’s shoes began to appear</a>. The Canadian flag <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8352885/remembrance-day-2021-afn-canadian-flag/">was lowered to half-mast for months</a>. Orange Shirt Day was transformed into an <a href="https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1631130192216/1631130220404">official National Day for Truth and Reconciliation</a>. And First Nations communities across the country <a href="https://leaderpost.com/news/saskatchewan/hundreds-of-bodies-found-near-former-residential-school-site-at-cowessess">made public statements about their searches</a>. </p>
<p>The numbers from Kamloops were originally reported as <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-kamloops-residential-school-unmarked-graves-discovery-update/">215 and later revised to 200</a>, then the numbers began to climb as more unmarked graves were found at the former <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/cowessess-first-nation-says-751-unmarked-graves-found-near-former-sask-residential-school-1.5483858">Marieval Indian Residential School</a>, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/penelakut-kuper-residential-school-1.6100201">Kuper Island Residential School</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/07/world/canada/mass-graves-residential-schools.html">and many more</a>. But inaccurate numbers also surfaced on social media — first <a href="https://twitter.com/MK_MARAUDER/status/1526697058362695686?s=20&t=drrKCXgLbhPRUWV4BPDMBQ">6,000</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/christibelcourt/status/1509935851857498124?s=20&t=xTtEckSDevrkR6wRuublXA">10,000</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/cie1947/status/1526818958166200320?s=20&t=drrKCXgLbhPRUWV4BPDMBQ">then 12,000</a> and it didn’t take long for people to try and downplay the numbers and cast doubt on the results. </p>
<p>As someone who has worked with Indigenous communities for several years to help <a href="https://www.thestar.com/edmonton/2019/02/07/dignity-in-death-searching-for-the-lost-graves-at-a-prairie-residential-school.html">locate potential unmarked graves</a>, it is very important to me that people to understand the difficult journey survivors and communities must take in order to find justice and healing. </p>
<h2>Who is responsible for their deaths?</h2>
<p>Finding the graves of children who died at Indian Residential Schools is a challenging task. Information exists in archives about the deaths of children, which has contributed to <a href="https://nctr.ca/memorial/">the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation’s Memorial Register</a>. As of May 24, 2022, the register has 4,130 confirmed names of children who died while at Indian Residential Schools.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People stand looking solemn, a woman in an orange shirt clutches a hand drum." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465139/original/file-20220524-12035-wq90c2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465139/original/file-20220524-12035-wq90c2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465139/original/file-20220524-12035-wq90c2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465139/original/file-20220524-12035-wq90c2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465139/original/file-20220524-12035-wq90c2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465139/original/file-20220524-12035-wq90c2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465139/original/file-20220524-12035-wq90c2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People listen as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a ceremony to mark the one-year anniversary of the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc announcement on May 23, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some of these records indicate where the children were buried, including cemeteries located near the schools. <a href="https://thediscourse.ca/okanagan/residential-school-survivor-shares-stories-about-st-eugenes">Survivors have shared knowledge</a> of disappearances or deaths of children at these institutions, with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zNSgh_oP6A">some recounting how they dug graves</a>. </p>
<p>Thousands of children died, and by all accounts <a href="https://pressprogress.ca/why-no-one-knows-how-many-children-died-inside-canadas-residential-schools/">the records from many schools are woefully incomplete</a>, meaning the number of children who died is likely much higher than what is currently known. </p>
<p>The questions that haunt families and communities are: Where are their children buried, and who is responsible for their deaths?</p>
<h2>Ground penetrating radar</h2>
<p>One year after the announcement, Indigenous communities across the country are working to find the specific locations where children may be buried. </p>
<p>Many families were never notified if their children died while at school. And even when they were, <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/the-graves-were-never-a-secret-why-so-many-residential-school-cemeteries-remain-unmarked">the bodies of their children were rarely sent home to be buried</a>. Survivors have often spoken of times where deaths occurred <a href="https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/06/01/Neglected-Life-Dishonoured-Death-TRC-Excerpt/">and children weren’t buried in cemeteries</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/world/canada/kamloops-mass-grave-residential-schools.html">merely buried on the school grounds</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ground-radar-technology-residential-school-remains-1.6049776">Ground-penetrating radar and other technologies</a> are now being mobilized to try to narrow down where graves may be found to mark, commemorate and investigate what happened to children. </p>
<p>At best, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/materials-science/ground-penetrating-radar">ground-penetrating radar can find anomalies in the ground</a> that look grave shaped, based on interpretations of results from scans. In some cases, such as in unmarked sections of historic cemeteries, these are likely to be graves. In other cases it is less clear. In all cases, further investigation is warranted. And the nature of that investigation will have to be decided by the communities whose children were forced to attend that school. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A child stands amid hundreds of orange flags" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465142/original/file-20220524-20-4f73wt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465142/original/file-20220524-20-4f73wt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465142/original/file-20220524-20-4f73wt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465142/original/file-20220524-20-4f73wt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465142/original/file-20220524-20-4f73wt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465142/original/file-20220524-20-4f73wt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465142/original/file-20220524-20-4f73wt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A child touches an orange flag, representing children who died while attending Indian Residential Schools in Canada, placed in the grass at Major’s Hill Park in Ottawa on July 1, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The technical results of ground-penetrating radar surveys have become vital, but they are not the first step, nor the last, in the search for justice. Communities are working to find their lost children and hold those who were responsible for the horrors of Indian Residential School accountable, but they need certain supports to be able to do so. </p>
<p>There needs to be ongoing funding and access to expertise in a co-ordinated manner to ensure families and communities get the answers they deserve. </p>
<p>There are likely thousands of graves at former Indian Residential Schools across the country, but we don’t yet have enough information to know where most of them are located — some are likely lost forever. </p>
<p>As the number of anomalies reported increases over the months and years to come, we can’t forget that every child matters. Each grave represents a beloved member of a family who was torn away from their community. Each grave represents a story of a child stolen. Every family that lost their children to this genocide deserves answers. Reconciliation isn’t possible without truth and we must not turn away from the truth. </p>
<p>Every child matters. </p>
<p><em>If you are an Indian Residential School survivor, or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183778/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kisha Supernant does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As the number of unmarked graves found will likely only increase over the months and years to come, we can’t forget that every child matters.Kisha Supernant, Director of the Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology, University of AlbertaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1740272022-05-01T15:05:02Z2022-05-01T15:05:02ZFrom Ryerson to Toronto Metropolitan University: What can we learn from the renaming?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438522/original/file-20211220-13-symkzu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C17%2C5913%2C3942&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">With the new name comes a model for other renaming processes in the realm of reconciliation.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/from-ryerson-to-toronto-metropolitan-university--what-can-we-learn-from-the-renaming" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Ryerson University has a new name: <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ryerson-name-change-toronto-metropolitan-university/">Toronto Metropolitan University</a>. </p>
<p>University president Mohamed Lachemi recommended the name from a list developed by a committee of professors, administrators, students and alumni. The name change process was motivated by the <em><a href="https://www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/next-chapter/Report/SSTF-report-and-recommendations-Aug_24_FINAL.pdf">Mash Koh Wee Kah Pooh Win (Standing Strong) Task Force</a></em>.</p>
<p>The university’s renaming is a welcome step in helping reconcile <a href="https://theconversation.com/not-in-the-past-colonialism-is-rooted-in-the-present-157395">Canada’s long history of colonization, both past and present</a>. It signals a willingness to make amends for Canada’s mistreatment of Indigenous people, especially in educational settings. </p>
<p>Ryerson’s renaming has the potential to teach important lessons across society as we strive for a more equitable future given our inequitable past. </p>
<h2>Create a balanced history</h2>
<p><em>Mash Koh Wee Kah Pooh Win</em> focused on the university’s complex relationship with its namesake, Egerton Ryerson. <a href="https://theconversation.com/egerton-ryerson-racist-philosophy-of-residential-schools-also-shaped-public-education-143039">His educational policies’ racist legacy</a> devastated Indigenous communities — he was an <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57381522">architect for Ontario’s residential schools</a>. </p>
<p>Archivists dug through records. Historians were consulted. Scholars researched. Knowledge keepers provided wisdom. And by canvassing Ryerson community members past and present, the task force reached a delicate balance. </p>
<p>The authors detailed Egerton Ryerson’s troubling past. They bound him to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-wednesday-edition-1.4191090/why-some-ryerson-students-want-the-toronto-university-to-change-its-name-1.4191092">his influence in creating Ontario’s residential schools</a>. They even shared his offensive statements on Indigenous education aims.</p>
<p>But the authors also highlighted Egerton’s many accomplishments. This included <a href="https://www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/next-chapter/Report/Appendix-D_Life-and-legacy_Aug-26.pdf">Indigenous school fundraising</a> and helping petition the Crown to confirm the Mississaugas’ legal title to reserves.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-longer-the-disappeared-mourning-the-215-children-found-in-graves-at-kamloops-indian-residential-school-161782">No longer 'the disappeared': Mourning the 215 children found in graves at Kamloops Indian Residential School</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>After the buried bodies of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57325653">Indigenous children were found at former Indian residential schools</a>, Ryerson’s statue on campus became even more <a href="https://www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/next-chapter/Report/Appendix-B-What-we-learned-Aug-17.pdf">harmful, traumatizing and triggering to many staff, faculty and students</a>. His name adorning buildings, email signatures and sports teams likely did the same. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ryerson-name-change-toronto-metropolitan-university/">an interview with <em>The Globe and Mail</em></a>, president Lachemi said the new name reflects the wishes of community members:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It’s a name that fits us perfectly. We’re located in the heart of our country’s biggest and most diverse city, so the university represents all that it means to be metropolitan. We are a gathering place for people from all over the world, from all walks of life, with broad and diverse perspectives, lived experiences and aspirations.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Toronto Metropolitan University is expected to be in use soon but signage will take time. The blue and yellow colour will remain and Ryerson will still appear on official documents until the university’s governing legislation is amended — likely after the provincial election in June.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1518999145318653953"}"></div></p>
<h2>Acknowledge institutional inequality</h2>
<p>Many institutions have dubious pasts. Some even <a href="http://icdr.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Heidi-Bohaker-The-University-of-Toronto-and-Aboriginal-Residential-Schools-A-Silent-Partner-4MB.pdf">supported residential school atrocities, such as creating a discourse around assimilation</a>.</p>
