Silence Unmasked
Dale Brown, Director of theWomen's Center at STTAR and Sr. Eleanor McNally, SUSC hold book: Masks We Wear
(Adapted from an article by Deborah Allard, Fall River (MA) Herald News Staff Reporter)
From sadness and pain to self-expression, and hopefully happiness, women in severely abusive relationships have spoken through their art and learned the possibility of leading another way of life. A new book, “Masks We Wear,” showcases the artwork of 25 local women who lived through the violence and participated in a mask-making project last year. Published by the Women’s Center at Stanley Street Treatment and Resources, SStar, the images of the individual masks and narratives by the unidentified women are stirring.
The masks, so obviously decorated from the soul, are sometimes tragic and grotesque and other times filled with pride and strength.
“They were expressing their reality when someone else has defined it for them,” said Dale Brown, director of the SSTAR Women’s Center. “This was a way to share their story.”
All of the women are or have been clients of the Women’s Center after they either volunteered or were referred to the program. In 2007, it assisted 551 clients in its Stanley Street facility, most of them women.
The publication of “Masks We Wear” is credited to Brown, her staffers, and one SSTAR volunteer, Holy Union Sister Eleanor McNally, who organized the book’s publication.
“Why the mask project is so successful is because everything is so bottled up inside them, it all comes out,” McNally said. “That’s what it is: art therapy.”
McNally, who spent 26 years in Africa ministering to women and children, said that when she came back in 2005, she was looking for some way to aid that same group at home. She believed she could do her best work at a community center like SSTAR. McNally sits in on educational sessions, participates in a pattern changing program, and is on a faith-based task force to promote understanding between the church and domestic violence experts. Brown said McNally is a comforting and peaceful force to the victims.
McNally, in her experience dealing with these victims, said it is the “silence” that masks the problem of domestic abuse in society. “It’s the isolation that destroys people,” McNally said. “Unfortunately, the public colludes with this.”
In speaking about isolation and silence, one can’t help but notice that many of the masks created by the victims have something in common, something covering the mouth: black tape, pins, beads.
McNally said the victims are afraid to speak out about what is happening to them. They are fearful of being in the relationship and afraid of getting out. “Art is definitely a means of expression,” McNally said. Some of the masks have blackened eyes, scars and hate words printed on them.
Speaking about it, McNally said, breaks down barriers. The mask-making project, and now its publication, is another way of bringing awareness to the hidden problem of domestic violence, sex crimes and other forms of abuse.
“I think that when they were finished, they were proud of their work,” McNally said.
Brown said that for a lot of the women, it was the “first time they’ve had this visibility. They got recognition and validation. It was a sense of pride.”
Unfortunately, not all of the victims find their happily-ever-after. Many of them stay with the perpetrator for years. Some do not live to tell their story.
“Some leave,” McNally said. “Many are still in. It gives them the courage to leave.”
|
Sister Barbara reflects on 26 Year Ministry in Wayne County
Sr. Barbara Walsh in the early days of the School on Wheels
(adapted from an article by Melodie Phelps, News Editor, Wayne County (KY) Outlook.
“It’s been 26 years since Sister Barbara Walsh, SUSC, moved to Wayne County, Kentucky from Massachusetts. Through the years, she has become the face for Catholic outreach, taking educational opportunities to the homes of preschoolers, helping the poor through programs like Helping Hands, and teaching literacy classes for high school dropouts.”
All those years have been rewarding, but Sister Barbara has decided to move back to Massachusetts. It’s a decision that has been difficult for her to make. “I hate leaving because I love my work. I feel I need to be closer to my family.” But this is not a plan to retire, she’ll quickly tell you. She wants to continue working with Latinos, teaching English as a second language for young people and adults.
You might say she is completing the circle. It was in Fall River in 1981, where she had been principal of Holy Name School for 12 years, that she begin to think about changing directions.
“I wanted to work with the poor and another Holy Union Sister was working with the Christian Appalachian Project (CAP) in Somerset, KY.”
During a sabbatical Sister Barbara assisted Father John at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Monticello with music, Bible study and outreach. Previous outreach had consisted in visiting the sick in their homes and hospitals. It wasn’t visible to the community. At the end of her sabbatical Father John asked if she would consider staying. Sister Barbara knew this was what she had been looking for –an opportunity to work with the poor and help others.
Her varied educational ministries developed in the following years: a School on Wheels which took preschool education to the driveways of young children, Bible study with the children of St. Peter’s and a music program for the church. In the mid-80’s, then-Governor Martha Layne Collins founded an adult literacy program. Sister Barbara attended the first planning session and soon began literacy classes in the basement of the public library. Seven years ago when Project BEAM with a focus on helping Latinos to earn their GED began, Sister Barbara became program director. Helping Hands is another program she initiated. Dozens of young people volunteer during school breaks to help repair and improve the homes of low-income families. At Christmas as many as 300 needy families receive gifts from 2 sister parishes in Lexington. These are all programs that Sister Barbara wants to make sure continue for the people of Wayne County, so she has been working hard to find people who will head up these outreaches when she is gone.
“Leaving here is going to be difficult. I love the people, I love the area. There is beauty that is life-giving,” said Sister Barbara. “I will leave with a lot of memories.”
|
Associates