PORT TOWNSEND – The 10 stark, life-sized silhouettes in Adams Street Park spoke for people who have been forever silenced.
Plaques on each of the two-dimensional statues, cut from plywood and painted red, as well as presentations of eight other stories, told the tales of people — women, children and men — who were killed by domestic violence within the last 18 months in Washington state.
The 18 stories that Dove House Advocacy Services displayed in the Silent Witness exhibit at Adams and Water streets Friday are only a sample of those of the 69 people killed by abusers in the state between January 2009 and June 30 of this year, said Nicole Barnard, program manager for the center that offers protection to people threatened with violence at home.
“Half the women who are murdered in the United States are killed by their current or former intimate partners,” Barnard said.
The Port Townsend area has not been the site of a domestic-violence murder since 2003, Barnard said, but that is no indication that the problem is less severe in the area than anywhere else.
“There is definitely a domestic violence problem in Port Townsend,” Barnard said.
“It happens in every community, regardless of income, religious background and the types of relationship.
“It can occur in same-sex relationships, and women can physically abuse men.”
On display today
The silhouettes will be on display again today. They will be set up at the Jefferson County Library, 620 Cedar Ave., Port Hadlock, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Later this month, which is national Domestic Violence Awareness month, they probably will be displayed in front of Dove House, 1045 10th St., Port Townsend, Barnard said.
The observances in Port Townsend and Port Hadlock have no silent vigils or speakers, as are planned in Port Angeles and Sequim later this month.
Instead, they offer only the immediacy of a one-on-one meeting with tragedy.
“A lot of men walked by and don’t make eye contact because they don’t want to deal with the subject,” said DeeDee Spann, who was at the exhibit in the early afternoon.
“We had a few women who looked at the cards for the little children and walked away with tears in their eyes.”
Spann said that psychological abuse can be more devastating than physical abuse because it can be harder to define.
“Someone who is psychologically abused might say, ‘I wish he would just hit me so I’d have something to report,'” she said.
Material for the Dove House silhouettes was donated, and the Boeing Bluebills cut the shapes and painted them, Bernard said.
Because Dove House owns the structures — rather than borrowing them as it has in the past — it can display them in more areas, Bernard said.
“It’s giving us a lot more opportunities to do this,” she said.
“It was a huge gift to do those.
“So if anyone wants to donate more, we would love to have more.”
For more information, phone 360-385-5291, or visit www.dvsajeffco.org/building.html.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