<p>We must condemn Egerton Ryerson, but acknowledge that many Canadians benefit from systems similar to the ones he helped fashion, not just education. During the pandemic, the <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2021/04/18/canadas-billionaires-have-grown-richer-during-the-pandemic-and-calls-for-a-wealth-tax-are-getting-louder.html">wealthiest Canadians have prospered</a>. In contrast, <a href="https://monitormag.ca/articles/canadian-billionaires-wealth-skyrocketing-amid-the-pandemic">low wage workers, often women and marginalized people, have continued to suffer</a>. The pandemic has accelerated lasting trends where <a href="https://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/hot-topics/canInequality.aspx">seniors, people with disabilities, recent immigrants, marginalized and Indigenous people felt the most negative impacts of income inequality</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/enormous-amount-of-change-new-data-reveals-impact-of-covid-19-on-canadians-1.5343991">But the pandemic</a>, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/movement-slogan-rallying-cry-how-black-lives-matter-changed-america-n1252434">Black Lives Matter</a> and racial reckoning have also forced a kind of social reset, helping prompt the name change at Ryerson.</p>
<p><em>Mash Koh Wee Kah Pooh Win</em> captured the sadness imperilling Ryerson’s community. The community grieved the legacy of a man they never met, but they are all too familiar with the punitive educational system he created. </p>
<p>We must repair public institutions that allow obscene financial and social inequality as well as personal devastation that can potentially cascade across generations. But first we must acknowledge our own role in allowing their perpetuation.</p>
<h2>Renaming is a start</h2>
<p>Although it could have been resisted and there was <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ryerson-university-name-change-1.4191614">initial opposition by some groups</a>, Ryerson’s renaming speaks to how fundamental institutions like universities can listen to Indigenous people and their allies to drive welcome change.</p>
<p>From this, Ryerson’s renaming should not remain a symbolic act. And this achievement should not mean the battle is over. Instead, a name change means the fight has only just begun. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman takes a torch to the head of a statue" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459857/original/file-20220426-20-wutsm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459857/original/file-20220426-20-wutsm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459857/original/file-20220426-20-wutsm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459857/original/file-20220426-20-wutsm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459857/original/file-20220426-20-wutsm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459857/original/file-20220426-20-wutsm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459857/original/file-20220426-20-wutsm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A protester uses a torch in an attempt to remove the head of the Egerton Ryerson statue in Toronto on Sunday June 6, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Scrubbing Egerton Ryerson’s name from the institution feels good. It is similar to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/statue-of-egerton-ryerson-brought-down-1.6055676">removing his statue from the university’s grounds</a>. But improving the worst parts of the educational policies he helped birth is better. This includes improving antiquated practices. </p>
<p>And Indigenous people must help lead this change. Their knowledge and culture should fully inhabit education. Some equitable education policies could include:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.ryerson.ca/fcs-news-events/news/2019/08/what-it-means-to-indigenize-curriculum/">Indigenizing curriculum</a>.</li>
<li>Practising <a href="https://www.cue.pitt.edu/sites/default/files/images/Source%205%20-%20ladson-billings%20culturally%20relevant%20pedagogy%20-%20the%20remix.pdf">culturally relevant pedagogy</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1495088">Diversifying curriculum</a>.</li>
<li>Implementing <a href="https://policyresponse.ca/can-covid-19-help-us-build-a-more-inclusive-post-secondary-system/">inclusive education</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://on360.ca/policy-papers/how-to-end-streaming-in-ontario-schools/">De-streaming public education</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://theconversation.com/hybrid-learning-in-ontario-schools-will-rob-children-of-quality-education-165135">Ensuring equitable learning</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>Public education has caused unjustifiable suffering. Many educational settings are driven by <a href="https://www.edutopia.org/article/aiming-discipline-instead-punishment">punishment, not proactive discipline</a>. They homogenize, dehumanize and <a href="https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/17/11/when-testing-takes-over">test incessantly and excessively</a>.</p>
<p>Renaming public entities begins the process of repairing inequities — Ryerson is one example, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-renaming-dundas-street-1.6103260">Toronto’s Dundas Street</a> is another — but it cannot end them. Regressive institutional practices must be questioned.</p>
<p>Chronicling past atrocities, honouring those tragically lost, incorporating survivors’ voices and building equitable institutions is the only way to build a truly inclusive society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174027/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dino Sossi has studied at, and worked for, Ryerson University. </span></em></p>Incorporating lessons from Ryerson University’s renaming process could help Canadian institutions address colonization.Dino Sossi, Instructional Assistant, Technology and Media, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1665372021-09-10T12:28:29Z2021-09-10T12:28:29Z9/11 survivors’ exposure to toxic dust and the chronic health conditions that followed offer lessons that are still too often unheeded<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420128/original/file-20210908-22-728gm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C125%2C2775%2C1859&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Toxic dust hung in the air around ground zero for more than three months following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-unidentified-new-york-city-firefighter-walks-away-from-news-photo/1372804?adppopup=true">Anthony Correia/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York resulted in the loss of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/07/27/us/september-11-anniversary-fast-facts/index.html">2,753 people in the Twin Towers and surrounding area</a>. After the attack, more than 100,000 responders and recovery workers from every U.S. state – along with <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/wtc/history.html">some 400,000 residents</a> and other workers around ground zero – were exposed to a <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Health/september-11-toxic-world-trade-center-dust-cloud/story?id=14466933">toxic cloud of dust</a> that fell as a ghostly, thick layer of ash and then hung in the air for more than three months. </p>
<p>The World Trade Center dust plume, or <a href="https://doi.org/10.3109/10408444.2015.1044601">WTC dust</a>, consisted of a dangerous mixture of cement dust and particles, asbestos and a class of chemicals called <a href="https://www.epa.gov/international-cooperation/persistent-organic-pollutants-global-issue-global-response">persistent organic pollutants</a>. These include <a href="https://www.epa.gov/dioxin/learn-about-dioxin">cancer-causing dioxins</a> and <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/biomonitoring/PAHs_FactSheet.html">polyaromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs</a>, which are byproducts of fuel combustion. </p>
<p>The dust also contained heavy metals that are known <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health">to be poisonous to the human body and brain</a>, such as lead – used in the manufacturing of flexible electrical cables – and mercury, which is found in float valves, switches and fluorescent lamps. The dust also contained cadmium, a carcinogen <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10534-010-9328-y">toxic to the kidneys</a> that is used in the manufacturing of electric batteries and pigments for paints.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Smoke pours from the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420341/original/file-20210909-27-p4t2aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420341/original/file-20210909-27-p4t2aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420341/original/file-20210909-27-p4t2aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420341/original/file-20210909-27-p4t2aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420341/original/file-20210909-27-p4t2aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420341/original/file-20210909-27-p4t2aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420341/original/file-20210909-27-p4t2aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of the haunting images from 9/11: Smoke pours from the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York after they were hit by two hijacked airliners.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/smoke-pours-from-the-twin-towers-of-the-world-trade-center-news-photo/1339505?adppopup=true">Robert Giroux via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://www.idph.state.il.us/envhealth/factsheets/polychlorinatedbiphenyls.htm#:%7E:text=Polychlorinated%20biphenyls%20(PCBs)%20are%20a,equipment%20like%20capacitors%20and%20transformers.">Polychlorinated biphenyls</a>, human-made chemicals used in electrical transformers, were also part of the toxic stew. PCBs are <a href="https://www.epa.gov/pcbs/learn-about-polychlorinated-biphenyls-pcbs#healtheffects">known to be carcinogenic</a>, toxic to the nervous system and disruptive to the reproductive system. But they became even more harmful when incinerated at high heat from the jets’ fuel combustion and then carried by very fine particles. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3109/10408444.2015.1044601">WTC dust</a> was made up of both “large” particulate matter and very small, fine and ultrafine ones. These particularly small particles are known to be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-35398-0">highly toxic</a>, especially to the nervous system since they can travel directly through the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuro.2011.12.001">nasal cavity to the brain</a>. </p>
<p>Many first responders and others who were directly exposed to the dust developed a <a href="https://doi.org/10.3109/10408444.2015.1044601">severe and persistent cough</a> that lasted for a month, on average. They were treated at Mount Sinai Hospital and received care at the Clinic of Occupational Medicine, a well-known center for work-related diseases.</p>
<p>I am a physician specializing in occupational medicine who began working directly with 9/11 survivors in my role as director of the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/wtc/">WTC Health Program</a> <a href="https://icahn.mssm.edu/about/departments/environmental-public-health/research/wtc-data-center">Data Center</a> at Mount Sinai beginning in 2012. That program collects data, as well as monitors and oversees the public health of WTC rescue and recovery workers. After eight years in that role, I <a href="https://stempel.fiu.edu/faculty/roberto-lucchini/">moved to Florida International University</a> in Miami, where I am planning to continue working with 9/11 responders who are moving to Florida as they reach retirement age.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="In lower Manhattan near Ground Zero, people run away as the North Tower of the World Trade Center collapses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420343/original/file-20210909-23-1bc9fnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420343/original/file-20210909-23-1bc9fnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420343/original/file-20210909-23-1bc9fnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420343/original/file-20210909-23-1bc9fnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420343/original/file-20210909-23-1bc9fnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420343/original/file-20210909-23-1bc9fnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420343/original/file-20210909-23-1bc9fnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Remembering 9/11: As the north tower of the World Trade Center collapses, a cloud of toxic gas chases terrified residents and tourists.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-run-away-as-the-north-tower-of-world-trade-center-news-photo/1339533?adppopup=true">Jose Jimenez/Primera Hora via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>From acute to chronic conditions</h2>
<p>After the initial “acute” health problems that 9/11 responders faced, they soon began experiencing a wave of chronic diseases that <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18126383">continue to affect them</a> 20 years later. The persistent cough gave way to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/dmp.2011.58">respiratory diseases</a> such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and upper airway diseases such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2015-103094">chronic rhinosinusitis</a>, laryngitis and nasopharyngitis. </p>
<p>The litany of respiratory diseases also put many of them at risk for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/ajg.2011.357">gastroesophageal reflux disease</a> (GERD), which occurs at a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/JOM.0b013e3181845f9b">higher rate in WTC survivors</a> than in the general population. This condition occurs when stomach acids reenter the esophagus, or food pipe, that connects the stomach to the throat. As a consequence of either the airway or the digestive disorders, many of these survivors also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/JOM.0b013e3182305282">struggle with sleep apnea</a>, which requires additional treatments.</p>
<p>Further compounding the tragedy, about eight years after the attacks, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jncics/pkz090">cancers began to turn up</a> in 9/11 survivors. These include tumors of the blood and lymphoid tissues such as lymphoma, myeloma and leukemia, which are well known to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1745-6673-8-14">affect workers exposed to carcinogens</a> in the workplace. But survivors also suffer from other cancers, including breast, head and neck, prostate, lung and thyroid cancers. </p>
<p>Some have also developed mesothelioma, an aggressive form of cancer related to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2013-204161">exposure to asbestos</a>. <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/9stories/september-11-death-toll-from-terror-attack-could-rise-by-millions-due-to-toxic-asbestos-dust/8bc90677-0032-42a2-82f9-4b9baad753d9">Asbestos</a> was used in the early construction of the north tower until public advocacy and broader awareness of its health dangers <a href="https://www.mesothelioma.com/states/new-york/world-trade-center/">brought its use to a halt</a>.</p>
<p>And the psychological trauma that 9/11 survivors experienced has left many suffering from persistent mental health challenges. One <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-019-00998-z">study</a> published in 2020 found that of more than 16,000 WTC responders for whom data was collected, nearly half reported a need for mental health care, and 20% of those who were directly affected developed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dadm.2016.08.001">post-traumatic stress disorder</a>. </p>
<p>Many have told me that the contact they had with parts of human bodies or with the deadly scene and the tragic days afterward left a permanent mark on their lives. They are unable to forget the images, and many of them suffer from mood disorders as well as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-019-0449-7">cognitive impairments and other behavioral issues</a>, including substance use disorder. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="On 9/11, shortly after the terrorist attack in New York City, a distraught survivor sits outside the World Trade Center." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420347/original/file-20210909-23-do7s5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420347/original/file-20210909-23-do7s5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420347/original/file-20210909-23-do7s5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420347/original/file-20210909-23-do7s5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420347/original/file-20210909-23-do7s5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420347/original/file-20210909-23-do7s5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420347/original/file-20210909-23-do7s5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Remembering 9/11: A distraught survivor sits outside the World Trade Center after the terrorist attack.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/survivor-sits-outside-the-world-trade-center-after-two-news-photo/50833029?adppopup=true">Jose Jimenez/Primera Hora via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>An aging generation of survivors</h2>
<p>Now, 20 years on, these survivors face a new challenge as they age and move toward retirement – a <a href="https://doi.org/10.3386/w12123">difficult life transition</a> that can sometimes lead to mental health decline. Prior to retirement, the daily drumbeat of work activity and a steady schedule often helps keep the mind busy. But retirement can sometimes leave a void – one that for 9/11 survivors is too often filled with unwanted memories of the noises, smells, fear and despair of that terrible day and the days that followed. Many survivors have told me they do not want to return to Manhattan and certainly not to the WTC. </p>
<p>Aging can also bring with it forgetfulness and other cognitive challenges. But studies show that these natural processes are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-019-0449-7">accelerated and more severe</a> in 9/11 survivors, similar to the experience of veterans from war zones. This is a concerning trend, but all the more so because a growing body of research, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-846359/v1">our own preliminary study</a>, is finding links between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.105.014779">cognitive impairment in 9/11 responders and dementia</a>. A recent <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2021/08/30/911-first-responders-dementia/">Washington Post piece detailed</a> how 9/11 survivors are experiencing these dementia-like conditions in their 50s – far earlier than is typical. </p>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic, too, has taken a toll on those who have already suffered from 9/11. People with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100515">preexisting conditions</a> have been at far higher risk during the pandemic. Not surprisingly, a recent study found a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254713">higher incidence of COVID-19</a> in WTC responders from January through August 2020.</p>
<h2>Honoring the 9/11 survivors</h2>
<p>The health risks posed by direct exposure to the acrid dust was underestimated at the time, and poorly understood. Appropriate personal protective equipment, such as P100 half-face respirators, was not available at that time. </p>
<p>But now, over 20 years on, we know much more about the risks – and we have much greater access to protective equipment that can keep responders and recovery workers safe following disasters. Yet, too often, I see that we have not learned and applied these lessons. </p>
<p>For instance, in the immediate aftermath of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/07/06/us/miami-building-collapse-updates">condominium collapse</a> near Miami Beach last June, it took days before P100 half-face respirators were fully available and made mandatory for the responders. Other examples around the world are even worse: One year after the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/08/04/1024275186/a-year-after-the-beirut-explosion-victims-families-continue-to-push-for-justice">Beirut explosion</a> in August 2020, very little action had been taken to investigate and manage the physical and <a href="https://timep.org/commentary/analysis/the-beirut-explosions-impact-on-mental-health/">mental health consequences </a> among responders and the impacted community.</p>
<p>Applying the lessons learned from 9/11 is a critically important way to honor the victims and the brave men and women who took part in the desperate rescue and recovery efforts back on those terrible days.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166537/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roberto Lucchini receives funding from CDC/NIOSH to study the cognitive impacts associated to the WTC exposure to neurotoxins and to intense psychological trauma. </span></em></p>Those directly exposed to toxic dust and trauma on and after 9/11 carry with them a generation of chronic health conditions, which are placing them at higher risk during the pandemic and as they age.Roberto Lucchini, Professor of Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences, Florida International UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1573972021-03-31T15:01:01Z2021-03-31T15:01:01ZResidential school survivors’ stories and experiences must be remembered as class action settlement finishes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392594/original/file-20210330-17-tfnypq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1000%2C902&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students of the Metlakatla Indian Residential School, B.C.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(William James Topley. Library and Archives Canada, C-015037)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>March 31 marks the conclusion of the largest class action settlement in Canada’s history. After 14 years, the <a href="http://www.iap-pei.ca/home-eng.php">Independent Assessment Process (IAP)</a> — a compensation process established to resolve claims of serious physical, sexual or emotional abuse suffered at Indian residential schools — is officially over. </p>
<p>Despite the fact that it collected <a href="http://www.iap-pei.ca/media/information/publication/pdf/FinalReport/IAP-FR-2021-03-11-eng.pdf">claims from more than 38,000 Indian residential school survivors</a>, the IAP remains relatively unknown. </p>
<p>The court-ordered destruction of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/residential-schools-records-supreme-court-1.4342475">IAP testimonies and records</a>, the biased and superficial mainstream news media reports and the continued <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/iap-final-report-residential-schools-1.5946103">emphasis on compensation and costs</a> ensure that <em>if</em> it is remembered, it will be through a colonial gaze. </p>
<p>This gaze represents the perspective through which the process is framed, what is explicitly valued or absent, and whose story is remembered: the colonial narrative is privileged and the Indigenous voice limited. </p>
<p>Our national study seeks to understand perspectives and the framing of the IAP to create public knowledge, in the wake of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/residential-schools-records-supreme-court-1.4342475">the destruction of records</a>. The study analyzes government documents (<a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/35-2/house/hansard-index"><em>Hansard Index</em>, the traditional name of the transcripts of Parliamentary debates</a>), national and Indigenous media, along with transcripts produced through interviews and focus groups with survivors, health support workers, adjudicators, judges and lawyers. The results presented here are preliminary.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/residential-school-literature-can-teach-the-colonial-present-and-imagine-better-futures-120383">Residential school literature can teach the colonial present and imagine better futures</a>
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<h2>A bit of background</h2>
<p>Of the 38,000 survivors who applied to the IAP, almost 27,000 attended adjudications — an <a href="https://iap-pei.ca/stats-eng.php">out-of-court process</a>. The adjudication gave survivors the opportunity to tell their story of abuse to an adjudicator and government representative, with optional supports including a lawyer, health support worker, elder, translator or family. The <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/indian-residential-schools-records-supreme-court-1.4343259">fate of the records and testimonies from these hearings — 800,000 documents — was decided</a> by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2017. </p>
<p>The court upheld the position of the Indian Residential School Adjudication Secretariat, the body responsible for administering the IAP, that <a href="http://www.iap-pei.ca/records-eng.php">the testimonies would be destroyed unless individual survivors decided to claim or share their records</a>. Currently only a handful of survivors have requested their transcripts or offered to make (sometimes redacted) versions publicly accessible through the <a href="https://nctr.ca/map.php">National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR)</a>. In 2027, any remaining survivor <a href="http://myrecordsmychoice.ca/index-eng.php">testimonies and records will be destroyed</a>.</p>
<p>In January 2020 an Ontario Superior Court <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/court-decision-statistical-reports-residential-school-abuse-1.5579455">ruling blocked the creation of static reports</a>. These included information the secretariat gathered during the IAP about variables like the child’s age and sex, particularities of residential schools, types of abuses and community impacts. The case was appealed by the NCTR and the Ontario Court of Appeal’s <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/court-decision-statistical-reports-residential-school-abuse-1.5579455">judgment is pending</a>. </p>
<h2>Coverage of the IAP: Colonial and wanting</h2>
<p>Media coverage of the IAP is sparse. Preliminary results of our study reveal a focus on the trials and tribulations of a bureaucratic process that attempted to combine class action law with reconciliation-based gestures. Lost in this narrative is the survivors’ lived experiences within the IAP and a critical evaluation of the IAP’s overarching goals: <a href="http://www.iap-pei.ca/information-eng.php?act=2021-03-11-eng.php">healing and reconciliation</a>. </p>
<p>Through our study, “Reconciling Perspectives and Building Public Memory: Learning from the Independent Assessment Process,” we established factors that played key roles in healing: giving testimony, and supporting, believing and validating the survivors. This perspective was largely forgotten by the media and instead reports often focused on the credibility of survivors’ claims of abuse, financial compensations and court cases. It was, however, acknowledged in the <a href="http://www.iap-pei.ca/media/information/publication/pdf/FinalReport/IAP-FR-2021-03-11-eng.pdf">IAP’s final report</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students sit in classroom at Indian Residential School" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392598/original/file-20210330-21-1m0bp85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392598/original/file-20210330-21-1m0bp85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392598/original/file-20210330-21-1m0bp85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392598/original/file-20210330-21-1m0bp85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392598/original/file-20210330-21-1m0bp85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392598/original/file-20210330-21-1m0bp85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392598/original/file-20210330-21-1m0bp85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cree students sit in class at All Saints Indian Residential School in Lac La Ronge, Sask., in March 1945.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Bud Glunz/Library and Archives Canada, PA-134110)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The dominant narrative conflated success of the IAP with compensation. For example, the secretariat reported success when the claimant garnered a cash settlement (<a href="http://www.iap-pei.ca/stats-eng.php">89 per cent success rate with an average of $91,000 in compensation</a>). And although compensation metrics are certainly one indicator of success, the experiences of survivors telling their stories are key to considering the IAP’s larger goals. </p>
<p>The defensive posture of the federal government recently surfaced. An <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/ottawa-stannes-legal-compensation-1.5965483">independent review of claims (specifically those from St. Anne’s Indian Residential School)</a> was recently announced following critiques by survivors and public officials like former senator Murray Sinclair and MP Charlie Angus. </p>
<p>Elected officials in the House of Commons had an opportunity to contribute to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.181">public memory</a> based on meaningful reconciliation, but it was largely swept away in partisan politics. Looking at <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/35-2/house/hansard-index"><em>Hansard Index</em> debates from 2004-19</a>, we found the IAP was discussed only 28 times.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indian-day-school-survivors-are-seeking-truth-and-justice-146655">Indian day school survivors are seeking truth and justice</a>
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<p>The significance of Indian residential school abuses, the damage the system did to families and communities, the litigation and compensation settlements that came after the IAP <a href="https://doi.org/10.18584/iipj.2016.7.1.3">can only be fully comprehended within Canada’s long history of denial of Indigenous human and gender rights</a>. </p>
<p>The move from explicit systems of violence to concealed structures of domination cannot be mistaken for reconciliation. We must examine the ways in which Indigenous rights are both explicitly and implicitly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.181">advanced</a> or denied: this was highlighted in an earlier IAP study that found that although residential schools taught girls domestic tasks, unpaid work caring for children <a href="https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/analysis/gender-lens-needed-on-indigenous-claims-415179984.html">was not acknowledged or compensated in the IAP model</a>. </p>
<h2>Remembering for a common future</h2>
<p>We fear additional tragedies are inevitable without abundant data regarding abuse factors, or intergenerational and community impacts. These data add a quantifiable dimension to the horrors of residential schools and remind us of the consequences of <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-reconciliation-means-canadians-have-a-duty-to-remember-the-injustice/">racist public policy</a>. Such policy is not just about the individuals impacted; it affects the consciousness of collectives and communities. </p>
<p>Public records are valuable for understanding how public memory is created, and who is directing its narrative. Unless attention is paid to the ways in which the media and Canada continue to decentre Indigenous voices and experiences the colonial gaze will endure. </p>
<p>How residential schools and the IAP are remembered is not only relevant to Canada’s identity but for government-Indigenous and public-Indigenous relations, now and into the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157397/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cindy Hanson received funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (Insight Grant) for the study this article is based on.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Curtis J Shuba is a paid research associate on this SSHRC Insight Grant (on which this article is based).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sidey Deska-Gauthier is a paid research associate on this SSHRC Insight Grant (on which this article is based).</span></em></p>The destruction of IAP residential school records and media reports that continually emphasize compensation will ensure that if remembered, the process will be remembered through a colonial gaze.Cindy Hanson, Professor, Dept of Sociology and Social Studies, University of ReginaCurtis J Shuba, Research Associate, Sociology and Social Studies, University of ReginaSidey Deska-Gauthier, Research Associate, Political Science, University of GuelphLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1565812021-03-09T07:42:26Z2021-03-09T07:42:26ZEvidence shows mental illness isn’t a reason to doubt women survivors<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388399/original/file-20210309-14-1bqyy89.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6000%2C3997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article discusses sexual assault, gendered violence and mental distress.</em></p>
<p>Over the past week, some <a href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/christian-porter-rape-claim-victims-story-falling-apart/news-story/f6f4036aa0047ec262404d649139a035">media commentary</a> on the rape allegations against federal Attorney-General Christian Porter have used the alleged victim’s <a href="https://www.crikey.com.au/2021/03/05/christian-porter-recovered-memories/">history of mental health difficulties</a> to undermine and <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/key-doubts-over-porter-accusers-story/news-story/e6e68bba4ada28e5257968f25781e48b">raise questions</a> about the truth of her claims. </p>
<p>Christian Porter denies the allegations, and he has a right to the presumption of innocence.</p>
<p>What’s not acceptable is the use of a woman’s struggles with mental health to discredit her account of an alleged sexual assault.</p>
<p>This is because exposure to trauma is one of the most significant <a href="https://www.healio.com/psychiatry/journals/jpn/2017-10-55-10/%7Bf38b3bb3-6526-4c6a-acf6-85bcd5885b12%7D/trauma-informed-care-and-practice-practice-improvement-strategies-in-an-inpatient-mental-health-ward?_id=F38B3BB365264C6AACF685BCD5885B12&_z=z">predictors</a> a person will seek support from mental health services. Gendered violence and mental distress often go hand in hand.</p>
<h2>The links between gendered violence and mental health</h2>
<p>Research, including <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Gendered-Violence-Abuse-and-Mental-Health-in-Everyday-Lives-Beyond-Trauma/Moulding/p/book/9780415739450">our own</a> <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/dysfunctional-responsible-emma-tseris/10.4324/9781315107820-5?context=ubx&refId=9c655b0f-7070-4d94-a3c8-3fa2d21d131c">findings</a>, reveals many women survivors demonstrate resilience after violence and abuse. </p>
<p>However, others report struggling with mental health and seek support for feelings of shame, fear, sadness, flashbacks, panic attacks, low self-worth and other painful experiences.</p>
<p>The mental distress associated with gendered violence is often <a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-sexual-politics-of-gendered-violence-and-womens-citizenship">made worse</a> by disappointing system responses, victim-blaming, and other negative social impacts such as difficulties gaining and maintaining employment.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/im-a-sexual-assault-counsellor-heres-why-its-so-hard-for-survivors-to-come-forward-and-what-happens-when-they-do-156038">I'm a sexual assault counsellor. Here's why it's so hard for survivors to come forward, and what happens when they do</a>
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<h2>Mental illness stereotypes</h2>
<p>There’s a pervasive idea that accounts from people with a mental illness are unreliable. Long-standing <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2008-05245-003">stereotypes</a> link mental illness with unpredictability and untrustworthiness.</p>
<p>These stereotypes are more marked for women because of similarly long-standing historical tropes that connect femininity with <a href="https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1972.tb00018.x">irrationality</a>.</p>
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<p>However, undermining women’s accounts of abuse on the basis of mental illness is problematic. Research demonstrates disclosures of violence made by people accessing mental health services are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3080697/">reliable</a> over long periods of time. False allegations are <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%252FBF00794947">marginal</a>.</p>
<p>Women who experience mental anguish after violence are not “irrational”. Their mental distress is an <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Madness-of-Women-Myth-and-Experience/Ussher-Ussher/p/book/9780415339285">understandable response</a> to overwhelming events.</p>
<p>There’s an idea that people with certain psychiatric diagnoses are more susceptible to “false memories” of abuse than other groups. The notion of “false memory syndrome” was used in the 1990s to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160252703000815">undermine the credibility</a> of rising reports of child sexual abuse. It was largely applied to the childhood sexual abuse of girls within their families, rather than adult rape. The notion of spurious memories arising in the context of dissociative states has featured across media and social media in recent weeks, including in one widely maligned <a href="https://www.crikey.com.au/2021/03/05/christian-porter-recovered-memories/">article published by Crikey</a>.</p>
<p>While memory is complex, the idea that people with certain psychiatric diagnoses are more prone to making up reports of sexual abuse and rape is simply <a href="https://www.crikey.com.au/2021/03/08/crikey-memory-scambler-response/">not supported</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/dissociative-identity-disorder-exists-and-is-the-result-of-childhood-trauma-85076">by evidence</a>.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dissociative-identity-disorder-exists-and-is-the-result-of-childhood-trauma-85076">Dissociative identity disorder exists and is the result of childhood trauma</a>
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<h2>Gendered violence is under-detected</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/dysfunctional-responsible-emma-tseris/10.4324/9781315107820-5">Research interviews</a> reveal many women who access mental health services never disclose their experiences of gendered violence. Often, mental health workers <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-05968-001">fail to ask</a> women about their personal histories of abuse and violence.</p>
<p>A mental health history can also act as a <a href="https://www.anrows.org.au/event/webinar-violence-against-women-and-mental-health/">barrier</a> to the disclosure of violence. This is often because women fear their diagnosis will make them unreliable witnesses in the eyes of practitioners and others in the community.</p>
<p>Women experiencing mental health difficulties report they want <a href="https://weareagenda.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Women-in-Crisis-Agenda-report-.pdf">gender-sensitive</a> mental health support. This means responding to their specific needs as women, including improving the detection of gendered violence and its impacts. Through this more holistic approach, mental health workers will be better equipped to address the root causes of women’s distress. </p>
<h2>Mental illness increases the likelihood of exposure to violence</h2>
<p>It’s particularly problematic to dismiss disclosures of gendered violence from women with mental health difficulties because this group is at significantly higher risk of violence, precisely as a consequence of reduced mental health and well-being.</p>
<p>Some domestic violence perpetrators use a woman’s psychiatric diagnosis as a <a href="https://www.anrows.org.au/event/webinar-violence-against-women-and-mental-health/">tool of abuse</a>. For example, as a form of gaslighting to reduce her sense of self-worth or to convince her she won’t be believed if she discloses the abuse. </p>
<p>Recent research has also revealed sexual harassment and assault is experienced by women within mental health inpatient <a href="https://20ian81kynqg38bl3l3eh8bf-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ANROWS-RtPP-VAW-in-mental-health-units.pdf">units</a>.</p>
<h2>What should be done?</h2>
<p>Rates of reporting gendered violence in Australia are very <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/too-many-of-us-believe-women-lie-about-rape-in-fact-they-rarely-report-it-20210305-p57889.html">low</a>. It’s important prejudicial ideas about mental illness are not mobilised against women to further prevent their disclosures from being heard and taken seriously. </p>
<p>When the media uses a woman’s mental health history to cast doubt on her allegations, other women will be deterred from speaking out about their experiences.</p>
<p>Women with mental health difficulties who disclose violence should be provided with options and resources. Their disclosures should be taken seriously, their feelings should be validated and supported, and they should be presented with a range of pathways for support and justice.</p>
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<p><em>If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, please call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156581/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Tseris receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Moulding receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>Women who experience mental anguish after violence are not ‘irrational’.Emma Tseris, Senior Lecturer in Social Work and Policy Studies, University of SydneyNicole Moulding, Professor of Social Work and Director, Safe Relationships and Communities Research Group, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1560382021-03-02T19:13:20Z2021-03-02T19:13:20ZI’m a sexual assault counsellor. Here’s why it’s so hard for survivors to come forward, and what happens when they do<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387111/original/file-20210302-19-1wzxmd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4896%2C3261&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As a senior sexual assault counsellor working with Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, I often sit across from people on the worst day of their life.</p>
<p>The trauma of being sexually assaulted is an experience filled with violence. It <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1992-97250-000">transforms a person’s sense of safety</a>, their worldview and their relationships with others.</p>
<p>When survivors come forward to disclose a sexual assault, they are frequently met with more questions than support in our communities. As a result, silence can be a form of survival.</p>
<p>Victim-blaming is one reason for this. Victim-blaming is a part of rape culture which reinforces the idea a woman is solely responsible for her own safety. One in eight Australians <a href="https://20ian81kynqg38bl3l3eh8bf-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/300419_NCAS_Summary_Report.pdf">believe</a> if a woman is raped while she is affected by alcohol or other drugs, she is at least partly responsible. </p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0361684319868730?journalCode=pwqa">Empathy for the perpetrator</a> contributes to victim-blaming. Victim-blaming can also occur when we try to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1557085113484788">distance ourselves from the horrific nature of the crime</a>. We can’t imagine this happening to us, therefore it must have happened to someone who is inherently different to us. It can be hard to accept these violations take place in our very own backyard.</p>
<p>Last month, former Liberal Party staffer Brittany Higgins publicly disclosed she was sexually assaulted, allegedly by a male colleague at Parliament House. </p>
<p>Higgins’s brave disclosure is in spite of the social factors that exist to silence survivors.</p>
<h2>It’s impossible to be ‘the model victim’</h2>
<p>In Australian society, we often expect sexual assault survivors to show just enough emotion for us to believe them, but not so much they seem hysterical or attention-seeking. </p>
<p>The timing of the disclosure should be just right or we question why they didn’t come forward soon enough. They should be “model citizens” or we question their credibility. If they were intoxicated at the time of the assault, we question their memory. And if sober, we question their choices.</p>
<p>The Goldilocks dilemma of being the perfect victim or survivor is extraordinarily difficult to navigate. It’s little wonder many victims wait decades to come forward, or decide not to report a sexual assault at all. </p>
<p>With public attention focused on recent allegations of sexual assault, it’s the right time to be asking why survivors don’t always come forward straight away.</p>
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<p>When a disclosure is met with negative responses, it can lead to feelings of shame for survivors. Negative responses to a disclosure have been labelled as the “second rape” incident, a phenomenon known as <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/088626001016012002">secondary victimisation</a>. Survivors who experience negative social reactions after coming forward are more likely to have <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2007.00328.x">symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)</a>. </p>
<p>In Australia, sexual assault cases have low conviction rates and the judicial process can be lengthy. Data from criminal courts in 2017-18, published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, found it took <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/4513.02017-18?OpenDocument">an average of 40 weeks to secure a conviction for a sexual assault</a>. The low rates of conviction, combined with the prolonged and complex judicial process, result in reduced reporting.</p>
<p>Indigenous, culturally and linguistically diverse, and LGBTIQA+ women may face <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1524838015585318">further reporting barriers</a>. These can include greater stigma in their communities, reduced access to services, and previous negative experience with the judicial system.</p>
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<h2>We need to build a culture of acceptance</h2>
<p>In my role as a sexual assault counsellor in community health, I practise “<a href="https://noviolence.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Trauma-Practice-Paper-FINAL-002.pdf">trauma-informed care</a>”. This is a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3777345/">survivor-oriented approach and is underpinned</a> by principles of safety, empowerment, choice, collaboration, and understanding of culture. It places the survivor as the expert on their own life.</p>
<p>It is important for sexual assault survivors <a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/7/e026773.full.pdf">to be heard</a>, to be believed, and to be told what happened is not their fault.</p>
<p>Many women feel angry at themselves they’d frozen rather than fighting back during an assault. However, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5332864/pdf/rstb20160206.pdf">the act of freezing</a> is the most protective response we have to avoid further injury when in danger.</p>
<p>During the counselling session, we talk about the option to collect evidence, disclose to the police, and how to safely tell loved ones if that’s what a survivor wants to do.</p>
<p>Maximising choices for survivors in every decision allows them to feel empowered and gain back control. </p>
<p>Statistics may shock us, but stories provide a face to suffering. Every survivor who shares a story of sexual assault indirectly speaks to another survivor and gently reminds them they are not alone.</p>
<p>However, every negative response also speaks to a survivor. There is no perfect victim or survivor, and no perfect trauma response. As a society, we have a collective responsibility to create safe spaces that help build a culture of acceptance rather than a culture of shame.</p>
<p>A survivor’s choice to disclose should be solely based on their readiness to share their story. </p>
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<p><em>If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, please call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156038/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neeraja Sanmuhanathan received the Australian Research Training Program Scholarship to complete her PhD at the University of Sydney. </span></em></p>A survivor’s choice to disclose should be solely based on their readiness to share their story.Neeraja Sanmuhanathan, Senior Sexual Assault Counsellor, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Lecturer in Counselling, University of Notre Dame AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1324822020-03-05T12:46:41Z2020-03-05T12:46:41ZLess than one-fifth of reported rapes and sexual assaults lead to arrests<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317634/original/file-20200227-24664-khia1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protesters attended Harvey Weinstein's first day of trial.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/new-york-ny-january-6-2020-1607475874">lev radin/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center ">
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<p>As <a href="https://www.uml.edu/facultycv/morabito-melissa.pdf">experts in criminology</a> <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/April_Pattavina">and the justice system</a>, we were surprised to learn that a jury <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/26/learning/lesson-of-the-day-with-weinstein-conviction-metoo.html">voted to convict Harvey Weinstein</a> on <a href="https://www.bustle.com/p/less-than-1-of-rapists-are-convicted-harvey-weinstein-was-the-exception-22413722">two counts of rape and sexual assault</a>.</p>
<p>This surprise was based on our more than a decade of research on the attrition of sexual assault cases from the criminal justice system.</p>
<p>We know that <a href="https://nij.ojp.gov/library/publications/extent-nature-and-consequences-rape-victimization-findings-national-violence">most victims of sexual assault never report</a> their attack to the police. For those that do report, <a href="https://www.rainn.org/statistics/criminal-justice-system">the probability of arrest and prosecution of their assailant is small</a>.</p>
<p>In fact, the overwhelming majority of cases reported to the police do not end in conviction, as evidenced by <a href="https://nij.ojp.gov/library/publications/decision-making-sexual-assault-cases-replication-research-sexual-violence-case">our recent research</a> on sexual assaults reported to the police in six jurisdictions across the United States.</p>
<p>We found that many cases drop out at the investigation stage, with only 18.8% of rapes reported to the police resulting in an arrest. Slightly more than a third of the arrests of adults ended in a conviction. That’s just 6.5% of investigations.</p>
<p>What we can learn from the Weinstein verdict, and from <a href="https://metoomvmt.org/about/#history">the #MeToo movement</a> more generally, is that perhaps the time has come to bolster the criminal justice response to sexual assault in ways that give sexual assault victims the procedural justice they deserve.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklysmart">You can get our highlights each weekend</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132482/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This project was supported by Award No. 2012-IJ-CX-0052 awarded by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice to the University of Massachusetts Lowell. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of
Justice. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>April Pattavina receives funding from The National Institute of Justice and The National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>Harvey Weinstein’s conviction isn’t the norm for perpetrators of sexual violence.Melissa Morabito, Associate Professor of Criminology and Justice Studies, UMass LowellApril Pattavina, Professor of Criminology and Justice Studies, UMass LowellLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1196042019-06-30T23:02:26Z2019-06-30T23:02:26ZSexual abuse happens online, too – but current laws leave too many victims unprotected<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281777/original/file-20190628-94700-1kzslq5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C23%2C4000%2C2610&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Shattered lives. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/crying-girl-broken-smart-phone-742632640?src=qbvLTZL8JBW01mvsfnTMVQ-1-51&studio=1">Shutterstock.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>People’s lives have been shattered by so-called “revenge porn”, upskirting, fake porn, sexual extortion and videos of sexual assaults and rape shared online. Victims and survivors can experience profound “<a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/upskirting-image-based-abuse_uk_5c0e1fe7e4b0239a97100d80">social rupture</a>” – a major devastation that drastically alters all aspects of their lives, as well as the lives of those who love and support them. </p>
<p>And yet, despite greater public awareness and four <a href="https://theconversation.com/upskirting-is-now-illegal-now-the-normalisation-of-mens-sexual-privilege-in-society-must-be-tackled-115174">new laws</a> in the past five years, legislation is still failing to fully protect victims and provide access to justice. The law is piecemeal, outdated and complicated – several forms of abuse are still not covered. </p>
<p>Not all victims of these offences are granted anonymity in court, and the limitations and complexity of the current laws makes it difficult for the police to enforce them <a href="http://www.nomorenaming.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Suffering-in-Silence-2018.pdf">in practice</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/upskirting-is-now-illegal-now-the-normalisation-of-mens-sexual-privilege-in-society-must-be-tackled-115174">Upskirting is now illegal – now the normalisation of men's sexual privilege in society must be tackled</a>
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<p>There have been moves to address these failings – the UK government recently asked the Law Commission to conduct a two-year <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/law-around-non-consensual-taking-making-and-sharing-of-sexual-images-to-be-reviewed">review</a>. But this means that new laws will not be introduced until 2022 – at the very earliest. </p>
<p>Our new <a href="https://claremcglynn.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/shattering-lives-and-myths-final.pdf">research</a> draws on experiences and recommendations from more than 50 victim-survivors, as well as lawyers, police and third-sector professionals working in this area across the UK. Our findings suggest that action is needed urgently, now, to support and protect those who have suffered from what we have labelled “<a href="https://www.readcube.com/articles/10.1007%2Fs10691-017-9343-2?author_access_token=QKOUlRvK70jK-w3Jed-KAPe4RwlQNchNByi7wbcMAY7lTE0DhlT-1Rs8pojV1uxKJpy7LvfCoQcbcu-rm6m0HzBvkZTVtZzZR8LsZuOrKxSiTvM-pK3QFOXA7z5WeJjJrYrBTIz99jNg8lj9R4SR5g==">image-based sexual abuse</a>”. </p>
<h2>‘Torture for your soul’</h2>
<p>While it seems widely recognised that image-based sexual abuse causes considerable harm, many of the victim-survivors we spoke to felt that the real extent and nature of this harm was not properly understood. Many described the abuse as an overwhelming breach that radically disrupted their lives, so much so that many distinguished their lives and sense of self into “before” and “after” their experiences. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281789/original/file-20190628-94700-1ib6wyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281789/original/file-20190628-94700-1ib6wyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281789/original/file-20190628-94700-1ib6wyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281789/original/file-20190628-94700-1ib6wyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281789/original/file-20190628-94700-1ib6wyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281789/original/file-20190628-94700-1ib6wyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281789/original/file-20190628-94700-1ib6wyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A recurring nightmare.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/depressed-lonely-woman-head-hands-258560726?src=jc22keEUYljoGrxcTi3ejw-1-7&studio=1">Shutterstock.</a></span>
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<p>One victim-survivor spoke of being “completely, completely broken”; others characterised their experiences as “life-ruining”, “hell on earth” – “a nightmare …[that] destroyed everything”. Another, Anna, said: “it’s torture for your soul”.</p>
<p>Others described the constant nature of the abuse, which is so often ongoing – the material remains “out there”, and there is the constant chance that it could be shared, viewed and rediscovered. Each time this happens, it’s experienced as a new abuse. Victim-survivors did not speak in terms of a discrete “event” or “incident” which happens and then is over. Rather, the abuse feels relentless and perpetual. As Anna said: “There is no end to it, there is no stop, there is no finale.”</p>
<h2>Catching up</h2>
<p>Victim-survivors are being let down by current laws, which are inconsistent, outdated and confusing. There’s an urgent need for a comprehensive criminal law which covers all forms of image-based sexual abuse – regardless of motivation. But while the Law Comission’s review is ongoing, there are three things that could be addressed right now.</p>
<p><strong>1. Extend current law to include threats and deepfake porn.</strong></p>
<p>Threats to take or share intimate images without consent are not currently a criminal offence in England and Wales or Northern Ireland. This is a serious omission, because nearly half of the victim-survivors we spoke to had received threats to share nude or sexual images and videos of them without their consent. For many, the threats had life-threatening and paralysing impacts. As, Louise, told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was embarrassed and I was ashamed … and I felt stupid. Even now I’m still not sure whether or not she will send them. My mental health deteriorated quite significantly. I took an overdose.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Nor does the criminal law clearly cover fake porn or “deepfakes”, where technology is used to alter videos or images to make them sexual – for example, taking a profile picture from Facebook and digitally altering it, to make it sexual or pornographic. The offence which makes it illegal to share intimate images without consent (as in “revenge porn”) should be extended to include threats and the distribution of fake images. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/revenge-porn-law-is-failing-victims-heres-why-90497">Revenge porn law is failing victims – here's why</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>2. Recognise image-based sexual abuse as a sexual offence.</strong></p>
<p>The government’s refusal to categorise <em>all</em> of these abuses as sexual offences suggests they are not listening to victim-survivors. As Lucy told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s an abuse of me and my body. It feels like it’s sexual abuse… I know people might say that sounds like an exaggeration, but that is genuinely how I feel…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There is also no justification for some victim-survivors having anonymity in court – in cases of upskirting, for example – but not in others, such as when an image is shared without consent. </p>
<p><strong>3. Support victim-survivors to take back control.</strong></p>
<p>While organisations including the <a href="https://revengepornhelpline.org.uk/">Revenge Porn Helpline</a> provide valuable practical assistance and support, too often victim-survivors face the long and painful task of getting their pictures taken down alone. Few are able to access specialist emotional and psychological support, or assistance with navigating the complicated legal terrain.</p>
<p>We recommend establishing an Office for Online Safety, jointly funded by government and relevant industries, tasked with providing well-resourced and expert assistance to help victim-survivors reclaim control, as well as playing an educative role in combating image-based sexual abuse. This would go a long way to providing increased protections, access to justice and adequate support.</p>
<p>It’s clear that image-based sexual abuse can have devastating impacts and shatter people’s lives. If the government truly understands this, it will take action now to correct the most egregious gaps in the law, and increase support for victim-survivors.</p>
<p><em>The names used in this article are pseudonyms given by the authors to protect the identity of respondents.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119604/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erika Rackley receives funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Clare McGlynn received funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kelly Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Laws against ‘revenge porn’, upskirting, deepfake pornography are piecemeal, and a review will take years to conduct. Here are three things government can do now to support victims.Erika Rackley, Professor of Law, University of KentClare McGlynn, Professor of Law, Durham UniversityKelly Johnson, Assistant Professor, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1045642018-10-12T10:42:01Z2018-10-12T10:42:01ZKavanaugh confirmation could spark a reckoning with system that often fails survivors of sexual abuse and assault<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240115/original/file-20181010-72103-1hr5ijn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C3676%2C2348&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Christine Blasey Ford is sworn in by Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination of Brett M. Kavanaugh. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Supreme-Court-Kavanaugh/a1092ac0e22a4e1dadcfe3768791f4a6/72/0">AP/Tom Williams/Pool Photo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After voting to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, Sen. Joe Manchin said that he made his choice even though he supported survivors of sexual abuse and believed that “we have to do something as a country” about sexual violence. </p>
<p>“I’m very much concerned… with the sexual abuse that people had to endure,” he said. “But I had to <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/ali-velshi/watch/sen-joe-manchin-speaks-after-announcing-yes-vote-on-kavanaugh-1337843779680?v=raila&">deal with the facts I had in front of me.”</a> </p>
<p>The testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, and Kavanaugh’s confirmation despite that testimony, is a prominent example of what happens when abuse survivors engage with systems that were never designed to respond to their words or meet their needs. </p>
<p>Although few survivors testify in front of the Senate, the process by which Ford was forced to tell her story, and the reaction of senators to that story, is strikingly similar to what abuse survivors undergo every day in civil and criminal courts.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_mdgqXMAAAAJ&hl=en">I am a scholar of domestic violence</a>, and my work has focused on analyzing the stories survivors share when they seek safety. </p>
<p>I’ve also studied what happens when the legal system processes these stories. </p>
<p>What I’ve found is a fundamental mismatch between what survivors disclose and what legal systems need to hear to take action. </p>
<h2>Victims and systems unaligned</h2>
<p>Legal institutions ask survivors to explain why they need legal protection, to tell their story of abuse. But, as noted by scholars <a href="https://www.jjay.cuny.edu/faculty/shonna-trinch">Shonna Trinch</a> and <a href="https://as.vanderbilt.edu/spanish-portuguese/people/bios/?who=6">Susan Berk-Seligson</a>, “What is needed by those whose job is to listen to them is <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/4169183.pdf?casa_token=xN059LDNAyoAAAAA:m0OJUIBYpKEkXMlAGj8mKTBR-DnVF80GcbYskFIXa97RdzvuO3d70mUkYV5sPcuncckwxpuFsYXRfPJ1OIZQHrGPm_Bsha0ZmXTU9h-TZULDeA3TGw">a report, not a story</a>.” </p>
<p>Courts want a report that is linear, providing an almost external accounting of abuse with specific names, dates and “facts.” Survivors expect to be able to share what they have experienced in a way that reflects how they have made sense of the event and its aftermath. </p>
<p>The end result is that we have systems that are supposed to help, but in general are unable to adequately assess and respond to survivors’ stories.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240120/original/file-20181010-72133-ysvvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240120/original/file-20181010-72133-ysvvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240120/original/file-20181010-72133-ysvvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240120/original/file-20181010-72133-ysvvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240120/original/file-20181010-72133-ysvvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240120/original/file-20181010-72133-ysvvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240120/original/file-20181010-72133-ysvvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240120/original/file-20181010-72133-ysvvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Activists demonstrate as the Senate Judiciary Committee hears from both Ford and Kavanaugh.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Supreme-Court-Kavanaugh/86b0e70b364043bca0cc1071848ce8a2/160/0">AP//J. Scott Applewhite</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My research shows that survivors who disclose their abuse often hear initial statements of support and belief. Those statements are quickly negated by a “but” and an explanation of why someone will continue to act as if that story had never been told.</p>
<p>How did we end up with this system? </p>
<p>Many scholars, including <a href="https://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/kimberle-crenshaw">Kimberlé Crenshaw</a>, argue that institutions, including the legal system, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1229039?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">design policies based on stereotypes about survivors that rarely reflect their actual circumstances</a>. That’s especially true with survivors who are not “good victims” or who are not <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801204271431">white, middle-class women</a> who have external documentation of physical abuse. </p>
<p>This explains how what appears to be neutral system can produce different outcomes for people based on the intersections of gender, race, sexuality, age, citizenship status and other aspects of social identities. </p>
<p>For example, using victim advocates from a prosecutor’s office or police department to assist survivors filing for protection orders that would keep them safe from their abusers appears to be an effective use of resources.</p>
<p>But many abuse survivors have legal problems themselves or mistrust the legal system. They may not want to report the violence they’ve experienced because they could become the target of immigration enforcement or child protective services. </p>
<p>For many survivors, it’s easier and safer to not report the abuse and pretend that the resulting trauma never happened. </p>
<h2>Puzzles in the aftermath</h2>
<p>To an outsider, the choice not to report in the moment, or even years later, does not make sense. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-compassion-chronicles/201711/why-dont-victims-sexual-harassment-come-forward-sooner">They do not understand</a> how survivors compartmentalize in order to survive or even thrive. They do not see that survivors evolve complex ways of coping, such as Ford’s <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/26/politics/ford-testimony/index.html">insistence on constructing double front doors</a> at her home so she’d be able to escape through one if the other was blocked. </p>
<p>The legal system’s rules of evidence, evidentiary requirements and statutes of limitations all reflect this. </p>
<p>What I’ve found in my research is that the legal system wants short, brief reports that focus on legally relevant acts of abuse, contain specific information and include supplemental documentation. </p>
<p>Few survivors can craft those types of narratives unassisted. </p>
<p>And many survivors – especially those who are of color, are poor or do not have U.S. citizenship, and who are not heterosexual – do not see institutions like the legal system as a resource. </p>
<p>Those institutions aren’t designed with their goals, needs and motivations in mind. When they witness events like the confirmation hearing, where a woman with education and privilege discloses sexual violence and nothing happens, how can they be expected to entrust their own narratives of abuse to others? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240125/original/file-20181010-72133-1ftmcrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240125/original/file-20181010-72133-1ftmcrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240125/original/file-20181010-72133-1ftmcrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240125/original/file-20181010-72133-1ftmcrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240125/original/file-20181010-72133-1ftmcrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240125/original/file-20181010-72133-1ftmcrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240125/original/file-20181010-72133-1ftmcrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240125/original/file-20181010-72133-1ftmcrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many survivors of assault are afraid to make reports to the police.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/572843410?src=5KELnsRp3mTAm64A6tMzNw-1-12&size=huge_jpg">Jacek Wojnarowski/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Speaking up</h2>
<p>Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that “I’m dejected, but only momentarily, when I can’t get the fifth vote for something I think is very important. But then you go on to the next challenge and you give it your all. You know that these important issues are not going to go away. They are going to come back again and again. There’ll be <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=NgL_CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA34&lpg=PA34&dq=%22I%27m">another time, another day</a>.” </p>
<p>For some survivors, today, in the aftermath of Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony, is finally that day. They are filling out protection order petitions, calling the police, reaching out for help. </p>
<p>But in some cases, they will be denied an order, the abuser will not be sanctioned or they themselves will be mistakenly arrested instead of, or along with, their abuser. In the toughest cases, like that of <a href="http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19981223&slug=2790520">Melanie Edwards in Washington state</a>, they will be killed by their abusers. </p>
<p>The United States should rethink how to help survivors of violence and how to sanction perpetrators. </p>
<h2>Helping or hurting?</h2>
<p>In the right environment and with the right support, survivors will want to tell their stories and will be empowered and validated by that retelling. </p>
<p>However, the legal system is an adversarial system with confusing and complex bureaucratic procedures and often untrained staff. As trauma scholar <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/author/judithlewishermanmd/">Dr. Judith Herman</a> explains, “If one set out intentionally to design a system for provoking symptoms of traumatic stress, it might look very much <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/542700.Trauma_and_Recovery">like a court of law</a>.” </p>
<p>Survivors are asked to recall specific details about their victimization that they have repressed in order to survive. As one advocate said to me in an interview, “They’re trying to forget what happened and here I am, asking them to write down, with as many details as they can, <a href="https://repository.law.miami.edu/umrsjlr/vol5/iss2/22/">what they went through</a>.” </p>
<p>How might we create a more responsive system? </p>
<p>First: Stop requiring survivors to narrate their abuse. It’s more detrimental than helpful, especially if we simply discount it as a “story” afterward. </p>
<p>If there is some form of external documentation, survivors should be able to provide that instead. If there is no external documentation, then the narrative should be elicited in a supportive environment of the survivor’s choosing, with trained staff available to help them better understand the kinds of information judges and law enforcement need. </p>
<p>Second: People charged with listening and responding to survivors need to be educated about the dynamics of domestic and sexual violence. While some are, many do not fully understand the ways in which domestic and sexual violence impact survivors. It is impossible for them to hear and respond appropriately unless they understand those dynamics.</p>
<p>The confirmation hearings, and the responses to Ford’s testimony, underscored this idea. While the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/2018/09/27/kavanaugh-hearing-transcript/?utm_term=.15da841258cf">remarks of some senators after her testimony</a> reflected that they understand that they should “support” and “believe” survivors of violence, they also showed they were not informed about how survivors act in response to and process sexual trauma. </p>
<p>It’s as if they were saying: I believe, but I don’t understand, so your story does not exist for me in that it does not force me to act or impact my vote.</p>
<p>Finally: Explore what believing and supporting a survivor means. </p>
<p>While the words “I believe” and “I support” are critically important, they should not become buzzwords that replace actions. When you believe a survivor and decide to support that survivor, you must act. You must make hard, even unpopular, decisions. </p>
<p>You must work to adapt the system in order to uphold justice. </p>
<p>I believe. Period. I believe.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104564/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alesha Durfee receives funding from the National Institute of Justice.The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Justice. </span></em></p>The testimony of Christine Blasey Ford in the Kavanaugh nomination hearings showed what happens when abuse survivors enter systems that are not designed to respond to their words or meet their needs.Alesha Durfee, Associate Professor of Women and Gender Studies, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/846712017-09-28T23:01:39Z2017-09-28T23:01:39ZSurvivors use humour to challenge rape culture<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188086/original/file-20170928-1483-ukh2es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Emma Cooper created the show "Rape is Real and Everywhere" with fellow comedian Heather Jordan Ross
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scot McLean</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After Heather Jordan Ross reported her sexual assault, she felt conflicted about mixing it into her standup comedy. She hated rape jokes, but she wanted to talk about her experience. Over beers, her friend Emma Cooper jokingly suggested they put together a comedy night that featured only survivors.</p>
<p>The first show went up in Vancouver three weeks later. It sold out, and so did the next two. <a href="http://www.rapeisreal.com/">Rape is Real and Everywhere </a>(RIR&E) was born.</p>
<p>RIR&E has since played across Canada, made national and international news and even been the subject of a <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/the-doc-project/episode/13509421">CBC radio documentary</a>.</p>
<p>Now it’s hitting universities for shows and workshops. </p>
<p>As a member of Concordia University’s <a href="http://www.concordia.ca/artsci/cissc/working-groups/feminism-and-controversial-humour.html">Feminism and Controversial Humour Working Group </a>(FACH), I have been been working with the RIR&E team to bring the show to Montreal and to my university. </p>
<h2>Should we joke about rape?</h2>
<p>We meet several times a semester to talk about comedy that addresses topics like race, sexual assault, abortion and disability. We think about why humour is often so divisive. We ask: When and how are jokes about difficult or traumatic experiences productive and healing? </p>
<p>Comedy can invite meaningful, pleasurable engagements with issues of privilege, power and difference. FACH explores the possibilities and pitfalls of using laughter in feminist teaching and performance. </p>
<p>Our conversations often revolve around how <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/humor/">established theories of humour</a> — for example, superiority theory, relief theory, or incongruity theory — can contribute to an <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00497878.1988.9978732">interdisciplinary feminist analysis of comedy</a> about violence and racial, ethnic, religious, gender, and sexual difference. </p>
<p>But we’re also committed to keeping our academic theorizing rooted in real life, real issues, and — of course — real funny jokes.</p>
<p>Some of the RIR&E comedians performed and spoke at our <a href="https://www.concordia.ca/artsci/cissc/working-groups/feminism-and-controversial-humour.html">feminism and humour symposium last spring</a>. The discussions were so intellectually exciting, so enriching, and so much fun that when Cooper and Ross started talking about bringing the show to our university in the fall, we knew our students could benefit hugely from experiencing it. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188089/original/file-20170928-28521-xh955b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188089/original/file-20170928-28521-xh955b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188089/original/file-20170928-28521-xh955b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188089/original/file-20170928-28521-xh955b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188089/original/file-20170928-28521-xh955b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188089/original/file-20170928-28521-xh955b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188089/original/file-20170928-28521-xh955b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Heather Jordan Ross tackles the silence, shame and secrecy surrounding rape and sexual assault with humour.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scot McLean</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Needless to say, we are extremely excited to help bring RIR&E to our academic community.</p>
<p>But plenty of folks will still ask: Should we joke about rape at all?</p>
<h2>Healing power of art and comedy</h2>
<p>Rape jokes are among the most controversial that comedians can tell. In response to the ugly “har-har roofies” genre of gags we’re used to hearing, many feminists take the position that rape is something you just can’t laugh about.</p>
<p>While that conviction comes from a valid place, it’s also misguided. It plays into the silence, shame and secrecy surrounding rape and sexual assault — and these things are a big part of what keeps rape culture in place. </p>
<p>Emma Sulkowicz, a former Columbia University visual arts student, also challenged the silence. She <a href="https://nowtoronto.com/art-and-books/art/mattress-performance-artist-emma-sulkowicz-not-done-making-art-about-rape/">famously carried a mattress around campus</a> with her to represent the weight of her sexual assault. Her classmates helped her move it — up stairs, into lectures, classrooms, and dorm rooms. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188055/original/file-20170928-28521-alvbhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188055/original/file-20170928-28521-alvbhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188055/original/file-20170928-28521-alvbhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188055/original/file-20170928-28521-alvbhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188055/original/file-20170928-28521-alvbhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188055/original/file-20170928-28521-alvbhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188055/original/file-20170928-28521-alvbhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Emma Sulkowicz, a former Columbia University arts student, created an endurance performance art piece that required her to carry the same type of mattress she was raped on around campus.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The RIR&E performers are skilled standup comics, telling smart-as-sh*t and funny-as-f*ck jokes about their experiences. Laughing with them at the absurdity of a world that silences survivors and protects perpetrators is also an act of support and solidarity.</p>
<p>As Ross explains, not everyone grieves the same way. Some folks want to listen to a particular album or do slam poetry or stand silently in the rain. Other people need to laugh. Making jokes about life — sour parts, sweet parts — is, for some, the best way to communicate what they are going through. RIR&E is about helping survivors process.</p>
<p>Ross knows this from experience. Before she started the show, she was hiding a part of herself, pushing what happened to her pretty far down.</p>
<p>Suddenly it was bubbling up and she didn’t know what to do with it. She was mean, drank a lot and axed friendships. In September 2015, she called the suicide hotline. Soon after, she got a therapist. In December, she reported her assault to authorities.</p>
<p>After that, there was really only one thing left to do: Make it funny.</p>
<h2>Support and solidarity</h2>
<p>Once Ross was able to turn her story into something she could share and, as it turns out, something that could help others heal, she started to process. </p>
<p>Soon after she started performing, audiences told her and Cooper how helpful the show was to them. One woman messaged her to say that after attending the performance she stopped hanging out with the rapist with whom she had previously played nice.</p>
<p>For many individuals of a variety of ages and genders, the RIR&E team were the first people they had ever confided in about their sexual assault.</p>
<p>The show tackles rape myths in hilarious and heartbreaking ways, really illustrating how cultural perceptions of rape affect survivors. One comic has a hard-hitting joke about feeling guilty she wasn’t “raped enough.” There was no stranger down a dark alley, no assailant hiding in the bushes. If only she’d been a little more raped, she said, then she’d feel like she had a right to talk about it. Part of the power of the show is that it exposes just how ridiculous rape myths like this are, and begins to create a new narrative.</p>
<p>Complaints about the show haven’t tended to come from survivors, but from people worried on their behalf. These worries are clearly rooted in care and compassion. But so too is the show. RIR&E is about processing and helping others to do the same. The atmosphere is one of solidarity and support.</p>
<p>“I found it 100 per cent more funny than being raped,” one audience member said.</p>
<p>This said, RIR&E and the FACH working group are deeply conscious that the material is sensitive. The show’s title is a blatant sexual assault content warning.</p>
<p>This week, Concordia will present the RIR&E show. It aims to be a night in which rape myths are busted, shame and silence are blown out of the water, and the strength of Concordia’s academic community — united against rape and sexual assault — is revealed.</p>
<p>I hope that audiences leave feeling impressed at the talent and bravery of the RIR&E comedians, uplifted at the warm and supportive spirit of their audience, and utterly convinced that rape culture really is a f*cking joke. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1XvrjELpHkQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84671/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emer O'Toole 's academic research on the relationship between art and activism is funded by the FRQSC (Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Société et Culture) and the SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council) </span></em></p>Rape jokes are among the most controversial that comedians can tell, but a Concordia professor says laughing at the absurdity of a world that silences survivors is also an act of support and solidarity.Emer O'Toole, Assistant Professor of Irish Performance Studies School of Irish Studies, Concordia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/741372017-03-28T11:49:57Z2017-03-28T11:49:57ZWhy gender can’t be ignored when dealing with domestic violence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162195/original/image-20170323-4954-vztxlh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/serious-people-335748890?src=-rZt1DeEN9Yu9edA-btK9A-1-1">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Domestic violence is a violation of human rights with damaging social, economic and health consequences. It is any incident of controlling, <a href="https://theconversation.com/recognising-the-controlling-patterns-at-the-heart-of-domestic-abuse-68398">coercive</a>, threatening behaviour, violence or abuse. That abuse can be psychological, emotional, physical, sexual and financial. </p>
<p>The “domestic” element refers to abuse between people aged 16 or over who are, or have been, intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality. Men, women or transgender people in straight, gay or lesbian relationships can perpetrate or experience it. So does this mean domestic violence is gender neutral? Is gender irrelevant to prevention efforts and to responding to survivors’ needs? We do not think so. </p>
<p>Globally, direct experience of being subjected to domestic violence is <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(13)61030-2/fulltext">greater among women then among men</a>. In the UK, 27% of women and 13% of men <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/compendium/focusonviolentcrimeandsexualoffences/yearendingmarch2015/chapter4intimatepersonalviolenceandpartnerabuse#prevalence-of-intimate-violence-extent">have experienced</a> some form of domestic abuse in their lifetime. The difference is most striking for sexual violence. Women are <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/compendium/focusonviolentcrimeandsexualoffences/yearendingmarch2015/chapter4intimatepersonalviolenceandpartnerabuse#prevalence-of-intimate-violence-extent">five times as likely</a> as men to experience sexual assault. </p>
<p>Women also <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/cdc_nisvs_ipv_report_2013_v17_single_a.pdf">suffer more repeated</a> and systematic violence, severe assault, severe injuries and hospitalisations then men. In the year ending March 2015 in England and Wales, 44% of female murder victims, compared with 6% of male murder victims, died at the hands of their partner or former partner. These statistics are based on population surveys, not reported crime or people accessing support services, which are more prone to bias (men are <a href="http://new.mankind.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/30-Key-Facts-Male-Victims-Mar-2016.pdf">less likely</a> than women to report violence perpetrated against them, for example). </p>
<p>There is a gender difference in prevalence and impact of domestic violence. But many men do experience domestic violence and, like women, may suffer long term damage to their mental health. In <a href="http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/5/e007141">a study we carried out</a> of 1,368 men attending GP surgeries in south-west England, the 23% who had experienced domestic abuse were between two and three times more likely to experience symptoms of anxiety and depression.</p>
<p>But an understanding of gender in domestic violence does not rest solely on the differences in prevalence and impact. It extends to how men perceive the abuse that they experience and their willingness to disclose that abuse and seek help. </p>
<p>In our study only a third of men who had experienced domestic abuse thought they had been in an abusive relationship. This is a much lower proportion than women. Understanding this type of gender difference is crucial in training health care and other professionals to enquire and respond appropriately to the domestic violence experienced by men. </p>
<p>Interviews with male survivors reveal recurrent disbelief and dismissive responses to the men who disclose the abuse they have been subjected to. In the male survivor advisory group that advises our research programme, we have heard chilling accounts of the joking response given by some GPs. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162239/original/image-20170323-4934-1rselj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162239/original/image-20170323-4934-1rselj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162239/original/image-20170323-4934-1rselj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162239/original/image-20170323-4934-1rselj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162239/original/image-20170323-4934-1rselj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162239/original/image-20170323-4934-1rselj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162239/original/image-20170323-4934-1rselj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Trapped.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<p><a href="http://www.bristol.ac.uk/primaryhealthcare/researchthemes/reprovide/">REPROVIDE</a>, our current domestic violence research programme, aims to improve support and referral programmes for general practices. We are now including the needs of men and children exposed to domestic violence, working with survivors to help primary care services to respond compassionately and effectively. </p>
<h2>Survivors of both sexes</h2>
<p>Recognition of the gendered nature of domestic violence is not a justification to ignore the needs of male survivors. Instead, it needs to inform how we design programmes to support these men (and their children), with the understanding that some of their experiences and needs may be similar to women survivors, but others may be different. </p>
<p>We need to challenge cultural stereotypes which still assume that the perpetrators of domestic violence are men and the victims are women. However, at the same time, we must recognise that the majority of perpetrators are men. We still live in a patriarchal society where men have more power, more sense of entitlement, and (on average) more income then women. </p>
<p>Yet male survivors of domestic violence are largely invisible, as indeed female survivors were, until the feminist movement forced society to take notice. Men who experience domestic violence, whether in heterosexual or gay relationships, have until relatively recently been largely ignored. Work on improving society’s response to domestic violence against women has not been matched by responses to male survivors. </p>
<p>The concept of gender refers to the <a href="http://www.who.int/gender-equity-rights/understanding/gender-definition/en/">socially constructed differences</a> between women and men. Domestic violence in a relationship, and how we respond to it, is intrinsically related to how society views and behave as women and men. Gender roles vary from society to society, as does the prevalence and nature of domestic violence. To ignore the impact of gender on domestic violence does a disservice to people of any gender. Instead, the aim must be to strive for gender-informed prevention and responses to domestic violence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74137/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gene Feder receives funding from the UK National Institute of Health Research and the Medical Research Council. He is a board member of IRISi, a social enterprise that implements domestic violence training and referral in England and Wales.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucy Potter receives funding from the UK National Institute of Health Research for her Academic Clinical Fellowship. She is a Clinical Lead for IRIS, a social enterprise that implements domestic violence training and referral in England and Wales. </span></em></p>Abuse affects all sexes.Gene Feder, Professor of Primary Care, University of BristolLucy Potter, Academic Clinical Fellow in Social and Community Medicine, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/734782017-02-28T15:48:09Z2017-02-28T15:48:09ZIssue of children who sexually abuse other children is not something that can be ignored<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158570/original/image-20170227-26326-1kw9iwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A recent string of high profile cases involving “celebrity perpetrators” along with a series of <a href="https://www.iicsa.org.uk/">ongoing inquires into historical child abuse</a> in the UK has brought <a href="https://www.childabuseinquiry.scot/">sexual abuse into the public consciousness</a> in an unprecedented way. </p>
<p>Similar inquiries are also underway internationally – notably the ongoing <a href="https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/">Australian Royal Commission</a> into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, which has spent the last four years hearing testimony from thousands of Australian survivors. </p>
<p>It is arguable that the <a href="http://www.itv.com/news/2017-02-27/shameful-period-of-british-history-child-sex-abuse-inquiry-begins/">media attention</a> given to these high profile cases has <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/why-abuse-victims-wait-until-their-twilight-years-to-come-forwar/">increased the number of people coming forward</a> to disclose their experiences of abuse. But while this is obviously a good thing, the way these cases are often portrayed and covered, tends to reinforce unhelpful stereotypes. </p>
<p>This includes the idea that all abuse is carried out by adult paedophiles preying on vulnerable children. And as a consequence, means that the issue of child sexual abuse committed by other children is significantly downplayed. </p>
<h2>Juvenile abusers</h2>
<p>Official figures indicate that between a fifth and a third of all cases of child sexual abuse in the UK <a href="https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/child-abuse-and-neglect/child-sexual-abuse/sexual-abuse-facts-statistics/">involve “perpertrators” under the age of 18</a> – but the figures could in fact be much higher. </p>
<p>In a random UK general population survey of more than 6,000 people, a staggering two-thirds of the sexual abuse reported by respondents in their childhoods, had been <a href="https://www.nspcc.org.uk/globalassets/documents/research-reports/child-abuse-neglect-uk-today-research-report.pdf">committed by other children</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158571/original/image-20170227-20702-h3ksmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158571/original/image-20170227-20702-h3ksmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158571/original/image-20170227-20702-h3ksmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158571/original/image-20170227-20702-h3ksmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158571/original/image-20170227-20702-h3ksmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158571/original/image-20170227-20702-h3ksmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158571/original/image-20170227-20702-h3ksmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The hidden problem of children sexually abusing children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Even when reports of child and adolescent perpetrated child sexual abuse gains media attention, it is often portrayed in a way that presents the children as mini versions of adult sex offenders, or “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2082860">paedophiles in waiting</a>”. </p>
<p>The reality of course is somewhat different – with many high profile studies suggesting that most children and young people who commit sexual offences in their adolescence do not then carry on <a href="http://commissiononsexoffenderrecidivism.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Caldwell-Michael-2010-Study-Characteristics-and-recidivism-base-rates-in-juvenile-sex-offender-recidivism.pdf">sexually offending in adulthood</a>. </p>
<h2>Protection vs criminalisation</h2>
<p>For many of these child perpetrators, their own histories of abuse play a role in their offending behaviours. This is often part and parcel of an enmeshed experience of trauma, neglect and pain – which has also been shown in our research.</p>
<p>We conducted the largest UK study of young people who had sexually abused other children. Of the 700 children we spoke to, we found that 50% of young abusers had themselves been victims of sexual abuse. Our research also showed that 50% had experienced <a href="http://dro.dur.ac.uk/11288/1/11288.pdf?DDD34+mvrl45+mvrl45+mrnv91+mvrl45+dul4eg">physical abuse or domestic violence</a> in their lives.</p>
<p>Seen through this lens, we need to respond to these cases carefully. Yes, we need to protect victims and stop these children from abusing, but our interventions shouldn’t stop there. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158572/original/image-20170227-18526-1nkun5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158572/original/image-20170227-18526-1nkun5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158572/original/image-20170227-18526-1nkun5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158572/original/image-20170227-18526-1nkun5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158572/original/image-20170227-18526-1nkun5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=629&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158572/original/image-20170227-18526-1nkun5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=629&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158572/original/image-20170227-18526-1nkun5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=629&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many of these children have experienced abuse themselves.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We need services that can offer expert help to children and their families to prevent further victimisation and help them lead offence-free lives in the long-term. </p>
<p>Such services are sadly lacking at the moment, but the recently launched <a href="https://www.nspcc.org.uk/services-and-resources/research-and-resources/2016/harmful-sexual-behaviour-framework/">NSPCC operational framework</a> should help agencies to get their acts together as this framework provides a structure for <a href="https://www.nspcc.org.uk/services-and-resources/impact-evidence-evaluation-child-protection/impact-and-evidence-insights/developed-harmful-sexual-behaviour-framework/">local safeguarding children boards</a> to help them implement their policies and practice responses.</p>
<h2>Realities of abuse</h2>
<p>We also need to have better awareness of the realities of child sexual abuse – along with the issue of children and young people who harm others sexually. Because a lack of public knowledge around this promotes a distorted and stereotypical view of child sexual abuse. This can often lead to the overplay of some risks – such as “stranger danger” – while underplaying others.</p>
<p>Failing to understand the specific needs of children and young people who present with harmful sexual behaviours also means that they are more likely to receive inappropriate criminal justice responses that are designed with adults in mind. </p>
<p>This can include being placed on the sex offender register or, in the US, “community notification schemes”. These publish details of young people and adult sex offenders, including their addresses, offence details and photographs online. </p>
<p>Such measures, being inherently adult focused, at best fail to provide a balanced response to the issue of harmful sexual behaviour. And at worst, they may cause <a href="https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/us0513_ForUpload_1.pdf">irreparable developmental damage to children</a> who fundamentally need our help.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73478/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Hackett receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p>What drives a child to commit sexual abuse?Simon Hackett, Professor in the School of Applied Social Sciences, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.